No problem Roger,
You're a noble man and have your prioritys strait. What's a silly car compared to kids? I've seen and i'm sure you have as well, people put material things before family. Makes a guy sick to his stomach.
I take it you have some bubbling up/ rust issues at the seam. Best bet, melt out the lead via torch (see what you got underneath), properly clean and prep metal till it's nice n' shinny and apply a good fiberglass reinforced filler like Duraglass or Tigerhair to fill her back in (did a bunch of research and asking questions on glass reinf. in this area, seeing i'll be doing the same shortly). You can lead it back in but that's an old school art in itself.
Best bet for metal prep would be spot media blast. They do make those spot media blaster guns with a retreival bag and a rubber grommet that mates to the surface so your garage don't fill up with ton's of dust or make a mess all over your driveway, Or go the professional route. If you wire wheel, get it clean as possible, hit it will 60-80 grit to dig into any pores, use a dirt/grease remover then metal wash and then metal acid wash/rust dissolve. Top it off with a good coat of rust bullet or POR. Rough that up before applying any filler.
You're gonna at least have to remove the back headliner sail panel to avoid fire when applying heat to the pillar. For the filler work, cut with a cheese file before totally hardened for shaping. Have a good set of blocks like durablock for the finishing. I'd always had good luck with Evercoat Rage for light/skim coating. Not a whole lot of pin holes. To fill pins, use a glaze. To make the pillar flow straight block, block, block. Remember to sand in a cross hatching fashion. Straight back n' forth will give you line gouging
Anyone else with some good tips, feel free to chime in.
