Wow...I expected better to honest...

[Oz Sport Fury]

Well...I ripped off the band-aid and tore open the can of worms and started chasing the rust in my 71 Sport Fury 4Dr....question, what's the best way to remove the bottom row of trim between the trunk lid and back window?

And I'm really amazed at just how slapped together the turret is on this body...see pics of the large amount of bog (bondo) used to cover over the deep hole that's the roof to body seam!!!...is this pretty normal for a vinyl top C Body??...first time pealing one of these open...the Driver's side is really bad and the passenger is what I would have expected....am I over reacting to this?

 

[OldWarHorse300]

Have you looked under side of the dutchman panel? There could be some nut's holding fasteners....and yes some kind of "bondo" is what factory uses under vinyl top , at least my -69 Baron was made like that.
Regards
Mika

 

[JJ300]

This is what I found under my vinyl roof, so no, that's not surprising..

 

[JJ300]

I had nuts holding my trim on. Access from inside the trunk. 69 300.

 

[Mr C]

The body filler between the panels is common to all the C bodies, not just vinyl top cars. The only issue is that with vinyl top cars they tend to start rusting there because the tops were unpainted under the vinyl.

You are over reacting. Nothing new here.

 

[detmatt]

The body filler between the panels is common to all the C bodies, not just vinyl top cars. The only issue is that with vinyl top cars they tend to start rusting there because the tops were unpainted under the vinyl.

You are over reacting. Nothing new here.

On all of Ma’s Mopars.

 

[traintech55]

As everyone has stated, that is the way they were made. Looks like you have some fabricating ahead of you. Clean all the old bondo out and then I recommend using "All Metal" as the replacing filler. It works just like bondo, but holds up way better after being prepped.

 

[CBODY67]

Rather than "bondo", might the material you reference be more lead-based in nature? Painted or unpainted, it was there on EVERY car produced back then, not just Chrysler products. Might have been some hybrid lead material?

Starting in the later '80s, the OEMs altered their designs to what we have today as there was a move to remove lead from the assembly plants AND the vehicles made in them. Which explains the composite ("plastic"/aluminum" radiators, heater cores,) and such, too.

Lead pre-dates any plastic/"Bondo" filler. It was an art to work it when it was hot and required some specific tools to work it. Tool kits which used to be available from places like Eastwood, as I recall. Once applied, the lead was worked with a file to shape it prior to paint.

For the non-vinyl roof cars, it might have received a little bit more smoothing so that the seam would not be visible, but the vinyl roof cars would have the textured vinyl covering it, so possibly less work to make it nice, I suspect.

What you see is the outer roof skin. What about the inner structure, too? Where'd all of that moisture end up, below where these areas are?

On the nmolding . . . some of the factory/replacement clips had a spongy rubber seal on them. Hopefully it worked!

I believe there is an older thread in here on rust places on the fuselage bodies, with detailed pictures of the common places "rust" can happen, including the base of the A-pillars.

Keep us posted on what you find, please.

Possibly, all of these rust-related threads could be "sticky folders" for quick reference? Separated by the different years/platforms of C-body cars?

CBODY67

 

[azblackhemi]

I have found that non vinyl top cars had lead across the roof seam while vinyl top cars had a little lead on both ends and a plastic filler across the rest of the seam. This is on all Mopars I've worked on, not just C's. That's what this car looks like too.

 

[3C's & a D?]

I have found that non vinyl top cars had lead across the roof seam while vinyl top cars had a little lead on both ends and a plastic filler across the rest of the seam. This is on all Mopars I've worked on, not just C's. That's what this car looks like too.

That is what I have found to be true. I'll only add that convertibles had leaded Dutchman panels as well.

 

[rapidtrans]

The body filler between the panels is common to all the C bodies, not just vinyl top cars. The only issue is that with vinyl top cars they tend to start rusting there because the tops were unpainted under the vinyl.

You are over reacting. Nothing new here.

Yep. And the biggest problem with this rust is that these cars were not fully submersed through the pre-treat stages before paint. They only dunked the car up to the belt line.
Particularly important is the e-coat or “uniprime” paint as mopar called it.

 

[Imperial Pete]

Yep the rust in the corners on that concave shaped rear window is standard. My dad bought a 71 Dodge Phoenix 4 door hardtop (Plymouth Fury, they were sold as Dodge Phoenix's in Australia) in 1986, one owner always garaged and it had some in the LH rear corner. At the time I looked at about 5 that were for sale. All were worse than yours and that was 35 years ago!

 

[John Kirby]

Eastwood sells all the leading materials you will need. A propane torch and leading paddles is what is needed to work with it. Be sure to buy the tinning butter and apply it before trying to do any leading. Lead will not stick without it. It's really not that hard to work with. The trick is to heat the area you're working with, apply the tinning butter and keep heating till it turns black, then immediately wipe it off with a rag. It will then be a shiny silver color. The steel is now tinned. You can then start using the lead sticks to fill in the areas where it's needed. Be a little stingy with the heat at this point. Apply too much and the lead will turn to liquid and run off onto the ground. The trick is to heat the area up until it just starts to turn liquid and remove the heat. With a little practice you will be able to see when this happens. The leading paddles are used to spread the lead and shape it to approximately what you want. Once you have the area filled with lead use a set of files to do the final shaping it. Don't use a sander, lead dust is very bad for humans.

Now on to safety. DO NOT DO THIS INDOORS. Do it outside with a respirator, not a covid mask, a respirator for spraying insecticides at a minimum. Wash your hands after working with lead. Lead poisoning is very bad and WILL kill you. Be safe and do not ignore this.

 

[rapidtrans]

And to think we used to lead fill those C pillar seams right out in the open as the body went down the line. Slapping the lead in the seam then grinding it smooth farther down the line. No masks or gloves! Bodyshop and Paintshop had the worst jobs on the line.

 

[John Kirby]

The dangers of lead poisoning were not well known at this time. It wasn't until 1978 that lead based paint was banned. Inner cities still have a lot of problems with it. Mainly in slum areas where nobody wants to invest the resources to remove it. Ironically a big source of lead pollution was tetraethyl lead used in gasoline. Since it was removed from gas the IQ of children has gone up by 5-10 points.

 

[traintech55]

Eastwood sells all the leading materials you will need. A propane torch and leading paddles is what is needed to work with it. Be sure to buy the tinning butter and apply it before trying to do any leading. Lead will not stick without it. It's really not that hard to work with. The trick is to heat the area you're working with, apply the tinning butter and keep heating till it turns black, then immediately wipe it off with a rag. It will then be a shiny silver color. The steel is now tinned. You can then start using the lead sticks to fill in the areas where it's needed. Be a little stingy with the heat at this point. Apply too much and the lead will turn to liquid and run off onto the ground. The trick is to heat the area up until it just starts to turn liquid and remove the heat. With a little practice you will be able to see when this happens. The leading paddles are used to spread the lead and shape it to approximately what you want. Once you have the area filled with lead use a set of files to do the final shaping it. Don't use a sander, lead dust is very bad for humans.

Now on to safety. DO NOT DO THIS INDOORS. Do it outside with a respirator, not a covid mask, a respirator for spraying insecticides at a minimum. Wash your hands after working with lead. Lead poisoning is very bad and WILL kill you. Be safe and do not ignore this.

This is the 21st century. Eastwood also sells the "All Metal" I refereed to in my previous post. It is metal in a resin compound, very easy and safe to work with,

 

[azblackhemi]

This is the 21st century. Eastwood also sells the "All Metal" I refereed to in my previous post. It is metal in a resin compound, very easy and safe to work with,

All metal works great on roof seams except on E bodies. I'm not sure why but on an E body it will expand and contract and show the seam when heated up out in the sun. I used it on a 70 cuda and redid it 3 times with the same results. The last time was with the USSC factory rep working with me. He along with everyone else in the company had no answers. They wound up paying me for redoing it and to finally do it with lead. After the fact I found a few other guys on Moparts had the same problem just on E bodies. On all other cars it worked great.
One more option, Eastwood also sells a lead free solder that works pretty much like lead.

 

[furious70]

My 70 was a completely rust free CA car that had been garaged most of it's life and we still had to fix rust between the bottom of the window and vinyl top...