Page 22 in 2022, kind of a symmetry to it, huh? It's starting to resemble a car!
A year ago, I ordered eight replacement body panels from Classic Sunbeam, front quarter panels, rocker panels, front rear wing panels, and rear wing lower panels all around, eleven months ahead of when I needed them. In my defense, there’s a lot of fitting and head scratching that happens before you drag out the welders. It’s good to be ahead of the game, but I made mistakes…
Rocker Panel: Let’s start with something I got right. The rocker fit and welded into place easily. The front edge where the rocker meets the
front wing panel will require some thinking and massaging, haven’t go to that
yet. The rear of the rocker mated with
the rear, front patch panel nicely. Ah,
if the other panels had gone so well.
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| The rocker has one problem - This joint will need some work. |
Big Mistake: Look back at the September 2020 post called “Winging
It”. You will remember that I had to
rebuild the inner wings on each side. I
was very proud of the work but… Mind you, I built the inner wings before I
fitted the Organ Donor’s snoz to Alphie, meaning the measurements were “preliminary,”
aka, wrong. That bill has come due.
The yellow arrow points to where I ground down the inner panel from the outside. The blue arrow shows where the inner panel is still pushing the wing out and creating a high spot. The wise man (not me) would have checked that before pulling the fender into place at the bottom pinch weld.
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| From inside the wheel well |
So how to fix it. I started by cutting through the wing and
grinding down the inner panel and welding it back together, figuring I would
have to do body work to fix it anyway. It
fixed it, but it’s very sloppy and just not good craftsmanship. And it didn’t fix it as completely as I thought,
the upper part of the inner wing is still pushing out the wing. This time I cut the inner wing from inside
the wheel well and messaged the high spot down.
I will have to close the gap between the inner wing and the wing with
body sealer, but I was going to do that for other areas of the inner wing
anyway. I won’t make the same mistake on
the passenger side. It’s not that I’m
not above screwing up again, but I like to challenge myself with new lack-of-foresight
mistakes.
Front, Rear Wing Panel: Confused? The one behind the door at the leading edge of the rear wheel well. Look at the pics. I had an issue there, partly my fault, partly the panel’s fault.
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| Front, Rear Wing Panel - fixed but too much welding |
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| Front, Rear Wing Panel - a strip added to cose the gap |
The panel was too short to meet
the edge of the door, not sure why, but “their” fault. It forced me to cut a slit where the edge of
the panel could be slotted into Alphie’s quarter panel, which I cut in the
wrong place, leaving a large gap between the quarter panel and the patch panel. My fault, and my second big mistake.
To fix the gaping wound, I scrounged
my supply of Lowes sheet metal. I made a
quick file folder template, transferred it to the metal, cut it out and got to
MIGging. A solid fix, but the type of excessive
metal splicing I prefer to avoid.
Wing Lips: First challenge on both the front and rear
wing patch panels is the wheel well lips.
Get the shape of the wing lip wrong, and it will scream “patch panel” for
miles. The weld along the panel is easily
hidden but screw up the shape of the lip, and it’s as obvious as a turd in a punch
bowl.
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| A lot of rust means I needed a patch panel for the patch panel |
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| The patch panel for the patch panel, cut from a section of another patch panel Confusing isn't it? |
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| Not there yet, but the lip is shaping up |
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| Get you some of these! |
Body Solder vs Plastic Filler: I spent some time studying this question. I said earlier in this blog, that I was going to body solder the patch panel welds because it was “structural” while goop isn’t. Many interwebbers pointed out that welding is the most “structural” of any fix – the previous bloke fixed Alphie’s left rear wing’s lower cheek by pop riveting in some flimsy sheet metal and slathering on enough goop to sculpt out the shape. Other webbers argued that goop has come a long way and that fiber glass reinforced filler is a strong and more flexible that body solder was back in the day. Others argued that body solder requires experience, and that insufficient prep can lead to weak solder adhesion and insufficiently cleaned tinning acid to rust from beneath the solder. Many webbers warned that the heat of tinning the metal can easily warp the panel. You can quickly put too much heat into the panel before you know it. That was the concern that got my attention.
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| Fiber glass reinforced gooped. Pic doesnt show it, but the lip shape is very close |
Here’s the deal, plastic filler and I go way back. I know what it can and cannot do, what it looks like when it is right and when it is wrong. From long experience, I can read it as I sand it, so I’m comfortable with the goop. But I am using the good stuff, money spent on quality filler is not wasted, and I put fiber glass reinforced stuff directly on top of the welds. As one of the webbers put it, the only reason the old timers used body solder, is because they didn’t have goop.
Oh, I got a Harbor Freight Dent
Repair Stud Welder too. It’s awesome,
more on than later.
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| Worth it! |
Door Fitment: I gutted the driver’s door and reinstalled it
to see how bad the gaps were. Not
horrendous, but not good either. The
gaps are a problem (see below) but not the only problem.
The door hangs about 90% correctly. The front edge mates up smoothly, but the
rear edge is higher than the body. A curious
problem because I had already fiddled with the hinges, moving them in and out
to not only mitigate the gaps but to fit the door itself smoothly in line with
the body surfaces. Shimming the hinges may
fix the rear edge but would mess up the front edge. I turned my attention to the body just behind
the rear door edge. There was a dent
where someone (I surmise) had slammed the hard top on to the body.
So, I fired in a stud from my
handy stud welder and pulled out the dent.
With some minor hammer and dolly work on the rear edge of the door, the matchup
is significantly better. The weight of
the window regulator and other assorted window apparatus will probably bring
everything into line. At least, that’s
what I’m telling myself.
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| The door is slightly higher, but close enough for now |
Body panel gaps: The gap between the bottom of the door and
the rocker, good. The gap between the
rear of the door and rear wing, meh. The
gap grows at the top of the door, but that will be easily fixed by welding in a
strip of sheet metal (maybe two) and smoothing out the welds. But the gap between the front of the door and
the front wing, we’ll generously say “ragged.”
The gap is too tight at the bottom where I welded in the patch panel,
but it becomes a crevice at the top curve of the door.
Front Wing/Door Gap: With the door reinstalled, the front wing/door gap doesn’t match the curve of the door. I maneuvered the door on its hinges until I got the fitment as close as I could everywhere but the front gap, leaving it last. Clearly, I had to add metal to match the curve and fix the excessive gap.
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| Red - too wide, Yellow - too tight |
Next, I made a file folder template of the shape where the metal would need to go and cut a piece of the thickest sheet metal I had. Beat, filed, and cut the metal to shape and MIGed away.
With the first filler piece welded
in, you can see that I need some more to close the gap completely. The weld joint where I welded the wing to Alphie
will get gooped where the Rootes folk body soldered it back in 1964.
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| File folder template with a curve matching the door |
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| The next pics show the progression of installing the front wing patch panel |
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| Panel fitted wth attention to the wheel well lip |
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| Bad pic but MIGged in and first pass with fiber glass reinforced goop |
