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Justin, your experience told you to remove the rocker. What a good decision that was. Also what must be hidden on some cars by repair work of previous times. It going to look good !
Roy
Roy
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Dug the door seals out so I can preload the latched door to dial in level with the new rocker and rear quarter panel.
Initial mock-up with tail left at the bottom. Much easier for mock-ups if I just cut that short but I didn't want to burn this new seal just for that.
Got the door latch adjusted for a nice transition off to the rear fender. What jumped out at me next was this huge flat spot in the body profile.
Again black primer conceals a lot of sin.
With this straight edge you can see just about 4MM of slope to fix or fill.
Worry about that later. Onto getting the back of the rocker dialed in and set. A tight rear gap and corner to also deal with.
Thanks for looking!
JustinJustin RioComment
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I will be watching with interest how you reduce that 4mm. You could have done without that hassle.
RoyComment
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Back to the front. (of the rocker)
Front lines up the most naturally with the car so establishing here and moving to the back.
As alignment progressed at the wired edge I noticed that the wire lead that I left on the fender side was a bit too cooperative. With a minimal tug the lead came out like a tooth.
The previously welded joint did not take.
Which now meant a bigger bridge and new wire lead section to connect the "new" wire lead now exposed here. Always something...
Moved onto dialing in my best adjusted 3mm bottom gap with the edge of the door.
A curve ball thrown up here but I now had the front of this rocker set in its final position. The edge contour carries on pretty smoothly onto the rocker. Notice the "new" wire lead on the fender side sits back a little? I wasn't done yet. That later...
Last edited by JTR70; 07-10-2019, 06:05 AM.Justin RioComment
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Onto the back.
New skin gapped and set outward to level with the latched door and seal.
Still sucked in too tight at the lap joint so I'll be relief cutting the fender to bring it out some.
The new rocker skin position now means I'll be extending the existing threshold out about this much to get the flanges flush for welding.
Relief cut the edge on the rocker to lay back more gracefully and into alignment with the fender.
Really happy with the new corner gap and contour. Will only need a swatch of filler if any to be perfect.
Thanks for looking!
Justin
Justin RioComment
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Extending the threshold.
Relief cut in prep for a filler strip.
Only had to relax the flange on the drain tray to get the needed distance. Small miracles.
New filler strip cut and carefully tacked in for flush on the car first.
Now tacking the old flange section to it. A very time consuming PIA.
Fully welded and dressed. Those where a pair of long seam welds and glad this was now behind me.
Last edited by JTR70; 07-10-2019, 06:42 AM.Justin RioComment
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Small clean up and detail prep.
redoing the rocker skin also gives me the chance to correct smaller detail issues like these bugar welds holding the old rocker brace on.
With the skin out of the way I could just get at it with my die grinder.
Now I can plug weld the new one up top for a clean factory appearance.
Next issue was at the splash pan attachment point. Another large gob of wire weld hold the old skin to it to clean up. I'll also close that slit left in the outer flange as it zaps the rigidity in that area.
Begin paper templates to create a new clean corner flange. Should only be a small gas welded tack holding these two together when its over.
Justin RioComment
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Front rocker prep continues
Building out a new flanged 90 degree corner.
Completed. Rocker mocked up to make sure they'd touch for a quick gas weld all the while not forcing the surface of the rocker to roll under as I'd previously found it.
Begin templates for the new "bridge" patch for the skin. Main thing was getting a graceful arch on that wired lip for a seamless transition when complete.
Onto steel. Have the initial arched profile hammered over and now ready to wrap the wire in it.
Lots of torch heat to make sure I maintain the curve and shape I need. A bit more to go here but synching up nicely around the wire.
Justin RioComment
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New patch set and ready to make the final cut.
As the fender is not original I decided to use the entire patch. Final cut line with box below marking out the wire lead that needs to stay behind.
Removed with tons of seam sealer lurking below.
Apparently the wire rolled out at the other shop as it was just left and seam sealed over.
Just about ready to install the new section.
Thanks for looking!
JustinJustin RioComment
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A very interesting and well described series of work there Justin. The amount of work to correct a car that arrived ready for paint makes it clear the choice of bodywork repair company is so important! As you said in the beginning it arrived looking you know sort of possible until........
To be honest though without the 356 experience even fully skilled bodywork guys would find this work difficult. You know exactly the pitfalls and where they will be half the time. That experience is so valuable.
Super thread !
RoyComment
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Rocker skin prep before final installation.
there is a raised shoulder around this corner from the initial tooling process. I've left it alone in the past but this area always plays games with the levelness and transition off the door.
This shoulder was hammered back even and in reaction the flanged corner shape relaxed a bit. The skin is clamped to my table here to keep it flat and the flanged corner was heated and hammered back in.
Next was the step flanges on both ends. They are stamped a little deeper than the thickness of 20 gauge so to reduce filler it was clamped to my table again and a section of 20G. inserted. The step was then hammered back to the depth of this section.
Now the surfaces will carry over much closer and reduce the amount of solder needed. Going back to what you where saying earlier Roy; had I not been through this before I wouldn't have thought to question these parts. I would have just installed them as is. I'm much more sanicle now. I expect nothing to fit out of the box.
Last bit of business before install was a good coat of sealer and then some black on the back side.Last edited by JTR70; 07-14-2019, 06:32 AM.Justin RioComment
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Final installation:
Always that "one more thing" to do before you can proceed. Seam sealer applied to the rolled wire corners that are well out of the heat affected zone.
A long road with a ton of prep required to both the car and the new rocker but I finally made it to the final install.
Best average 3MM bottom door gap and with no overbite.
Rocker has a much better vertical profile without the Pre-A type roll under it showed up with. Also highlighting the smooth transition from door bottom to rocker here.
Begin welding on that back flange first.
Thanks for stopping by!
JustinLast edited by JTR70; 07-14-2019, 06:48 AM.Justin RioComment
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welding up back corner.
Plug welds first.
Wire leads fused next.
Last was a sheath to both rewrap and support the wire at the weld joint. Back filler strip inserted and ready to weld up.
PIA to crawl back up in here (with the brake hub also in my way) to weld this junction up completely but eventually got it buttoned up.
Ready for a skim coat of lead back here.
Thanks for looking!
Justin
Last edited by JTR70; 07-15-2019, 06:35 AM.Justin RioComment
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Soldering rear rocker joint.
Lead wiped with tinning acid and ready to apply some solder.
really out of practice so it took a few applications to get I coated.
Excess lead filed and leveled to shape. Got the transition on that wired lip I was after.
Just a skim coat to cover the joint was all that's really needed. Most of the features and lines will stay steel versus being formed from solder.
Began heat shrinking some high spots as it went. Posting the front rocker work next.
Thanks for stopping by!
Justin
Last edited by JTR70; 07-15-2019, 06:56 AM.Justin RioComment
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