I normally would not have jumped in so fast or trying so hard to get this accomplished, but, I am working very hard to organize the AMO Nationals and would feel that as a lead organizer I should try & have my car there.  Kevin S. will be sure to keep me on my toes to see if I really can get the car back together in time. I may not have paint on the car, but I can still place the car in display to support the event. 

Wish me luck! I'll need it.

The center rocker panel is fully welded in place. After cleaning and sanding, primer and paint where applied. Once again, any flange areas or an area that will get welds applied was masked off and weld-thru primer was applied in preparation for installing the lower front quarter panel metal patch.

You can see the yellow tape is covering the the very bottom of the inner rocker, which is the area that the quarter panel patch will be welded upon. So, tape was used to block the primer & paint so weld-thru primer can be applied.

By the way the little strip of metal hanging down in front of the rocker panel(s) on the first photo is what is left of the leading edge of the outer wheel well. I left it attached to the car as reference in space to align the new outer wheel house metal patch and the quarter panel patches ( lower front section and wheel arch section. The metal is thin enough to move easily when I accomplish the next steps of the wheel well & outer wheel well arch. It's just a trick I learned working on cars to help speed up the repair process on alignment of replacement metal panels. Once the new panels are in place cutting off the final rusted metal will be a snap

Preparing the backside of the lower quarter panel patch and a hand made patch that will be the closeout patch for the wheel well side of the end of the rocker panel.

Next step, drill my spot weld holes in the metal patch, a lot of alignment measurements, visual checks and welding.

I spent about 2 hours scraping and everything was removed. What is left can be sanded off using a 40 or 50 roloc grinding disc. I did use lacquer thinner as my final step to remove any residue of undercoat off the surfaces. Since I planned to sand all remaining paint off the surfaces, what little damage was incurred from the lacquer thinner was removed. 

Cleaned, epoxy primed, and paint will be the next steps after all the metal panels are installed. Last step will be new undercoat or maybe black bed-liner material. I haven't decided yet.

If you look to the left of the large horizontal metal patch, you can see the thin vertical patch I made. It has a few relief cuts to help curve the metal patch to the contour of the car. In this photo from inside the trunk, not all the welding is completed you can see the hand made patch. A lot of tack welds to hold everything together and final welding when all the sheet metal patches are in place.

 By the way, I decided to create my horizontal quarter panel patch with a 3/8 offset flange. I realize most folks now just use the butt joint with gap welding method with the appropriate butt weld clamps and TIG, but I am using a MIG welder. With the high heat of a MIG welder and welding in the center of a quarter panel with no sharp contour or edges, warping is a big problem. By using the overlap method ( and good use of weld-thru primer) the extra crimped edge help me to minimize the warping of the panel.  Some folks with disagree as to my decision to use the overlap metal method due a higher tendency to cause rust issues much quicker than a butt joint but when you clean the metal, use zinc rich weld-thru primer and seam seal the metal after primer, the problems of future rust are minimized. 

 Unfortunately the ground cable is covering up the vertical patch in this photo I made in order to attach the lower rear quarter panel patch. The big help I had here, is the open window in the quarter panel allowed me to work the floor pan metal, the top of the trunk drop-of panel and the outer wheel house metal from the outside of the car. Boy oh boy did that make it a lot easier than working from inside the trunk. I was able to neatly weld all the metal panels together.  The very last patch panel I installed was the center external quarter panel patch panel with the overlapping crimped edges, which was a very slow process to install.

 Cleaned and weld-thru primer applied to the metal patch

Slow & tedious tack welds. This was the method of welding until a solid weld was completed. It was slow, but the metal warping was minimum. The only place I had warping was around the side marker lamp area. The hole for the lamp allowed metal warping to take place more so than anywhere else on the panel.

cut out the rust on the outer wheel house just where all the trunk floor, trunk drop-off, and wheel house metal all comes together.  I used the butt weld method & spot weld method here as I had a pinch weld on one side to help hold everything on place.

Checking to make sure my contours are correct from all angles. I used a poster board template from the other side of the car to double check the contour ( sorry no photo of the template)

I finished welding the external quarter panel. Yahoooooooo!

I still have a long way to go on finishing up the trunk floor welding, but at least it's starting to look like a car again.