And one major and primary objective or milestone is now in sight................................
This was the point of all that work and misery; one only, brand new, and just hung, outer rocker panel. I went with the plug welds as the factory had done. They can be spaced out evenly along the length of the flange and an air driven hole punch makes generating them a lot easier and faster than hand drilling them (been there, done that).
Wanted a crisp shot for the close up but the closer I ran the lens the fuzzier things got. Apart from a few samples that actually look professional the balance will get dressed down to surface level. it will make re-installing the threshold and the other components easier when it comes time.
Did get a clear close up of how the A Pillar section fits in place and relates to the rocker. If you look closely at the left side edge of the pillar where it curves down and out to line up with the rocker's top face you can just see the flange in the rocker that creates a depressed shoulder that the Pillar edge drops down into. This alignment was one of the things that i had to take into consideration since having that pillar edge sit proud or high would cause the door gap to be excessive and make the hinge alignment a MPITA. At this point, for the Pillar, the next step is to noogie it into as tight and precise a fit as possible and anchor it there with some tacks. After that I can "encourage" the fit make it sit as close as possible. This is, after all, old recycled parts being fit and adapted to an old vehicle, so some massaging of components is inevitable.
And another reason for all the cutting and grinding. When I first asked about rocker covers I was shown something called a "cover". All this was, was a short section of stamped metal that fit over the damaged or rotten existing panel to camoflage the damage. it only spanned the distance between the two Pillars and went no farther. This is why.
The outer rocker panel for a G-Body is full length. This is the exposed cavity in the rear quarter panel just ahead of the rear wheel well and, as you can see, the end of the outer rocker panel butts up tight against the inner wheel house. I think that I mentioned earlier that when during repairs to that section of the wheel house I had found the remains of the flanges that are bent into the end of the rocker panel so that they can be plug welded to the wheel house by means of matching holes punched in the house metal. All very much Factory and done on an assemby jig on a production line. In this case what I might do is to create a thin section of body metal in the form of a shim to slip in between the rocker end and the inner face of the wheel house. I can then run in a couple of bridge welds to anchor the outer face of the rocker. It doesn't have to be a solid seam and certainly doesn't have to be pretty; once the new body panel get put in place it all gets hidden away. This isn't some TV show where all the quality of the raw metal finishing has to be displayed and critiqued. Using an interupted pattern of bridging will actually be better as it allows for some flex and movement where a full run seam could make things too rigid and possibly lead to cracks or tears.
So for today, more plug welds and seam work, not even thinking about thinking about the lower edge of the rocker panel...............................................
Nick
This was the point of all that work and misery; one only, brand new, and just hung, outer rocker panel. I went with the plug welds as the factory had done. They can be spaced out evenly along the length of the flange and an air driven hole punch makes generating them a lot easier and faster than hand drilling them (been there, done that).
Wanted a crisp shot for the close up but the closer I ran the lens the fuzzier things got. Apart from a few samples that actually look professional the balance will get dressed down to surface level. it will make re-installing the threshold and the other components easier when it comes time.
Did get a clear close up of how the A Pillar section fits in place and relates to the rocker. If you look closely at the left side edge of the pillar where it curves down and out to line up with the rocker's top face you can just see the flange in the rocker that creates a depressed shoulder that the Pillar edge drops down into. This alignment was one of the things that i had to take into consideration since having that pillar edge sit proud or high would cause the door gap to be excessive and make the hinge alignment a MPITA. At this point, for the Pillar, the next step is to noogie it into as tight and precise a fit as possible and anchor it there with some tacks. After that I can "encourage" the fit make it sit as close as possible. This is, after all, old recycled parts being fit and adapted to an old vehicle, so some massaging of components is inevitable.
And another reason for all the cutting and grinding. When I first asked about rocker covers I was shown something called a "cover". All this was, was a short section of stamped metal that fit over the damaged or rotten existing panel to camoflage the damage. it only spanned the distance between the two Pillars and went no farther. This is why.
The outer rocker panel for a G-Body is full length. This is the exposed cavity in the rear quarter panel just ahead of the rear wheel well and, as you can see, the end of the outer rocker panel butts up tight against the inner wheel house. I think that I mentioned earlier that when during repairs to that section of the wheel house I had found the remains of the flanges that are bent into the end of the rocker panel so that they can be plug welded to the wheel house by means of matching holes punched in the house metal. All very much Factory and done on an assemby jig on a production line. In this case what I might do is to create a thin section of body metal in the form of a shim to slip in between the rocker end and the inner face of the wheel house. I can then run in a couple of bridge welds to anchor the outer face of the rocker. It doesn't have to be a solid seam and certainly doesn't have to be pretty; once the new body panel get put in place it all gets hidden away. This isn't some TV show where all the quality of the raw metal finishing has to be displayed and critiqued. Using an interupted pattern of bridging will actually be better as it allows for some flex and movement where a full run seam could make things too rigid and possibly lead to cracks or tears.
So for today, more plug welds and seam work, not even thinking about thinking about the lower edge of the rocker panel...............................................
Nick
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