Am I crazy for doing this on a 65 Barracuda ?
You're lying ? You haven't seen a car with repairs like this . All you've seen is poorly done fiberglass jobs and have probably been taken a time or two and looking for somewhere to vent.
Oh, so you know what I’ve seen in 30+ years working on cars? Wow! Do tell.
No, I have seen exactly this sort of butchery many times. I’m sure every one of the hacks that did that work thought it was legitimate too. Its not. It will crack, at which point it will not be sealed anymore, and it will fail.
The type of repairs you are talking about were done without proper treating of the cause and without proper sealing to keep the damage from coming back.
Other than the reinforced panel, there is only as much total bondo in this car as the size and thickness of your phone.
No, the bondo is clearly thicker than that. You created a whole quarter lip out of it.
You have nothing to offer people other than spending 10's of thousands on a car to do it your way when they could preserve their car and have it looking nice for a lot less.
One -way assholes like you are the reason these forums don't have more participation from people with common sense approaches, people that know how to protect their car without falling into the one-way game people like you use to try to steal their cars by trying to convince them they can't afford to keep it or fix it.
You have no idea what you’re talking about. I literally daily drive my ‘74 Duster, I drove a ‘72 Challenger as my ONLY car for over 8 years. I’m not a purist or a high dollar restoration guy. Literally the opposite.
But that doesn’t mean you have to make the car worse!
You could use a couple of lower quarter patch panels and some sheet metal and a cheap, used MIG welder and have those lower quarters sorted for hundreds, not thousands and certainly not tens of thousands of dollars. And it wouldn’t take any more time or labor than what it took to make that fiberglass abomination.
There are clearly two schools of thought here. Nothing wrong with either one of them depending on the end goal. One is to restore a car as close as possible to original with sheet metal and as little filler as possible for oneself or to sell. The other one is for a guy to restore his own car the way he wants within his means to keep for his own enjoyment without misrepresenting it in a sale. Is one way better than the other? Of course, we all know welding in metal is better than fiberglass on anything except something that is already made out of fiberglass. The mere fact that this is being disclosed step by step with pictures certainly represents no misrepresentation of what Kemper is doing here. The car is being saved!
That car isn’t being saved. The “bodywork” done will ultimately leave the body in even worse shape than having done nothing at all. The real repairs will be more extensive and more costly because of that screen BS. Even if those "repairs" are addressed before the fiberglass cracks and separates from the quarter a real fix will now involve removing everything that's been done, plus some of the overlap that will be difficult to get all the sealant off for a clean weld.
If the repair is left until the fiberglass and bondo concoction starts to crack, the moisture absorbed will cause the overlap between the fiberglass and metal to rust the metal out, and require additional panel removal to get past it.
Thank you for an honest opinion. Twice now a person has accused me of trying to con someone by misrepresenting a car. That is something I would never do.
So when you sell the car you’re going to explain it needs quarters? That everything below the body line in the back is fiberglass and hardware store screen?
My thoughts exactly.
And 72bluNblu obviously didn't read or comprehend or ignored parts of the whole post, as OP had pointed out his goals were to make a driver out of what many might've considered a parts car, or otherwise let sit and deteriorate, as he has another car to restore.
And Kemper should be commended for this, as now, when it's drivable, he'll continue to repair & upgrade as needed to enjoy a vehicle and he can decide if he likes it enough to restore it fully in the future. And has also increased its' value due to its' drivability.
So it costs nothing to listen, but not every car needs full restoration to enjoy, nor can everyone afford or want one.
& someone else is correct about the uninitiated needing a welcoming place to learn to improve their skills, but many, now can only tear others down & don't support newbs.
And they know a lot about what people want to learn, but have no patience to teach.
Sorry the newbs are always asking the same annoying questions. Why not post a link to older threads to teach them, without the repetition you seem to abhor.
LOL! It’s not commendable. The “bodywork” performed has damaged the car worse than the rust that was already there. The actual repairs will involve removing everything that’s been done so far and then some.
The body of that car is damaged worse than when he started. Even if you ignore that fact, everything that has been done to the body of that car will have to be completely removed to make the proper repairs. If it was a parts car before, it’s still one now.