JET 445

I wanted to show a little bit of the metal finishing process, at least what the area looks like while finishing the welds and related distortion.
The "proud" profile of the weld is almost leveled to the panel surface with a 36 grit rollock disc. The 36 grit cuts really fast and does not introduce a lot of heat back into the panel. A 120 grit disc would also remove the weld tops, but will get really hot, we don't want that. Once the tops of the welds are knocked down a flat faced body hammer and the heal side of a body dolly are used to give shape back to the weld areas. As the welds cool, they shrink, so they have to be stretched back out. It takes a little bit to get the shape in the general area then I switch to a slapper with the same dolly to spread out the blows. I use the stripper disc to go over the area to give contrast to the high and low spots. I meant to get some blue layout dye to really show this. At this point I use nothing other than hand files to level the metal. I start with a bastard cross cut flat file to highlight the areas to focus on. 

Paying attention to the welds, as they are the offending material that needs to be removed, and bringing up the low spots, the slapper and dolly are used to continue to bring out the material. I cannot access the back side of the quarter with a hammer, that would be much easier. Lots and lots of light rapid hits and "block sanding" the area with the file the metal starts to look better.

As the seams disappear, I move to the rear (left of the picture) to continue to get out the low spots. You can see the small divots or porosity in my welds from the paint contamination. They do not go all the way through, so I did leave these imperfections. More slapping and checking with the file I needed a reset on the finish to see lighter imperfections in the surface. Using the stripper disc again and switching to a mill file, the area was gone over again.

There is one little place (about the size of a pencil eraser) left to planish out in this picture. I can continue to perfect the surface towards the top, but these areas are so small, a skim coat of filler will be used anyway, so it will be left. You can get this entire surface like this using the same method. Start to finish on this fill in has taken 3 hours. 
Back to welding up the other side...

Get another one, even the inside curve near the tail light looks wrong.

If the only rust on the quarter is the area seen on the picture, I would only patch that area extending a little bit outside the rusted out area. Then hammer and dolly the other damages.
If the only rust is at the bottom of the cut outs for the taillights, I would make small patches for those areas. I made a forming tool from 1/4 inch thick plate to bend patches to fit the shape/flange of those cut outs.
Like some other folks, I like the original spot welds and date codes and  keep as much of the original metal (eventhough it sometimes takes longer) instead of replacing a big piece with a repro part just for a minor damage (in my opinion) like in your pictures.

Actually it's on the "right" side.

Wow, so much debate and so much bad information, all he needed to do was adjust the hinges. The reason body shop guys and assembly line workers bash and bend things is because they need to get it out the door as quickly as possible and get onto the next car but 50 years later that is never the best solution. Take the striker off, adjust the door and refit the striker ,simple, easy.

Those repro handles are crap, the internal parts are for an earlier model and don't fit, get  some original Ford handles and get them rechromed.

Welding the  qtr on the top will produce  less warping than  down the  side. 

Here's one method.
Remove the trunk lid to install the rubber.
Use painters masking tape around every 8" to hold it in place.
Tear 20 pieces of tape off and stick them around the edges of the trunk lid.
Glue a short section at a time like around 12".
Black glue is harder to see when it squeezes out beyond the gasket.
Flammable contact cement can also be used.

That's pretty cool but it still does not solve the problem of the mirrors being too small and you can't see anything in them. I wish somebody would make a larger mirror in the same style as the original mirror.

Let the painting begin. 

I would recommend painting the engine bay and the trunk area on the rotisserie, it's a pain to get into the tight spots, but a lot easier on a rotisserie. 

That will make a nice donor car for the rebuild. :) 

All this in the past 2 days?  Dayam!

Only patch as much as you have to, as the other guys said they are not stamped that well but with a bit of work you can make them look good.

Yes they slide up, and they run forward.

Yes they slide up, and they run forward.

You're too high, come down to the bottom of the tail lights and a similar height on the front. The car will rotate easily when you have it right.

I usually DA the body ,but sand blast under side,motor compartment ,floors ,and inside the trunk . I could blast the body panels but they warp so easy i dont like taking the chance 

Mal you need to listen to Barnett on this one, those heads are most likely Aussie 302 cleveland  and they have very small chambers, around 57cc and will probably not work with flat top pistons, I've tried it and they pinged like crazy, had to enlarge them a bit to lower the comp. Much easier to just start with the correct pistons to match your heads.

Just stop when you hear a bang, and then drive forward an inch !!!

Just stop when you hear a bang, and then drive forward an inch !!!