[perg]

A lot of grinding and cutting and then suddenly my airsaw gave up on me. Tried to repair it, but might have to get a new one tomorrow
At least I got almost all of the left rocker off. If this had been the original rocker the job would have been easy simply drilling out the spot welds, but the only thing that is spot welded here is the lower flange. A lot of this panel is brazed together with the floor and it is terrible to loosen. Have to grind it down most of the time..
Anyhow seem to have developed a technique so might be easier with the other side.
Some heavy rust inside parts of the rocker panel tells me it was the right thing to do to remove it.

 

[F.I. 57 Belair]

Amazing what some previous owners do when they try to repair things. I always hate to work with something that was brazed on. Makes it very hard to weld over. If I might make a suggestion based on my experiences with my car, before you weld the new rockers and then the quarters back on support the car by its suspension points. You may know this but these cars move a lot when lifted by the frame. Good luck.

 

[perg]

Amazing what some previous owners do when they try to repair things. I always hate to work with something that was brazed on. Makes it very hard to weld over. If I might make a suggestion based on my experiences with my car, before you weld the new rockers and then the quarters back on support the car by its suspension points. You may know this but these cars move a lot when lifted by the frame. Good luck.

Yeah I need to get all the brazing off or else the welds will be awful.
Funny you should mention the point about the suspension points because I was curious whether I should post a question on the issue of welding the rocker channels while on the lift or on the wheels.
Plan is to prepare everything for the new rocker channel, put the quarter panel on only with screws and then the front fender and then look into the door gaps and fender gaps by adjusting the rocker position before final welding.
Thanks.

 

[perg]

Spent the evening trying to get all the visible brazing off, think I managed except for the front part of the inner rocker which I will disintegrate tomorrow evening.
Also managed to straighten the lower part of the rocker since it was bent inwards. The reason for straightening it is that I measured and the inner rocker panel is approximately one inch too short to be able to mate with the new outer rocker channel. So I will weld an extension to it tomorrow and make a patch to fill in the hole after the copper pipes.
Very tempted now to order new inner rocker panels as well.......

Also seems like there sometime ago was an attempt to weld an extension to the rocker inner support that extends up into the plenum chamber. Not very successful I'm afraid. The new rocker will not fit due to this extension. I will remove it tomorrow and make a new patch of fresh steel.

 

[perg]

Spent saturday on grinding and cutting into inner rocker and surrounding area.
Temporarily welded on an extension to the inner rocker to be able to hold the rocker panel in place.
Will remove them and make a small angle for the rocker panel lip tomorrow before putting them back on.
I am getting there even though painfully slow.

 

[perg]

Sunday and a lot more grinding and cutting to remove the rest of the self made rocker panel. Several layers of metal and hard to get at under the B pillar, but finally managed to remove what is in excess and now I can sandblast and protect the area with some rust inhibitor.

Spot welded in some tabs to be able to hold the rocker channel in place while I worked further on the plan from yesterday for welding the lower lip to the inner rocker channel.

That did obviously not work out. Too much distance between the rocker channel lip and the inner rocker edge.
Need another plan....
Tomorrow I will lower the car and temporarily put on the quarter panel and the front fender and see how the rocker really fits with regards to the door and fender.

 

[perg]

Fitted the rear quarter panel attached it with screws only and the fender and from an amateur point of view it didnt't look too bad.
Must check what the body openings between fender and cowl and fender to door is supposed to be, might have to adjust the door a bit.

 

[perg]

The temptation got too big so I ordered new inner rocker channels. Could probably have fabbed up some myself, but there are numerous things to do on this car and hopefully I can save some time and work by buying these. In addition it looks better on the car. Even though not many people will stick their head under the car I will for sure know that it looks better under there.

Here's a picture of the left fender vs the outer rocker channel. Seems like the fender lower attaching point is 3-4 mm too low. Unsure whether it should be like that ? The screw is there because it is not spot welded to the inner brace yet.

Had some work to do on the left fender so I started working on that. Tedious work these small patches with all weird angles and curves, but managed to get it attached at least and will close the welds later.

Then started working on the headlight bucket ring which is all rusted out. Made a ring and will make the internal brow later.

 

[perg]

Sandblasted and put epoxy primer on some more parts before I weld in the inner eyebrow or the upper light bucket support.
It is a good time to do this now before it becomes inaccessible when the inner ring is welded in place.
The rusted part of the fender will be removed later when the hood and fender is in place and I can compare angles and curves.

 

[perg]

Patched up one of the inner fender extensions tonight. All there was time to today.

 

[schovil69]

Looks good, perg!

 

[perg]

Looks good, perg!

Thank you, small steps, but at least it's moving forward

 

[Car1]

Impressive work Per, maybe change your username to perseverance? Sure know whom to take lessons from, when I get arround to buy a welder. Keep the good work going, and updates flowing.
//Car1

 

[ETriggs]

Thank you, small steps, but at least it's moving forward

As the saying goes, its like eating an elephant. Just take one bite at a time.

 

[perg]

Back to the work on removing the inner rocker channel, took me forever to remove them including all the remains of brazing that seems to be everywhere.
Body braces looks fabricated too, there are no room for the U channel that the inner rocker will weld to and they are not in a straight line either so obviously this will require some extensive work to make all fit.

Clamped an iron angle to the foremost and rearmost body brace to see if the attachment points for the inner rocker panel would be a straight line.
Does not seem like that, but will see after I have got the U bracket along the floor welded in as well as the J bracket inside the quarter panel.

Probably need to modify the body braces to make them fit to the inner rocker panel as well as to the U channel.