I have a 70 Chevelle that has rust here and there on the body. The drivers side quarter panel seam (up by the sail panel) had quite a bit of bondo in it and I was afraid I would find a large rusted out hole. Instead all I found was the seam. No rust, the seam had just been covered in a layer of bondo, a little over 1/8" thick down the middle. The car originally came with a vinyl top which I'm assuming was removed long ago. Would the seam have been filled from the factory or would it have been left alone and have the vinyl top put over the top of it? Thanks.

My 72 coupe had the vinyl top taken off for the same reason,to repair rust damage.All they used on my car was body filler in the seam area.I did not have any rust under mine either.I think since they were getting vinyl tops,the factory didn't have to make that seam perfect,since the vinyl would hide slight imperfections if there were any.When I re-filled my seam,I used Evercoat's Metal 2 Metal filler.It;s a little harder to sand then regular filler,but in my opinion its a stronger filler and I liked the way mine turned out.Hope this helps. Don :cool:

All cars had the seem filled. On cars with painted tops the factory used lead. On some but not all cars equipped with vinyl, the seem was filled with a foam like substance.

When you go to fill that seem again i would start out with a fiberglass stranded filler. Like USC's duraglass or Evercoat's everglass. Then coat that filler with a good regular filler like evercoat's Rage or rage gold. The fiber stranded filler has a higher build up then regular filler, and in my opinion it makes a great base filler when more filler is used then the norm...Eric

Okay, I feel better now. Thanks a lot guys. James