[tenyearproject]

I have been working on my 1970 chevelle and have been tearing down the car to prepare it for painting and such. I tore off the vinyl top and I have realized the extent of the rust. The roof and quarter panels and other areas are shot.

I found this hole in the roof pillar (if that is what you call it) and I can not find this part online and am unsure how to fix it.
Any ideas?

 

[Raven1]

Well, not to sound harsh, but now is the time to begin the acquisition of skills pertaining to welding, fabrication, and the many procedures involved in restoration and auto body work.

 

[31 chevy]

You can get these parts from any 68-72 A body. Battery sawzall and your local oldtime junk yard. Be prepared to remove some glass from those cars you find too. Just measure and cut extra. Trim to fit before you weld it in.

 

[3 Chiefs]

First some advice.
Don't get discouraged. This is not uncommon to find rust on these A pillars.
I am building a convertible and the rust is all the way through at the top.

Don't cheat here. Bondo will not work because this is a structural part. You need good strong steel in this area just in case the unthinkable happens someday.

You will have to cut all the rust out and replace it with a clean donor piece or fabricate your own. If this is too much for you, that is understandable too. Maybe this one repair is one you might just pay someone to do.

Fabricating your own patches is rewarding work. Metalmeet.com is a great website to learn about sheetmetal shaping. There you can learn to bend, shrink and stretch sheetmetal to make any patch panel you need.

Take your time and do some searches on A pillar rust. Good luck. There are a lot of good talented people here on this site that will help you.

Paul

 

[upman]

Also make sure to check your kick panel area down to the inner rocker also with water getting in those areas. Small steps one piece at a time, sometimes you have to break one area into many pieces to get it done right. but if you break it down you wont get discouraged. Good luck

 

[tenyearproject]

Thanks to all of you who replied to my post.I will keep you up to date with my progress(in for the long haul)

 

[Turbos10]

Not a big deal, just take some time. I would hit that entire area with a 220 range sanding disc and see how far it goes. If you see blue spots after sanding on what looks like good metal, you have spots that are ready to fall through. This is probably the biggest mistake on a repair like this is not removing enough. If you have thin spots they will come through your new paint in short order and you will get those pretty bubbles.

After you determine how much to remove take alot of time fitting the piece. On a blind weld like that you can tack in some tabs to hold the new piece from the bottom. What you do is grind back a spot on your new weld seam surface around 1/8 x 1/4 inch. Then cut a 1x1 inch tab to weld to the exisiting metal. You will place the tab inside the pillar centered on the weld seam and the little notch you made on the weld seam. Clamp it in place and then tack weld it. Do this in enough spots so when you set your new piece you are fitting in it will sit in place perfectly once fit. Fitment is everything on a repair like this.

This will allow you to get a perfect fit and make it much easier to get welded in place.

I am no pro body guy, and they have other tricks, but I learned using limited shop tools most of us hobby guys have available.