86 Regal A pillar aluminum filler?

[chromemoly4130]

I have been working on stripping my roof to get it prepped for some paint and as I was using a knotted wire wheel with my angle grinder I slowly started coming off the top and down the side of the A pillar and all of a sudden, something caught yanking the grinder to the side FAST.....almost like I had hit something. I stopped the grinder and looked........to my surprise It looked as if I had just hit the pillar with a grinding wheel, it had pulled the metal out and left a good sized indention and the more I looked around the sides of the roof the more I found other spots with this weaker metal that looked like it was just ground down. Do these cars have aluminum filler in them? I know they used to use lead back in the olden days but maybe now they use aluminum or something almost as soft. I guess aluminum because when I got up this morning the dew that was on the car also left a white film over these exposed softer sections which I figure is the formation of aluminum oxidation. Just wondered how much of this stuff is in these cars and if anybody else has ran into this.
Thanks
GM

 

[treed_cutlass]

I ran into some on either side of my quarter panel windows when I was removing the vinyl top on my Cutlass and chipping all the bondo out of the seam between the quarter panel and roof skin.

No idea what it is, but it's some kind of soft metal, it was only in two small spots that I could see, probably about the size of a quarter each.

I wouldn't think it would be aluminum, I'm not sure how it would adhere to the steel body... maybe it's lead, or lead-free solder maybe? Who knows?

 

[tc1959]

Its lead

 

[chromemoly4130]

I know that they mix aluminum and tin together to make "lead free" solder that's for wiring, and Its not lead because its not a dead metal, its not soft enough to be. I am betting aluminum and tin but I got more than a coins worth of it, I will just put filler around it and hope for the best.