I have a daily driver, older restoration 70 Malibu that is beginning to show rust bubbles at the lower corners of the rear window. When it was restored in 1989 I didn't replace any metal. I used a wire wheel in the window channel to remove any rust and did the same thing on the panel just below the window. Had to put a little body filler below the window due to rust pits... no holes through the metal. This is where I'm getting bubbles now.

I want to go in again and kill the cancer. Assuming there's no major "rust throughs", are there any tricks to use in this traditional problem area?

If I do have major rust through, I'd appreciate any ideas/experience on patch panels. Who has the best ones, installation, etc.

Thanks in advance.

If you had rust there before and you now have bubbles again my guess would be that even if it is nit throug, it has to be getting pretty thin. My best advice would be too cut out the window channel and fabricate a new one. Or you can use a chunk off a donor car. The nice thinkg about this repair is that as long as the rust has stayed down in the channel you have a nice bend to weld onto, and it is mostly covered up by the glass and the mouldings.

------------------
Mat Ellison
Lincoln, Ne
70 SS 396 Chevelle
62 Impala Sport Coupe
2001 Grand Prix GT
Aces #2424
http://www.geocities.com/elliboom/Mats_70_Chevelle.html?994781720927

WHOOP! Texas A&M and '70 Chevelles; you just can't beat either! I'm a junior at TAMU and I've got my '70 down here, it's fathom blue, maybe you have seen it. I'm going to summer school, are you in town? What color is yours?
As for the rust, I would agree with ELLI. When I had my car painted in 99, I removed the front and rear glass to find the cancer. I wire wheeled it just as you did, but ended up having the body bead blasted before painted, so I haven't had any problems since. As I remember, Year One has a patch panel available for purchase.

I fabbed my own patches from an old hood. Not hard to do and was actually fun. You'll need a mig welder.

If you fix it right the first time, you won't have to worry about it again. Puttying over rust bubbles won't last.

------------------
Bob (Pa.)

1963 Impala 283
1966 Chevelle SS 409
1969 Malibu 307
1972 Malibu 307
1969 C10 stepside 350
1971 Cheyenne 20 3/4 ton
Somebody stop me... :)

Looking for Chevelle or Impala parts? Click here:
Chevelle parts for sale (http://www.angelfire.com/trek/mr409/items4sale.html)

The 348/409 Chevrolet forum
http://www.network54.com/Hide/Forum/187005