Mitch's 69 Charger restoration -sheet metal

[Aussiemadonmopars]

I noticed too on post #167 photo no. 4 that there was a pile of insulation like material you pulled out of the rocker panel. I had the same shit in mine as well, it's got me buggered what it was for... and only on that side as well.

[green69rt]

I noticed too on post #167 photo no. 4 that there was a pile of insulation like material you pulled out of the rocker panel. I had the same shit in mine as well, it's got me buggered what it was for... and only on that side as well.

I assumed that it was the nest of some kind of rodent that had made a home in the rocker at some time.  If you had the exact same thing then now I wonder if it might have been something different???

[Hemidog]

I noticed too on post #167 photo no. 4 that there was a pile of insulation like material you pulled out of the rocker panel. I had the same shit in mine as well, it's got me buggered what it was for... and only on that side as well.

I assumed that it was the nest of some kind of rodent that had made a home in the rocker at some time.  If you had the exact same thing then now I wonder if it might have been something different???

I had the same material in my rockers too, it's insulation from the carpet and seats that rodents have gathered.

[green69rt]

I keep having little victories and little setbacks, overall I think I am making progress.  The driver side rocker panel was in bad shape, both the inner and outer panels were either rusted beyond hope or had been patched to cover up the rot and rust.  Every time I worked on or around the rocker I would get a big shower of rust dropping to the floor.  The rocker is a major load carrying portion of the body as it connects the front of the car to the rear.  The only other thing that goes between the front and rear is the floor and the roof.

In the first picture you can see a portion of the driver side rocker.  You can see the big rust holes in it.  There's more holes that you can't see.  You can also see the front leaf spring hanger.  It was shot, rusted, bent and patched.  It has a little of the floor still attached.

The second picture shows the front section of the rocker (near the driver's feet.)   More holes.  This section is important because there are two braces that come off of it that connect to the front frame rails (front frame supports the engine.)

The third picture shows the new inner rocker metal.  I know it looks a little rusty but that is just some surface rust left over from spraying it with phosphoric acid/zinc phosphate solution)  I replaced the old metal that looked like 18 ga. steel with 16 ga. to add a little strength.  

And finally the new leaf spring hanger.  Welds need to be cleaned up, it's really difficult to get into some of these places with a wand and see what you're doing, but the welds are good, I checked the penetration.   Now on to the outer section!!!

[The70RT]

Looks like you are progressing 

[green69rt]

Just a question for now.  I took the front fender off and the splash shields that go between the wheel well and the door post.  Attached picture shows the new one in place for testing.  My question is does this shield have any gasket or sealant between it and the body of the fender??  If a gasket, does anybody know where to get them??

Thanks
Mitch

[tan top]

Just a question for now.  I took the front fender off and the splash shields that go between the wheel well and the door post.  Attached picture shows the new one in place for testing.  My question is does this shield have any gasket or sealant between it and the body of the fender??  If a gasket, does anybody know where to get them??

Thanks
Mitch

yeah got mine from yearone

http://www.yearone.com/serverfiles/part.asp?pid=SR2&c=0&e=0&cat=1&hid=120CT15405&trk=


been a few years since i orderd them just looked , cant recall that part# could of changed though !!  

 

[green69rt]

Just a question for now.  I took the front fender off and the splash shields that go between the wheel well and the door post.  Attached picture shows the new one in place for testing.  My question is does this shield have any gasket or sealant between it and the body of the fender??  If a gasket, does anybody know where to get them??

Thanks
Mitch

yeah got mine from yearone
http://www.yearone.com/serverfiles/part.asp?pid=SR2&c=0&e=0&cat=1&hid=120CT15405&trk=
been a few years since i orderd them just looked , cant recall that part# could of changed though !!  

Thanks, I'll call Y1 and see if I can get any more info.

Mitch

[green69rt]

More on the driver side rocker.

Since I now have the inner rocker replaced I feel I can cut out and replace the outer rocker.  It wasn't as bad of a job as I thought it would be.  Just took some patience and fitting up and taking down the new part about 20 times.  The new rocker from AMD fit real nice but it took a lot of triming and straighning of the old metal to get it to fit as well as I wanted.  The first picture shows the old rocker gone.  The second is the final fit up of the new metal.  The last picture shows the part welded in.  The white runs are where I coated the weld areas with weld through primer before welding.  I also coated the inside of the new inner rocker with POR15 before I closed the rocker up.  I also spent some time sanding and painting the inside of the rear window well with POR15 since I had the quarter cut off.

[green69rt]

More on the drive side rocker.  Finished!!

First picture is rocker installed and cleaned up.  Second picture shows rocker and also finished window well, no rust ever again!!  Third picture is the front rocker with the end cap

[green69rt]

Well It is now time to tackle the repair I've been putting off because it looked so messy and difficult, the passenger side hinge door post.  It looks pretty bad along with the inner kick panel and the rust has even gotten into a little of the firewall. First picture shows original condition of the kick panel (before I replaced the rocker.)  Second shows the outer post and its condition.  Third picture shows a patch on the outer section that someone had done in the past.  Fourth picture is another from the outside.  At this point I have started to cut away some of the worst of the rot and also cut away the front of the rocker.

[tan top]

Well It is now time to tackle the repair I've been puting of because it looked so messy and difficult, the passenger side hinge door post.  It looks pretty bad along with the inner kick panel and the rust has even gotten into a little of the firewall. First picture shows original condition of the kick panel (before I replaced the rocker.)  Second shows the outer post and its condition.  Third picture shows a patch on the outer section that someone had done in the past.  Fourth picture is another from the outside.  At this point I have started to cut away some of the worst of the rot and also cut away the front of the rocker.

thats time consuming to put right    anychance to cut a chunk out of another car & splice it in 

[green69rt]

Demo is done.  I've cut away all the rot and am down to good metal all around.  As I posted in previous posts the rocker is now 100%!.  It's amazing how little of the bottom of the post is left.  I spent time makeing sure the car was braced with 2x2 angle iron before I started cutting anything. 

[green69rt]

thats time consuming to put right    anychance to cut a chunk out of another car & splice it in  
[/quote]

Thought about it but the parts are so small that cutting the donor parts, preping and fitting did't seem like any faster than what I did, stand by.

[green69rt]

So I just took this step by step.  First the inner door post.  This is actually a lot of the strength, it's heavy gauge metal.  Looks to be 14 or maybe even 12 ga.  I took ann old piece of frame (from a previous demo) and used as the repair.  I also added a little weld material to the existing metal to add some strength since it was badly pitted.  Probably overkill but not a lot of work.

[green69rt]

I decided to do the kick panel next.  The first two pictures show the final product.  Biggest problem was how to fab the piece aroung the hole in the kick panel.  Third picture shows what I did.  I happened to have a firewall from a donor car (Picture shows my car not the donor, but you get the idea) and the hole the steering column goes through matches the profile of the kickpanel almost exactly.  Cut and paste!!

[green69rt]

And finally the outer door post.  First picture is of the part I had to fab.  It is made up of a bunch of curved pieces welded together.  Took me a whole day to make. The second and third picture shows part being fit up.  And the fourth is the final installed part.  Actually I took more pictures because I was so proud of this job.

[sardillim]

nice  work!!!!!

[goosesgarage]

good work its nice to know there are still people out there that will not take any shortcuts on sheet metal repair. Seen way to may cars full of bondo and undercoating

[tan top]

    ...........   nice work  .................

[green69rt]

Thanks for the comments and encouragement.  Now it's on to a small firewall repair and then the transmission cross member.

[dodgert68]

Just wanted to make a note of your use of POR15 as i see you really like it. Its a decent product for use on rusty metal but is terrible for clean unrusted metal, it won't adhear very well. I recently did a 69 Charger that had POR on some new rear whell tubs and i was able to blow it off the metal with a blow gun and high presure air. It would be better to paint the new repaired areas with a good quality epoxy primer and then as in the rocker panels coat the insides with a good undercoating. POR isn't cheap stuff and i hate to someone wasting money by improperly using a product. Looks like your doing a nice quality repair job keep up the good work.

[green69rt]

Just wanted to make a note of your use of POR15 as i see you really like it. Its a decent product for use on rusty metal but is terrible for clean unrusted metal, it won't adhear very well. I recently did a 69 Charger that had POR on some new rear whell tubs and i was able to blow it off the metal with a blow gun and high presure air. It would be better to paint the new repaired areas with a good quality epoxy primer and then as in the rocker panels coat the insides with a good undercoating. POR isn't cheap stuff and i hate to someone wasting money by improperly using a product. Looks like your doing a nice quality repair job keep up the good work.

I've heard the same thing, as you said, from others also.  So I asked around and found that by cleaning the metal with a Norton Stripper wheel I can clean the metal and also give the metal some "tooth" that makes the POR15 stick so well that I've not had any peeling problems.  In fact, if I need to get it off I've had to sand or use the same stripper wheel to get it off.  Some of the places have been coated for over two years and are holding up like new.   I did have a little problem when I first started using it just like you said but adding the "tooth" to the metal seems to have fixed it. Just as a final note, even though I'm using POR15 on all my new and old metal, I plan to blast the whole car when all the sheet metal work is done and then use a 2X epoxy primer.  For now the POR15 is keeping the rust at bay.

[green69rt]

I note on how I prepare metal for painting.  I use a Norton "Rapid Strip" wheel on an angle grinder (first picture.)  I use it to remove paint, rust, undercoating, seam sealer and anything else I can reach with it.  Cons are that it can't get into some corners and they are fairly expensive, about $6 apiece.  I've used 20-30 so far and will probably need 10 more to finish this job.  So figure 40 X $6 = $240 to strip and metal prep my car, maybe not so bad.

The other thing I have tried is a paint stripper wheel that mounts on a portable drill (second picture.)  I didn't like them because they didn't seem to do as good a job on rust and where harder to Maneuver.  Just my

[sardillim]

I also have used the por 15 on clean metal after prepping it with a 3M stripping wheel on a roloc tool.  Also I use a Metal etch solvent and have had no issues with peeling .


Keep it up  your going great!!!