Body seam repair.

This is where i'm at with the body seam's,what do i need to do from here before spreading any filler?
Do i need to sand out more of the old filler? i have been using my small 90* air grinder with the scotch brite pads on it to get this far.

Kevin,

Check your camera date, it seems you are ahead of the rest of us. I would think you have gone a little to far with that much glass showing. Are there cracks that you are trying to remove?

Yes on each side of the plastic filler there is a long crack that goes the length of the fender on all 4 corners,it comes from gravity taking over i guess and the 2 halves separate a little bit. it does not show up well in the pics but the filler has been sanded down lower than the body panels,but i'm not sure how far or how much of the old filler needs to come out.

Yea my camera has a Flux capacitor :lol::lol:

There are cracks on all four corners (fenders) ?? can't see anything on these photos....

I haven't sanded mine that far down so I dunno....

If it's just a single crack I'd just drill at each end and then hit the area with 60 grit to get best mechanical grip for the filler - I think I'd use this Evecoat SMC adhesive again, so far I have nothing negative to say about it except the price and availability locally.... Ebay, $40 shipped for 1 qt.....

well it cracks on each side of the filler and runs the length of it.you cant see the cracks in the pics because i have sanded it down. the filler is the pink stripe in the panel.
My query is how much of the old filler should i grind out,those seams are pretty deep.

What you have there is normal "aging" on a C3 even the C2 cars do the same thing.
It is far more prone to show up on earlier C3s than later ones made from SMC.
It is just seam separation do to age. Not a crack, like out in the middle of a
hood or so forth. Drilling a hole at each end will not benefit much here.
If you feel the backside of your fenders in the location of the seam you'll
notice a bonding strip about 2" wide. You'll have to cut "A Lot" to go through.
So how deep do you need to go? Deep enough to apply 3 layers of 1-1/2 oz.
mat and SMC resin (I believe your car is a '78?). Then you'll never have to
worry about those lines ever showing up again.

Think of it as your turning the 3 piece front end into a 1 piece unit.

Here's an example of what I did on a '72 years ago.


After the layed up glass was ground to shape and ready for filler.


Filler applied.

Thanks Smyda,that was just the info i was looking for :thumbs:
I did not want to get crazy with the grinding and take off to much :smash: