Chassis 85517 Number 17 356 Convertible D

[JTR70]

More little weird chassis detail repair mistakes:

While in the middle of the left rocker skin replacement I noticed this flange detail mistake at the back corner of the longitudinal just under the torsion housing. As you can see the last several inches of the longitudinal flange runs bare and exposed at the turn.

It should have been cut and hammered over flush once it got past the vertical closing wall flange as I have it here. Missing a small square of mating flange but I'll add that in once I start stitching it up.

Ready to be seam welded along its edge as they all where done originally.

Seam welded up with my torch. That's how I'm used to seeing it.
The previous shop was at least consistent as both sides where finished the same way. No big deal of course on their own but all these small redo's are beginning to add up. I'll take care of this side once I begin work over here.
Thanks for looking!
Justin

[roy mawbey]

Strange to leave that small area sticking up free to wind and weather on both sides too Justin. Wonder if this mail reply will get through to the forum?

Roy

[JTR70]

Another anomaly Roy...

[JTR70]

Back to left side body work:
Back long boarding the entire run for shape and reflection consistency.

Got the reflection to run right up to the wire edge without dropping away all without being too thick to achieve it. All that fuss down on that corner paid off.
All behind a coat of sealer for another round of blocking.
Down to transulsent swatches of filler to chase out the last of the rollers in the reflection. Time for another coat of sealer.
Bought a quart of enamel that was pretty close the OG color for work coats. I will get a custom match on this OG sample when the time comes.

[JTR70]

Work coat:
getting better...
Main concern is watching for distortion across the gaps.
Happy with the general profile shape now.
Once the paint dried I switched gears and began cleaning up the door well and jamb areas. That next.

Thanks for looking!
Justin

[JTR70]

Left door jamb detail:
Test fitting the hinge plate for fitment and checking the rest of the area for scaly rough surfaces.

Thought the edge of the dash was cracked and loose....
but only some solder that didn't adhere.

Top of the hinge boss seemed super thick with solder but after some light taps its was revealed to be only a heavy coating of tinning paste left behind.
Once I cleaned all that back to metal I started on the vertical wall scale.

[JTR70]

left jamb detail continued...
My goal is smooth consistent surfaces of course but also just as important to me is that the edges and other little crannies don't look smothered and caked in filler. Removing excess solder from under the post mount edge here.

Then went onto filing and shaping the leaded surface here.

Finishing up with a skim coat of putty to take it the rest of the way.

First test coat. Some small blemishes yet to chase out but the heavy lifting is done.

Changing gears and moving onto the right side door and threshold areas. Oh, what new adventures await me over there...

Thanks for looking!
Justin

[JTR70]

Right door, jamb , and rocker area:

Pretty much the same issues as I had on the left side.

Almost non existent jamb relief detail shapes.

The rocker in general was also in a rolled or hemmed in attitude.

Back corner especially had an enhanced taper to it.

I want only a slight taper like I have now on the left side.

[JTR70]

As found on the left side; access hole relief is coated in lead requiring alot of reshaping before its right.

Lower door gap runs pretty consistent

but opens up at the front. Rocker shape overall is bit weird and lumpy.

Much easier to just cut this rocker back out and begin fresh. Melting the solder way to expose the joint for cutting here.

This corners shoulder is washed out it in alot of weld so it would have been a pain to carve this detail back out cleanly.

[JTR70]

More solder removal to see what lies beneath.

Will go back and reduce the amount of solder needed to create this turn and gap .

No overbite from the door to rocker as was found on the left side but the bottom edge of this door was turned in to match when closed. It was turned so much that skin folded off at the bottom door frame creating that crease just up from the bottom gap. I'll relax this edge to soften that feature then reset the rocker to level with the new door shape.

Same thing as the left side. The relief features I'm after are behind that weld joint. I'll cut it all freee again and bring the lock post forward to reveal them.


Not as much solder used on this side to create this upper corner/gap.

Did find a fatigue crack that wasn't addressed but just soldered over.

[JTR70]

New troubles ahead:

After removing this door for the first time what jumped out immediately was the excessive thickness or width from the door bottom to the skins leading edge at the front of it here.


Not only was it extra wide but a good 4-5 inches of the door bottoms flange was out of the pinch seam.

The corrosponding area of the car itself had this little mouse hole that was left behind . The flange contact to the right of it was minimal. Almost as if the floor below it was set too low.


Not only that but a garbled up mess of steel and weld was also left under the lower hinge boss. Certainly couldn't leave all of this as found; Two fresh cans of worms about to be opened back up...
That next...
thanks for looking!
Justin

[JTR70]

Door's bottom edge and rocker panel running down hill.

The leading edge should run nearly parallel with the bottom of the door frame. The front edge is coming in at 1 3/4 inches from the bottom.

By contrast the rear corner is coming in atjust shy of 1 1/4 nches. So just about a 1/2 inch of discrepancy from front to rear.

With those measurements in mind this is how off the leading edge is from level with the doors frame. This door was a complete reskin and whom ever built this skin installed the bottom flange off level by a 1/2 inch to the front. The shop that installed the skin didn't question it and simply installed as provided.

Rocker threshold(and rocker skin) should also run parallel with the bottom of the longitudinal.( or chassis if you like) As you can see it has a tilt forward to it. The bottom gap with the newly reskinned door had to be consistent so the rocker and its threshold were installed with this angle to compensate. This in turn created a shortfall with the closing wall flange inside the door well and a little "mouse hole" which was left behind.

New rocker skin's bottom edge mocked up level with the longitudinal.

[JTR70]

With the new rocker skin set to level this how much the threshold has to come up. Again about a half inch at its worst.

Everything centers around the completed door so I began correction the bottom pinch seam first. Cut away the forward half of the inner fold first. There is plenty of meat left up here to rebend with so off it went. As you can see as it moved forward very little of the door frames flange was actually into and in contact with the pinch seam of the skin;Tapering away badly .

By the time I rebend this area a half inch up it will be right at the edge of the frames flange.

Really tricky to add in a new breaking bend with the skin installed but I fortunately had this "anvil" that was the perfect width to work from.

Breaking right along my scribe line. So far so good.

[JTR70]

had to save all of the old inner run toward the back as the needed correction got smaller and smaller. A lot of heat and hammering to convince it to relax back out again but it eventually gave in.


Flange run reset and heeled back over tight onto the frame flange again.

Door remounted for the first time after correction. A little wide along the threshold toward the front now.

Skin mock up and mounted flush into the existing threshold. Correcting and leveling this line to the chassis about this much... Onto the next deal, thanks for looking!
Justin

[Phil Planck]

Lots of hard work here. Good info for my future steps on Foam Car

[JTR70]

Thanks Phil!

[JTR70]

Now onto adjusting the threshold for level with the chassis and also to the corrected bottom door edge.
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Began by cutting it free from the bottom of the hinge boss. Once cut I was able to swing that unsightly mass I had discovered earlier. Turns out to be a remnant of the OG threshold. Came out easy enough so I don't know why it was left in there...
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Next was breaking the spot welds free at the front. Turns out these where really just for show as my putty knife just passed right through. Only upside was that it made my life easier. This is why I don't trust spot welds alone; unless its that 30K unit that Bruce Baker spoke about. Plugs welds are the realistic answer for me.
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Now that I had the front of the threshold loose enough I began bringing it upward where its now needed. Simultaneously I was planning my fix for that hole that was left at the back of the inner closing wall flange. It was narrowing as it went and I was thinking of just adding in a small 90 degree patch section and call it good. That was the plan until I stuck my finger down in there and realized that the floor dropped off into nothing!! My ruler is inserted above to highlight the cut-off. That's not supposed to happen, there should be a secondary vertical wall in behind here.

So this section was installed to look correct but its a decoy with no substructure behind that wall. This is really a big deal for the strength and integrity of the chassis, especially this being an open car; it needs all the help it can get. This is supposed to be a "tray"/secondary floor that acts as a hub for all the surrounding closing panels to triangulate and tie into. The car is fine while it sits here static in my garage but I could see this weakness making itself known in one respect or another after some seat time. Its important of course for repairs to appear correct but in the end what really counts is that the repairs perform under the loads the chassis was designed to endure. From what I could tell at this point it was just a flat piece hanging in space back there. To top it all off the closing panel hiding its secrets wasn't even attached very well. ( another blessing BTW as I cut all this back out)

At this point I just had to make sure I could make this correction cleanly after the fact. So far I've only made this repair underneath (& on a rotisserie) before the new longitudinal panel was installed. I was trying not to disturb the existing longitudinal panel here. So after some thought I was pretty sure I could do this all topside all the while working in this tight little corner. Opening up this new can of worms next.
Thanks for looking!
Justin