65 Dart GT Revisited

Wow! Thanks for telling me about your “Restorations” site. I learned a huge amount just scrolling through the pictures. My coupe is in much worse shape than your car. I had to replace most of the floor pans using pieces from a donor 65 2-door post (lots of weld seams, but it’s not going to be a show car.) The pans are pretty much in and now I need to start on the trunk, then go to the rear quarters. I’m just the opposite experience-wise from you. Lots of mechanical experience, with a little body work. I did work in a VW-rebuilder shop for a couple of years, but I did mechanical repairs, not body work. I did get to see how a lot of stuff was done, though. My biggest body project was a 68 VW many years ago that I put a rear clip on, cut through the middle of the rear window. I got it up to the final blocking stage and had another guy finish and paint it. I’ve done some painting, but mostly on motorcycles, and mostly when we were still shooting acrylic lacquer for things like candy apple colors and metal flake. Been a long time, though. My biggest challenge is going to be the quarters. I could piece them in like you have, but have been toying with the idea of pulling the whole quarter off in one piece, cutting it above the lead line on the rear pillar and along the seam at the rocker panel, then drilling out all the spot welds. It’s a lot more work, but I would only have exposed body work at the lead line and along wherever I cut it along the edge of the door jamb. Curious what you think. My rust over the wheel arch stops at the trim line. I’m just worried about getting it flat where I weld it in if I just cut in a quarter patch. The rear pan and part of the driver’s side sub-frame were patched in from some other donor car in the past, and not very well, so I’m planning to replace that with parts from the donor car too. A big goal is to paint the car myself. I’m going to do it in pieces (after practicing on some junk parts) and see how it goes. I may use the convertible as a guinea pig. I’d like to hear what you recommend on quarter-panel repair.