Rear quarter body help needed

72bluNblu said
And that is exactly why you don't put the weld on the backside of the flange (and on the inside of the quarter) like someone else suggested. Because that leaves the un-welded edge of the flange seam under the bondo on the outside of the quarter to crack and absorb moisture, while the smooth inside hides that method of repair so the next guy doesn't know he's sitting on a time bomb.

Leaving a glued un-welded seam and covering it with mud is drastically different from doing a flanged weld the proper way... I'm guessing that since you don't know how to actually do it correctly is why you are so put off by it. "Surface prepping" your butt weld is exactly what you described as hiding a "poor repair" don't split hairs. You'll grind the butt weld on the inside and the outside regardless of how absolutely perfect you are at butt welds. If you "lightly sand" or grind the butt weld you're hiding the repair for a reason... must be a **** repair right? Nobody suggested flanging a panel and then just slapping mud on it. There are proper ways to finish both repairs and not everyone does it with the intention of "hiding" a repair good, bad or magically perfect. Some people that finish a repair have high integrity and take pride in how the entire repair looks.... If I was a customer and had someone butt weld something and just leave it unfinished on the inside because they wanted to be absolutely "honest" with their repair I'd seriously question their abilities to do the repair in the first place. Imagine going to a car show and asking the top builder why he left his butt weld joints un-finished in the trunk and he puffs his chest out and says "I just didn't want to hide the fact that we put quarters on a 50 year old car" LOL

I'm also certain that with plug welds we all use resistance spot welding like at the factory... and if we can't we plug weld and "lightly buff" them as to not give away the fact that we plug welded instead of the OEM recommended resistance welders right......? Wouldn't want to give away the fact that we put a floor in a car and didn't have the right resistance welder to get the floor spotted to the rails would we....

I'm not even going to touch structural components vs sheet metal and sleeving....