33 Ford rocker replacement

[idrivejunk]

This is another at-work project thread. It is not an instructional but could serve as a guide for similar projects. The car has several other body modifications so originality and stock appearance are of no concern. It is to be a show car.

I already did the driver's side but the lighting is better on this side so I will try to stick to documenting the passenger side. Unfortunately this segment of this project has been plagued by delays and distractions so the story continuity may suffer a bit.

Back when I was welding in the co-worker friend-fabbed floor, the rockers did not get a fair share of attention. Patch ghosting was evident in the paint at the lower quarters so I did know I'd get to do some digging there later. This is what it looked like at the beginning-






Yeah... rivets, fiberglass galore, etc. One day the customer saw this and I asked if he wanted those at least tacked. Yes, he says. So I spent about an hour doing both sides-





That was that, and I did other mods and fixes elsewhere next. Liking those results, the decision was made to put new rockers and lower quarter patches on it. Heres why-









Patches over old rust, tacked in with maybe a little stud gun type spot welder. They were on there good but boy did they show through the filler and paint. So, as the story usually goes, I love to chop. Gently here at first-








Oh, the joy of archaeology. Spam can technology came into play there, didn't it? More in a moment...

[idrivejunk]

Like with the door jambs, I was looking at all the ugly on that inner rocker / floor edge piece and imagining a cleaner look. The new rocker's inner flange (top) and edge (bottom) came nowhere near meeting the vertical panel. The aftermarket frame does not use all of the original bolt holes, such as these where a thru-bolt had been at the base of the B-pillar.









Yes, I put a nice gouge in the original quarter cutting the old patch off. And the wheelwel end has been modified for wheel clearance but that bolt hole stays. Also yep, I was constantly prying the body away from the frame with a spoon while chopping, but still got a few nicks in the frame. Oh and yes it is firmly bolted to the frame as I do this. Backside of these welds will be addressed next time its off the frame, probably after filler and primer. All that being said, I continue-

This is just a piece of 18 gauge bent over my knee. Made a posterboard template first. The original steel might have been 16 gauge but it wasn't quite that thick now. I opted for 18 gauge and all smooth. Strength should be as good as the original or better with the technique I dreamed up. Everyone including the customer approved the planned approach-














So I then made the rear section and joined it all together-




You can see silver Sharpie lines up there where the rocker sits. I roughly trimmed the inner to that line at the front section-

[idrivejunk]

Here is the new rocker. See my black Sharpie line? Chopped it off there and flattened that edge.



These are my beloved flange strips that I seem to fall back onto a lot when fixing messes. A shear, brake, shrinker / stretcher, and drill press made forming these a cake walk.



Everything was going nice like the other side but now was time to nail down the door gap. It stuck out at the bottom rear corner and hit all along the top and top half of the front-








So I chopped and did stuff and things to it-





Ack! Flung some metal on my face grinding that, hang on...

[idrivejunk]

Ah. All good now but that stung. I was distracted and missed getting a freshly ground picture of the door edge. Actually rushed out the door without good pics Friday but I did establish a good gap all around and protected it with some black. Here are a couple quick shots I nabbed before high tailing it to our company get-together feed-





Thats where I'm at with it now. The quarter patch goes much higher but I wanted to use as little of it as possible. The door striker is adjusted a little high in the pic, and the bottom of the A-pillar does mismatch a little. I am now fighting the area where I've joined the quarter and rocker parts together due to more curvature in the quarter patch than the rocker. Having to shrink here and stretch there but my quarter corner does connect inside the jamb which you can't see here. I'll be back on it tomorrow and hopefully finish. Once I trim the other door like this one, it will be epoxy and filler time on everything.

So that this plan will make more sense, here are a few pics from the other side-







I am curious how other folks have approached this area. This way just seemed like a natural choice to me but I have a lot to learn yet. I did consider trying to put just an outward bend at the bottom of the inner but it would have upped the difficulty considerably for me. This way allowed me more three dimensional slop to play in and allowed me to just nail it wherever it fit the door and trim the rocker's inside edge to match the inner.

[Carnut]

Really fascinating.

[kb426]

I almost puke every time you post that rusty stuff. I know that there are other ways to do this but it doesn't matter. You're doing it and it's good when finished. Good job, Matt.

[BFS57]

Hello;
Thats good! I bet it ain't cheap! Time + Materials! $$$$$$$$$$. And nobody wants to buy my 32 Vicky because it ain't metal!
I should show them a few pix of just what hides under the surface of "Metal" cars!!

Bruce

[UGLY OLDS]

Nice work as usual ...   It's good that the owner was involved  & got to see where his $$$ went ...How much plastic was in the original rockers ??  Looks like it was 3/8 to 1/2"  It's amazing what that stuff will hide ....

Bob..

[idrivejunk]

KB, Thanks, I will speak to the stewardess about stocking some nausea bags for the really barfy ones.     I do think this car is probably actually a relatively nice specimen, rust-wise. Them previous repairs might have been even worse if they hadn't left the original steel in place. Shame on anybody who thought those patches wouldn't show up, though.

BF, after having been through this job I'd do a lot better job of evaluating a vehicle for purchase if the need arose. Removing some interior trim so potential buyers can see the backside of areas such as these could be a help in selling. Cars this old just have lots of stories and its fair to expect any of them to have half-hearted repairs hiding someplace. Lots of dollar signs yes, but with proper documentation the value of these repairs bears consideration when pricing the car for sale. Those patch panels don't cost much and I don't make much though.

Carnut, glad you dig.  

Bob- Thank you sir.    I'd say yeah lots of 3/8" thick places, maybe some 1/2" spots. I don't think it ever had door latches in it during the last go-round. There were gobs of fiberglass reinforced filler and some unwetted mesh crap in the wheelhouse. It made me sad to think how much high dollar material I had to remove to get to what I had to fix.

I'm trying to do good plus hurry, but didn't finish today. Did spend a few minutes fussing over the door gap first thing, but worked on that rocker the rest of the day. Here we go with the rocker off, preparing for final installation-








In that second to last pic you can kinda see part of the cuts in the door shell where I brought the corner in. Can't forget to finish that! Door stays on until its all welded and I'm happy with the rocker. By the way, yes there are some places along the inner rocker where clearance is tight... existant, but tight, to the frame rail. The whole thing is floppy somewhat, until fully welded, so I have to keep an eye on the door gap at all times while making sure the inner isn't against the frame as I go.



Hot diggity theres a Biscayne in the reflection-



The plan is to end up with a nice bead of seam sealer where the outer rocker butts up to the inner in the door jamb-



In this one you can see where I got the gap too big and added rod there at the back. Had to do that on the other side too. I swear I tried to sneak up on it with the panels overlapped and screwed but this is how I ended up. No sweat, you'll see. But that spot is warp-prone as heck.




Theres where I left off. That last picture of the front end of the rocker is an area where the door gap needs work. It gets wide right there and I did some slice-a-roo there on the other side as well, when welding up the seam. In the pic it needs to be pried on a little before tacking on the outer face, then I'll modify the curve of the cowl side and blend it all in. Gotta have a nice gap for the perimeter weatherstrip to look good all around so the cowl end gets cut and bent to match up better. At the rear end, in the wheelhouse, of course there will be a patch made like what I showed from the other side with the bolt in it.

[chimp koose]

Wow . this makes the patch work I did on my T look easy . I don't think bondo was even invented the last time the T got painted .

[Charlie Chops 1940]

I've been doing similar work on a '40 Ford coupe that came to me in a trade as a pretty sound, good bones car that had been repaired a lot, but poorly. I call it "peeling the onion".

[idrivejunk]

Thats a good metaphor. I was actually pleased to find so much good metal still there on the quarters of this car. "Repaired" is a subjective word, and just as much as I think the old repairs were hokey, there are those who would find these to be so.

I made it through all but the front seam / cowl mod and doorjamb corner seam. Whew. It fought me some but not too bad. I just need to be done. All I lack is finishing. Here are pics from the end of today  

[kb426]

Good progress.

[UGLY OLDS]

HEY  :!:    There's a feller in that door takin' a photo of you..     He prolly wants to commend you on another neat repair ...  

Bob..

[chris spokes]

awesome work as usual matt