Dealing with complications

This photo gives us a good view of the splitting of the re-crimped edge. Rick had two such splits to deal with, a short one and the whole back edge of the rear deck lid. He experimented on the short one to see if he could weld it before tackling the longer one.

Rick used a needlenose Vice Grip to hold the surfaces together while tack welding. He patiently worked through hundreds of tacks and then a lot of filing to smooth the edges. The result was excellent, with all the edges smooth and no traces of the repair work showing.

This is what the deck lid skin looked like after separation from the frame. Rick sandblasted the heavier rust at the seams, but opted not to blast the lighter areas to guard against warping the panel. There was no evidence that the factory had applied bare metal treatment on the underside of the skin on either lid, whereas the doors had a thin coat of something on them. He's not sure what is was. The rear edge seam had a few pin hole perforations that were repaired before the surface rust was cleaned up and coated with rust inhibiting paint.

Rick's restoration and rebuild consumed more than 6 years of spare time, and represented a large financial investment, so he was determined to take all steps necessary to ensure his repair work would last. He intended to drive the car, and that would exposure it to the elements. Time and effort put into fighting future corrosion at this point  would pay dividends down the road. He also planned on showing the car and competing in the Corvair Society of America's Concours event at the national convention in Daytona Beach, and he knew the judges would be thorough in their inspections!