Chassis 85517 Number 17 356 Convertible D

[JTR70]

A few mock up shots before I moved onto the left door and rocker.





A few aspects of this project "ready for final paint".
Onto the left door and rocker issues next.
Thanks for looking!
Justin

[Phil Planck]

That is at least a 99% effort. looks gorgeous Justin.

[JTR70]

Thanks Phil!

[roy mawbey]

Justin to me it looks perfection. You should feel very proud indeed of your work! I have learnt a lot with your slicing and bending everything to reduce filler to the minimum and not stopping till you get it perfect.

Well done indeed.

Roy

[JTR70]

Thank you Roy! Not perfect but its at a level that I can leave well enough alone allowing me to move onto the next deal.

[JTR70]

Initial left rocker issues:

Once I turned my attention to this area and got down eye level to it all sorts of issues began to jump out. (flat black primer hides a lot). This corner was particularly rough with a swooped up profile leading up to a squared off corner shape. A gap was present but not exactly a presentable contour shape.

Lower gap generally ran a little wide.

But a major issue was that the bottom of the door overshoots the edge of the rocker. This is a tough one to deal with after the fact as it will require either relief cutting of the door or the rocker to bring them to level. The only other options would be to back fill it level Or just leave it and hope no one notices it since its on the bottom. The last two options where of course not a consideration so I just had to decide which side I was going to be cutting on. The drain relief is also wrong for an A car so it needed to be addressed as well.

Another issue that my buddy noticed was that the bend profile along the inner edge was too soft and actually crowded out the eventual threshold hold strip. Don't who manufactured these rockers but this too would also have to be corrected. More later...
Thanks for looking!
Justin

[Phil Planck]

Oh boy. Had same profile issue with foam car. I relief cut the rockers.

[JTR70]

Yeah, its one of those deals that really comes back to bite you if the door is not fully set and adjusted before the rocker goes on for good.

[JTR70]

Began working through the first few of many issues yet to come.

Etched in a much softer turn.

Ground through the rocker before I had the shape I was after.

Also noticed that threshold edge itself was left just shy of a quarter inch too long.

Zipping it back even with the vertical runs as it should be. The shop that performed these repairs sure had nice spot welder! Those are closest I've seen to the real thing. Must be that 30K spotter that Bruce has mentioned.

Left the threshold area for now and went back to the fender to door transition.

[JTR70]

More rocker issues:

Working on this lower transition and trying to iron out this high ridge that made itself known after some light filing.

As this progressed I took notice of this excessive rolled and rolled under profile both the upper run of the fender and this rocker had. More of a Pre-A feel rather than a flatter A profile.

Confirmation of this came from my reference car. A slight roll yes, but much softer and still flatter and more vertical than what I'm seeing on this D.

Back as well had this tight hemmed in profile that I wasn't liking.

With all these contour and fitment issues growing in and around the rocker assembly I realized it was time to stop and get my head around this.
Back to ground zero by readjusting this door in its best position and building out from there. The door is low for starters and is as delivered to me. Can't overcome this discrepancy with filler or a hammer.

[JTR70]

Low up front as well so it all needed to come up.





Much better up here now.


Raised the front as much as I could. Still a touch low but closer.


Upper contour and fitment much improved so I now had my new baseline and would work outward from here.

[JTR70]

Of course we completely lost the bottom gap in the process.

Tight up front for a bit but then drops out with that overbite. So with door now readjusted in best position with the rest of the car the problems with this rocker and its installed position where compounding.

The best option for a clean end result was now coming into focus.
More later...
Thanks for looking!
Justin

[JTR70]

After some debate whether to relief cut the bottom of the door to fit the current rocker or remove the rocker entirely I finally settled on the latter. Too many issues with it and its installation to justify keeping it in place.

No sense in disturbing the threshold portion so it would just be the outer skin. New (OLD) rocker assembly separated from its threshold here.

A quick mock up against the door just to make sure gap and general contour where going to be achievable without cutting into the door or even this new skin.

They'll go nicely together.

The corners will need work as expected but everything in between should be fine. Going this route was going to eliminate a lot of issues and several others that I could not see until later.

Begin left rocker skin removal. Melting away the solder to get at the joint and to see what's going on under it all.

[JTR70]

Pretty much the same thing going on up front.

A lot of lead filler use along the bottom leading edge and it was still low through here as the bottom of the door was over shooting it so I was either cutting the door bottom or raising this area higher with even more body filler.

Even the torsion hole embossment shoulder and surrounding area was coated. As you can see the shoulder detail is washed out in places so had I left it I would be sculpting it in more filler to bring this detail back. The further I went the more I new I was on the right path.

Rocker skin free with threshold left intact.

A ton of clean up and prep yet to come.

Thanks for looking!
Justin

[JTR70]

Initial fitments to get my plan together.

All the usual misalignments at the edges.

But I was liking the fresh filler free look already.

I forgot to mention earlier but before removal I did some comparison measurements against my reference car and the width of the rocker was just shy of a quarter inch narrower. This direct comparison also shows it slightly narrower than the one replacing it. More confirmation that this was the right choice.

Next was hanging the door back on and getting the new skin to clear the corners allowing it to open and shut.
One small step at a time.

[JTR70]

Rocker fitment cont.

Coming up a little short with the flange on the door side locked in but the approach angle of the wired edge seems pretty good.

Backside lip lines up but the angle on the rocker is too steep. Have plenty of wiggle room at the doors edge so it was looking like I was sliding the rocker forward to align the front edge and relief cutting this back side to achieve a more swoopy/graceful angle with the rest of the wheel opening.

Since the jack spur was already in position an initial concern was getting a 3mm+ bottom door gap all the while having enough clearance with the spur opening. As you can see that was one thing we didn't have to worry about.

All preliminary but I knew I was going to have to extend the threshold flange out to reach the new skin position to eliminate that overbite the car showed up with.

Fitment progressed with the rocker now slid forward and tucked under into alignment at the front edge. Dialing in the lower door gap just a little bit better each time.

[JTR70]

Back edge is now way short but it works out fine as it allows for a relief to lay it back into alignment with the fender edge at a much more graceful approach angle. The distance at the lower door corner there is much smaller requiring far less lead in the end. Its all falling into place. A little too well.
Did I mention what a total PIA this has been working a foot off the ground? I've been spoiled all these years doing this work on a rotisserie.

Took a little break from fitment as now was the time to locate and drill the holes for the deco with the ability to work with it flat on my table.

Fortunately I had this original for locating reference.

With the holes lined up the factory had the tip of the deco encroaching on the body plug a bit.

With the seal removed the deco was positioned dead even with the edge of the embossment. So glad I had this part as I would have never thought to have placed it that close to the body plug opening. Original reference parts proving their worth once again.
Thanks for stopping by!
Justin

[JTR70]

Rocker Deco

Oriented and set to level with the rocker. Time to drill some holes

Holes were reamed to the same size as my OG example.

Overlap detail at body plug copied as per OG.

Quick mock up just to see.

Back to prepping and fitting this new rocker skin.