Left Quarter Work Begins - Oct 9, 2007

Last night I started working on the quarter. The first thing is to get the paint off so the outside of the previous repairs can be evaluated. The first photo shows the quarter after some sanding. The dark "stripe" is where the original trim piece went. It is pitted. There is still some rust under the paint. It also looks as though the PO used a rust converter paint. Based on my experience with the other side, this is going to require a wire brush, phosphoric acid, and a lot of elbow grease. You can also see the spots where the trim was attached around the window opening. Most of these will require some attention. Chevy used a lot of mounts to put the trim on. On the right door, I plugged 48 trim holes. Plus one handle hole and one lock cylinder hole. 50 holes in one door.
Moving to the inside, I started grinding the MIG spiders and weld boogers off. The insets at the bottom of the second photo show the "before" grinding. I didn't start on the ones around the window.
Finally, I decided to plug one problem to see how this side was going to weld. I picked the one that had approx. 5 visible holes. I drilled through the panel with a 1/2" drill bit. I had to grind it out to slightly elongate it. I then placed a piece of 18 ga. behind it to mark the outline. After some cutting and trimming, I started tacking it around the circumference, allowing it to cool between tacks. After some grinding and weld squishing, the results look pretty good. I hope this is a harbinger of how this side will go as a whole.