Rear Window Rust Repair - A Rot Rebellion

This needs to be as exact as possible, though some trimming may be needed as you go. The new replacement was trimmed out of steel sheetmetal. remember, you can trim a little; you can't make it bigger.

15 Since the top of the quarter-panel was not flat, the new piece needed to have a bend in it, and that slightly changed the angle of the corner. To remedy the angle change, a gap was cut into the replacement piece; then adjusted to fit on the car, and again carefully welded up.

This was easier to do on the bench than trying to exactly line-up the pieces and do it on the car. The left-hand end was left longer so a 90-degree bend could be used to tuck it into the gap between the two body panels.

16 Cleaned up, the piece fit right into the gap. Using a welder, the first tack weld was made near the upper edge of the replacement.

17 Slowing working down the replacement section, welds were added every 2-inches or so to start with, going about halfway down and hammering and fitting the metal. the homemade piece was actually fitted on top of the replacement piece. The edge where the replacement piece and the repop meet will be welded together.

18 Here is the initial tack welds across the top edge of our replacement. It should be noted that every other spot was welded, allowed to cool, and then the rest were added, taking care to never allow the torch to heat the metal more than necessary. That slight overhang will be edge-finished once the inner piece has been fitted.

19 Occasionally, the edge will need to be ground down on the replacement due to shrinkage of the gap due to weld-generated heat. This is why it was so critical that the original cut was straight-taking your time will make this right.

20 After checking our fitment, we found the bottom-edge section of the window opening was slightly higher than needed (meaning protruding into the window opening).

The trim was laid into the channel, and a line was drawn on the excess metal, which was then cut out.

21 Next was cleaning the new corner and edge. This area is what will be visible to the eye once the corner trim is installed, so careful finishing was important.

22 The window-trim fitment was also checked on the window's upright edge and marked for minor clean up.

23 Now we needed to fill in the inner edge of the opening. Note the angle in the pattern; this will be important in the following steps.