67 Fastback rear deck filler panel repair ?s

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matthon

matthon

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67 fastback, some po installed 68 stainless trim and 'fixed' the rear panel below the glass.

Water will sit at bottom of rear glass and not leak into cabin.
When raining, whether driving or stopped, minimal water gets in trunk on both sides.
Trunk is completely solid, not even surface rust.

Looking from inside out, not so easy to do, the one hole to the outside is visible but I don't see any other rust.
Not easy to see and impossible to get a pic.

Driven all the time, never an issue, never got worse, at this point I just want to fix correctly. I haven't had any luck finding good pics or any other fastbacks with this same issue.

Can the rear glass gasket be reused, best guess?

Wtf is this rear panel supposed to look like, leaded seam, something else?

And where exactly is the seam supposed to be?

Any education or pics before I tear into this is greatly appreciated.

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I believe fastbacks used a leaded seam in this area. Get a new gasket. Not worth screwing with the original unless its really soft. Usually the rule of thumb is what you dont see is 10x worse than what's visible. You wont know till you remove the window and check out the seal area and pinch weld.
 
Yeah, makes sense to replace gasket.

My guess is the seam is near the hole.

Anyone have a pic of where the seams are at?
 
Look up a picture of an AMD full quarter, and you will see where the seam is. I agree; DON'T even try to reuse the gasket. In fact, when they get old and hard, you just about have to cut them out a little at a time with a utility knife and new, sharp blades. BE CAREFUL and wear good protection. If you try to pry the glass out with an old, hard gasket, you will likely break the glass. On the other hand, I have one I could sell you, so go ahead and break it. JUST KIDDING. Another thing, if you can weld, that will be an easy fix. I've been welding for years, but I recently found a guy on YouTube who shows you how to do all sorts of rust repair. I have learned a lot. You guys should all check him out. It is called Fitzee's Fabrication. In fact, he has a show on that exact repair.
 
Matthon, you probably know this, but that is a 1 year only gasket for 67. Precision is the only mfg if the correct gasket and lockstrip. I will eventually be upgrading our 67 to the 68/9 setup.
 
The AMD pics only show the quarter from the side.

I've replaced the entire floor, firewall, cowl, windshield, etc, on my 62 Dart.
Also r&r'd the rear window on that, which had a separate center section on the gasket, once removed the gasket folds over and the window comes out easy peasy.
No such luck with later cars.

I'm sure it will be worse once the window is out, but what is visible is not as bad as it looks. Imo it's more a case of poor prep and repair, then slapping filler over the entire area.

Good or bad, not worried, just want to see what it should look like before I dive in. Original seam could be completely gone without a trace, and I drive this puppy so I like to overdue the research so I can return to service asap.

4spdragtop said:
that is a 1 year only gasket for 67
Click to expand...
It's been changed by a po to 68 trim, front and rear. Done in the 90s according to second owner.
It looks good, fooled me when I first got it, didn't know about 67 window gaskets until later.

Any close up pics out there?
 
So, the center panel sits on top of the qt, and the qt is offset to accept it.
Can clearly see in first pic on the bottom edge of trunk gutter, arrow on left is seam, arrow on right is where offset begins.

Inside in same area, the qt takes a 90 degree turn towards the outside, so the seam on the outside may do the same when transitioning from the gutter to below the window. Shown more clearly on right side, between lines in second pic.

Inside, I see the structure holding it up turns down at the end, but I don't/can't see spot welds anywhere, third pic.

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I don't see a rear deck panel available from AMD.

So I remembered I have a few pages from an old parts book, and it has some exploded views.

Quarter Panel section, numbered exploded view corresponds to #s listed, got it.

Rear Body section, 1 part shown, what's the Panel, Lower (Below Deck Lid), is that referring to the torque boxes?

Of course, no exploded view of rear panel in question.

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Yes it was a leaded factory seam. Here's a picture of a NOS quarter laid onto a brown car, left side shown. This lead joint was melted out and spot welds drilled.
You can see that after the 2 panels were spot welded together, a channel was formed to receive the lead.

It is common for moisture to migrate into overlapped panels causing rust through.

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Thank you for the pic.

I imagine even after the lead the seam is still visible.

Betting they just put bondo over a rusting seam making it much worse, although I don't get why the through hole is so high up.

Anyone have a fastback they can snap some pics of the rear panel/seam?

Bueller, Bueller, Bueller?
 
I think that's a fairly common rust spot on fastbacks. Water gets inside the overlapped seam and splits it out further with rust. Then you'll start seeing little rust droplets underneath it on the trunk floor after washing or driving it in the rain.
 
Searched the interweb and no good clear pics of this area, in fact most appear to have no seam whatsoever.
I doubt the factory completely filled the seam, but cannot confirm.

Wish I could order the Rear Body Upper Panel in post #8, because not only did AMD discontinue the notchback rear deck filler panel, it appears they either never made one for the fastback or discontinued it long ago.

Not looking to tear into it and fabricate what's needed, not concerned with amount of damage, more with downtime.
To that end, prefer to have good original metal, so the plan is to post a wanted ad for a chunk of fastback.

I just don't know what to expect, whether said chunk should have a visible seam, meaning if it doesn't there's a higher possibility of a bunch of bondo, or there is no visible seam ever and I have to roll the dice anyway.

Also thinking, since 67s are different in a number of ways big and small, it's possible that the 67 had a visible seam and later didn't, or vice versa.

Just thinking it through.

Waiting for the rear window seal to arrive, and would like to see what's out there for metal.

I like to drive this thing, too cold now, no fixing now, no heat in garage, or space.

I can't be the only one to ever deal with this, who had a camera.

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matthon said:
Yeah, makes sense to replace gasket.

My guess is the seam is near the hole.

Anyone have a pic of where the seams are at?
Click to expand...
Take the window out. You'll be shocked. I removed the lead and used short strand fiberglass after the metal repairs were finished. Mine looked better than your looks before I started.

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LJ67barracuda340 said:
You'll be shocked.
Click to expand...
Expect the worst, especially with po repairs.

Were your seams visible before you started, were the leaded seams showing and just painted over?

Shocking is replacing everything from the windshield to the trunk floor.

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