BUILD THREAD '78 Cutlass Supreme Lichen Edition

[Rktpwrd]

I'm pretty sure I did not expose any lead here. Looks like body filler instead of lead. Is that true some cars have body filler and not lead?

Some cars may have had filler there, but it was usually the hardtop non-vinyl roof ones. More often than not, the seam was sloppily filled with thick seam sealer at the factory on the vinyl roof cars. It was getting covered up anyways so they just didn’t care. As long as it was sealed up.
You’ll be able to tell pretty quickly once you start sanding it, if it doesn’t sand nicely and balls up on the paper, it’s seam sealer.

 

[mclellan83]

Some cars may have had filler there, but it was usually the hardtop non-vinyl roof ones. More often than not, the seam was sloppily filled with thick seam sealer at the factory on the vinyl roof cars. It was getting covered up anyways so they just didn’t care. As long as it was sealed up.
You’ll be able to tell pretty quickly once you start sanding it, if it doesn’t sand nicely and balls up on the paper, it’s seam sealer.

https://y.yarn.co/a2f7e8c4-da3c-4fbe-a77d-750eb781a398_text.gif

 

[doood]

So, prolly was seam sealer; it was soft, but didnt ball up (age?) and sanded well enough. I guess I did a boo boo by filling over it? Should I have torched it and dug it out? I have a very good solvent (SEM solve) for surface clean up after. That SEM solve is made to remove silicone and butyl rubber, and it didn't make the seam tacky. Maybe it was filler? That's what I thought? There was factory paint over it and it was bended smoothly... pic attached.

Gotta do it right, even though it looks like a rat rod right now.

 

[Rktpwrd]

So, prolly was seam sealer; it was soft, but didnt ball up (age?) and sanded well enough. I guess I did a boo boo by filling over it? Should I have torched it and dug it out? I have a very good solvent (SEM solve) for surface clean up after. That SEM solve is made to remove silicone and butyl rubber, and it didn't make the seam tacky. Maybe it was filler? That's what I thought? There was factory paint over it and it was bended smoothly... pic attached.

Gotta do it right, even though it looks like a rat rod right now. View attachment 237810

Yeah, if it was soft it was most likely seam sealer. It’s worth mentioning too, that in my experiences with G bodies I’ve found that they used several different types of seam sealers, depending on the application. Some remained soft and flexible, some were very hard and of an odd consistency. Almost like filler, and pink IIRC in color.

I personally wouldn’t run the risk of applying body filler over an unknown substrate. If it’s too soft and flexible, your filler over top will crack. If it’s made of a material that’s incompatible with with filler, it’ll separate. You can see where I’m going with this. Best to fully remove it right down to bare metal and start over unfortunately.

I would highly recommend using a short strand fibreglass filler for the bulk of the filling, conventional body filler should have a build thickness of no more than 1/4”. Fibreglass filler is waterproof and designed to handle a little more thickness as well as able to tolerate a little movement in the sheetmetal. I’ve successfully done 2 vinyl top to hardtop conversions now this way with no side effects or unwanted issues.

 

[doood]

Yeah, if it was soft it was most likely seam sealer. It’s worth mentioning too, that in my experiences with G bodies I’ve found that they used several different types of seam sealers, depending on the application. Some remained soft and flexible, some were very hard and of an odd consistency. Almost like filler, and pink IIRC in color.

I personally wouldn’t run the risk of applying body filler over an unknown substrate. If it’s too soft and flexible, your filler over top will crack. If it’s made of a material that’s incompatible with with filler, it’ll separate. You can see where I’m going with this. Best to fully remove it right down to bare metal and start over unfortunately.

I would highly recommend using a short strand fibreglass filler for the bulk of the filling, conventional body filler should have a build thickness of no more than 1/4”. Fibreglass filler is waterproof and designed to handle a little more thickness as well as able to tolerate a little movement in the sheetmetal. I’ve successfully done 2 vinyl top to hardtop conversions now this way with no side effects or unwanted issues.

understood. dig it out. Well, at least the metal is protected for the time being.

Update: Body shop owner says it is factory body filler over the lead joint. I think that is good news.