Bodywork Continues (Left-side rocker panel; nose clip)

I finally got out to Don's shop yesterday to do some more bodywork on the coupe. Don had been working on doing a better job pulling out the old accident damage at the rear of the car. Unfortunately, the metal is thin from previous repairs, and repair is difficult in the first place because of no clearance to access the back of the panel (the inner wall of the engine compartment prevents this). If this were a concours car, you would have to cut off the rear clip to fix it perfectly. In our case, we used the stud welder to gently pull out the dents. The thin metal caused a few tears in the metal, which we then had to weld up, and eventually we realized we were making very little progress. The remaining damage truly isn't very deep and should be able to get filled with all-metal or some other quality filler in good fashion. I proceeded to tackle fitting up one of the replacement rocker panels. I decided to start on the left, driver's side because this side doesn't require the amount of repairs in the door area that the right side will. I figure it is better to start on the "easy" side to get some experience and then move on to the more difficult work.

The reproduction rockers need quite a few changes to fit properly, as many have told me in the past. First off, at the inside edge where it meets the longitudinal, there is a flange for spot-welding the rocker horizontally to the door-sill area. Originally this was done with spot-welds for three pieces of sheetmetal at a time: The inner longitudinal/sill on top, with the outer longitudinal in the middle, and the rocker on the bottom. Obviously this isn't being duplicated in the same way during the repair, even though the order of the panels has remained the same. I removed the horizontal flange, and I will be using the remaining vertical flange to attach the rocker to the outer longitudinal. Access for making plug welds on the horizontal flange would be near-impossible.

Another part that needs adjusting is the contour of the bends in the rocker where both front and rear meet the fender. There is a piece of wire in the rocker/fender with the metal skin rolled around it; I need to unroll the skin on the rockers, recontour the wire slightly, and then fold the metal back around the wire so that the radius of the rocker properly matches the radius of the fenders. It will be tedius. If there are little imperfections, I should be able to build up a bit of mig weld and then grind.

The portion of the rocker adjacent to the door also is only a rough approximation of the correct shape, and will require hammer/dolly and filler work.

Last, my door isn't in perfect shape. It's dinged up and dented. We worked on pulling out some of these dents, but need to do more. The rocker, which is now simply tacked in place with a few mig welds on both ends, is currently proud (sticking out) past the bottom of the door 1/16 or even 1/8" in places, and it should be flush. I need to fit the rocker in as far as I can, and then I will be forced to re-contour the door bottom to fit it better.

One thing to note, and it may be non-obvious to those who haven't attempted this kind of work before: actual welding time is minimal for many of these body repair/replacement pieces. The majority of the time is getting the reproduction parts fitting well.

Don was working on getting the replacement nose clip in better shape. A month or so ago I tacked the two pieces together where it had been cut down the center. Don was working on finishing this seam as well as working out some dents and other damage. The part isn't great, but it is original, and it is in much better shape than what it is replacing.

I hope people enjoy the pictures...I'm glad to be making progress on the body again. Both Don and I agree that it would be ideal to have the basic metalwork complete in a month. Probably totally unrealistic, but hey, everyone needs goals.

Posted by pbrown at March 30, 2005 2:45 PM