Hack Job Pictures

[70burntorangeT/A]

A lot of that metal work on the car that had been media blasted wasnt bad. It worked didnt it, kept the rust from comming back. plus most of it was on the underside of the car, slap a few gallons of undercoating on there and no one could ever tell.

[wagesofsin]

Here's a really good one I just found buried in my files.
Many years ago, a friend referred me to him to repair my car after a 4X4 slammed into the rear quarter. Years later, after removing the bondo, this is what I discovered.

The guy who did this was a crooked crook.

  is that a giant crack i see over the seam?

[Topcat]

is that a giant crack i see over the seam?

Yup, the dickweed cut across the seam to remove the quarter. I took this picture right when I started taking his botched quarter panel repair off. You can see I had already cut right where he had done before.

[72bluNblu]

A lot of that metal work on the car that had been media blasted wasnt bad. It worked didnt it, kept the rust from comming back. plus most of it was on the underside of the car, slap a few gallons of undercoating on there and no one could ever tell.

Although it looks like a frankenstein job, I would have to say that whoever did that work had some pretty decent metal working skills. I mean, what do you do if you don't have the replacement sheetmetal available? Sure now you can just buy a whole firewall/cowl and weld it in, but before you could get one you'd just have to make the pieces you need. Ideally yes, you'd remove the rusted stuff and flush weld some new pieces in. But with as much damage as that car has you'd loose some serious structural integrity if you cut out all the rust. And some of those pieces are pretty intricate, they wouldn't look stock if you cut the old stuff out and had to make new pieces to replace them either.

Granted, in its current condition it'd never be a show car, but judging by the extent of the damage its fortunate that one didn't end up a parts car...

[ChallengerGary]

Boy, I wish I had some pics of my hack jobs.  Back in the late 80's & early 90's when no sheet metal was available I participated in many hack jobs.  My 1st ragtop Challenger was a real Flinstone mobile.  I did what any kid just out of high school would do back in the day.  I went to the local marine supply store.  Bought some fiberglass sheets and resin and "repaired" my floors and trunk.  Heck,  I've actually made "quarter panels in a can."  I had one 72 Duster 340 that was my daily driver that I put literally 2 gallons of Bondo in. I also spray bombed the stripes on the side. Funny thing was, I drove it for about a year and ended up selling it to a local guy.  He used it as his daily driver for about 5 years and the "hot patches" I put in it were just starting to show about that time.  I have since learned the error of my ways and reformed but the hacker in me lies just below the surface 

[miketyler]

I gotta chime in here with pics that Billy Bob's firewall crew did on my car before I got it. You see Billy Bob didnt have a welder. For all we know he may not have had electricity or even running water for that matter. But he did the best he could with Great Stuff spray foam, fiberglass cloth and resin.

 

[quapman]

I have no good current pics, but a couple sob stories.

I myself hacked my first car, a matching #'s 73 Rallye Chally. I brazed in NOS inner fenders, brazed in a homemade firewall/cowl patch complete with rivets, phillips-head screws, black paint and undercoater. It was 1981 and I was 15. (The inners cost a bunch back then....$33 each!)

Later in life (early 90's) I had an FC7 V-code Challenger. It needed a few metal patches and a full quarter. I guess we'd call it a "full resto" these days. I had THREE people attempt the work, NONE of which knew what they were doing, so I gave up and traded the car for a clean 71 Challenger 318 car with a fresh body/paint job. The work done on that car was so mediocre that I sold it for $4500.

THIS is why I'm attempting a lot of this work myself or finding people who DO know what they're doing. I can't weld (yet), but can sling mud!

THANKS to John D. in Apex, NC. Y'all know him as Grancoupe here on the board. AWESOME with a MIG welder! (Among other talents)

[divingtigger]

That's the nice thing about have a one family owned car....not much was done to it, but there is a ton of rust on it, but atleast I can find a ton of parts for the car now.  The quarter panels were replaced and knowing my father in law it was done at the cheapest place possible, so Once the car gets to the media blasters I'm sure I'll have some pics to post here

[Topcat]

There's gotta be more pics out there.

Probably 50% (a rough guess) or more early Mopars are hack job victims sometime in their past.

Show us what you uncovered when you worked on your car. 

[ntstlgl1970]

Custom work by space auto body when my car was painted before I bought it in 85 or so. The flanged part of the quarter missing in this picture was held in with bondo. It fell off not long after I got the car. When I took it apart, it was obvious they didn't try to straighten out the quarter too much, the bondo was about 1/2 to 3/4" thick. I have to give them credit though, the bondo on the quarter itself never came apart, so they were bondo experts 

[Challenger III]

Hi, Guys! I have quite a few to share, but I'll start out slow... This was the back of the right rocker and front of the r-r wheelwell. This is a couple of aluminum pieces with aluminum pop rivets (4 each for maximum strength) and 1/4 to 1/2 inch of roofer's mastic. Lots of fun to clean up!

[TreeFrog]

looks like fun!

[willard]

When I see yours I think may wasnt that bad with 1/2" of bondo over rust on one lower quarter and lots of holes from slide hammer on the other + bondo.
What's interesting is that almost every muscle car I've seen restored in Poland had such "soultions" applied, these were $1500 chebbies but also $50000+ show quality cars that within 2-3 years showed their secrets.
Even one restoration shop has a piece of steel fence wire with bondo and resin, stamped "made in usa" - it was found on a high dollar 1930s ford - a show car

[Challenger III]

When I see yours I think may wasnt that bad with 1/2" of bondo over rust on one lower quarter and lots of holes from slide hammer on the other + bondo.
What's interesting is that almost every muscle car I've seen restored in Poland had such "soultions" applied, these were $1500 chebbies but also $50000+ show quality cars that within 2-3 years showed their secrets.
Even one restoration shop has a piece of steel fence wire with bondo and resin, stamped "made in usa" - it was found on a high dollar 1930s ford - a show car

One of the reasons why I got the $1500 rust bucket rather than the $15000 "Driver Quality". Plus, I'm enjoying the project.  Here's another one. 24 Ga. sheet metal Patch over the top of a rusty mess on left front door jamb.  They didn't even make it so the door fit!

[rp23g7]

A friend of mine had a 70 Camaro, sold it, and found it again 25 yrs later.  Bought it back from the owner, turns out they had done some sheetmetal work to it, instead of fixing the rear quarters, they bought two new quarters and bondo'ed them to the car itself.  I will se eif i can get the pictures.