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Will this plastic filler crack?


jkelly

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Hi,

 

On my '72 240z I smoothed out the rear lower panel seam where it is spot welded to each lower quarter panel. I first sand blasted the seam then applied Evercoat's Short Strand Fiberglass Reenforced filler, which they advertise as a seam filler and as being waterproof. I then used Evercoat's Rage XTreme Plastic filler over that.

 

Do you think this area of the car will see much flexure? Will it crack over time? Should I go back and weld the seam? I've sprayed epoxy and high build polyester primer, so I'm not too far to go back, I guess.

 

Pictures for reference

 

rear_Lower_sheet_metal_seam_full_annotated.jpg

rear_Lower_sheet_metal_seam_annotated.jpg

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As long as the original spot welds are still there or new ones were added then you should be fine, I don't think that area does flex much. Just make sure you seal those areas up on the inside,  the rear tire flings everything up into those corners.

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Thanks guys for the responses. I think I probably will go back in and weld the seam if nothing else just for peace of mind that it won't crack.

The main reason I decided to fill the seam in the first place is because of the body damage I found hiding there after I stripped the paint. Someone had pulled out a big dent and filled the many holes with bondo. I welded up the holes the best I could but the panel was still pretty mangled and uneven, so I smoothed it over with the Evercoat Short Strand and then the Evercoat Xtreme. The issue with trying to hammer and dolly this section is the large structural supports behind the panel keep you from getting a hammer OR dolly back there. I wasn't sure how to fix it.

Any advice or comments on the original situation?

 

 

The hiding damage. These holes were all filled with bondo and the metal was very uneven:

20180212_205422.thumb.jpg.0ae663ae5765ba46e0142244116eb609.jpg

 

I welded the holes, but the metal was still uneven. I filled over the welds with Evercoat Short Strand. The backside was mostly inaccessible.

20180227_201126.thumb.jpg.ad3b093dd4ce1bf0c9f770ce9b8ad642.jpg

 

More holes on the side of the quarter panel. I ended up welding these and filling over that with Evercoat Short Strand, too.

20180227_194619.thumb.jpg.6aea0acfd10c9899265f88bd6ecb0865.jpg

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Yeah that's a difficult corner to work on unless the car is upside down on a rotisserie, if the Z is going to be concourse then all the spot welds have to be drilled out, the entire panel removed and reworked, but your Z is going to be a driver I guess? so all you can do is hammer/dolly it out as best you can and smooth it over with as little filler as possible. 

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