It is. But you already drastically increase the strength by directly welding the intermediate rocker directly to the inner sill.
72 3.0 CS 2240344 Restoration
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This pic, right? I was over at the car today,and that seemed to be the simple solution.
So, I have now exposed the entire rocker from front to back. The A-pillar rust is not too bad, lighter than the B-Pillar. There was a remarkable amount of crud between the A-Pillar and the fender liner.. 50K+ miles of road grime...
Overall, I am pretty pleased that the rust is not far worse, and happy that I decided to open it all up and clean/treat and paint everything. On @eriknetherlands suggestion I ordered some Euro Pax welding primer and some panel adhesive, and I'll spend the next week or so cleaning the rust off and getting everything ready for paint and welding. Also ordered the front fender patches, jacking cups and right side rocker cover from Walloth, so after a few hundred $ in damn tariffs, I'll be all set to rock and roll with re-assembly. I plan to do one side at a time..
B-Pillar:
Intermediate Rocker Beam (pretty much looks like this everywhere)
A-Pillar
And a shot of the whole thing:
Overall, I am pretty pleased that the rust is not far worse, and happy that I decided to open it all up and clean/treat and paint everything. On @eriknetherlands suggestion I ordered some Euro Pax welding primer and some panel adhesive, and I'll spend the next week or so cleaning the rust off and getting everything ready for paint and welding. Also ordered the front fender patches, jacking cups and right side rocker cover from Walloth, so after a few hundred $ in damn tariffs, I'll be all set to rock and roll with re-assembly. I plan to do one side at a time..
B-Pillar:
Intermediate Rocker Beam (pretty much looks like this everywhere)
A-Pillar
And a shot of the whole thing:
And since I was over at the car, here is my new Don Lawrence M90 motor...
We are all jealous of that engine...
yeah buddy ... gotta love that engine. i've got something very similar sitting in my coupe from maestro Don.
Yeah, it was a bit extravagant, but this is the last car I am likely to build (ummm, unless an Alfa GTV or a Lotus Cortina happen to pass by my purview), and I LOVE the way my M90 powered 635 drives.. Should be a blast with triple DCOEs and Stahl headers... My only real dilemma is what final drive ratio to use...The 635 is a 3.07 mated with a 265/6 Od trans. VERY VERY long legged car (35-40 mph in 1st, cant get into 5th below about 80)..Seems a bit much for an E9.. so maybe 3.45?
Spent an hour or so at Don's shop a couple of weeks ago. Amazing array of coupe-ness!! and a super nice guy. We seem to have lived rather parallel paths early in life. Lived in the same area, attended the same university.. Fun sharing old stories and learning some new ones. Anyway, super pleased to have met Don in person, and acquired this little beast, and will do my best to create a car worthy of it.
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A 3:45 goes very well with the 265/6, it is my favorite.
So related question. Since I am using an M90 engine, and a 265 gearbox, I assume I can use a later style bell housing and clutch slave, but I can just connect that the the clutch master in the car, right?
Yes, 74 and later bell housing
I made a template for the cut rear section of the rocker cover, and carefully trimmed the replacement cover. I cut it slightly "fat" so I can get a good close fit. That all worked well and the piece will only require about 1-2 mm of finessing for a perfect fit in the rear.
I still need to blast the existing parts and paint, etc before actually welding it into place, so I am a couple of weeks away from the formal install.
I have a couple of questions though.
I still need to blast the existing parts and paint, etc before actually welding it into place, so I am a couple of weeks away from the formal install.
I have a couple of questions though.
- In the rear, the rocker cover has an extended end that reaches past the lip of the wheel arch. Does that get bent over the arc edge like a door skin, or is it left long, covered by the rear quarter panel?
- The rocker cover is cut away at the B-Pillar. Most of this cutaway sits behind the rear quarter panel, but there is a section right at the aft end of the door opening where the quarter panel, B-pillar and rover covering all come together. This was not welded shut on my car, but instead seemed to have a couple of tack welds and some fill material (seam sealer? lead? ) I am wondering what the best way to assemble this is. Seems like an easy entry point for water if it is not somehow sealed. Here is the general location:
day66
Well-Known Member
Here's a picture of mine - the other side - but hope it assists.
1. The rear of the rocker/sill panel is left as is, and as you suspect is rear part is ultimately covered by the replacement panel for the bottom of the quarter panel.
2. I agree there's not much holding the panel together just under the trailing edge of the door - from memory I just put a couple of tack welds here and filed the gap with seam sealer once all the welding was done, though I think the door step trim and outer cover will in practice tend to keep water away from this point when fitted.
As it happens, you can also see the extra hole I'd drilled to help with rustproofing! Oh, and I also welded the central membrane to the innermost section as Erik suggested/demonstrated above, it seems a good way of adding some strength for very little effort.
1. The rear of the rocker/sill panel is left as is, and as you suspect is rear part is ultimately covered by the replacement panel for the bottom of the quarter panel.
2. I agree there's not much holding the panel together just under the trailing edge of the door - from memory I just put a couple of tack welds here and filed the gap with seam sealer once all the welding was done, though I think the door step trim and outer cover will in practice tend to keep water away from this point when fitted.
As it happens, you can also see the extra hole I'd drilled to help with rustproofing! Oh, and I also welded the central membrane to the innermost section as Erik suggested/demonstrated above, it seems a good way of adding some strength for very little effort.
Here's how i fitted the panels.
If i understand you question correctly, it is this part that your interested in: :
Here's the outer sill, 3rd layer of the left side of the car. Left is under the door, right side of the pic is toward the rear wheel. (the 2 oblong holes here is an Erik idea to prevent water pooling in this corner)
Here is the same point on the car (left hand side), but now with the QP repair panel in place looking to the rear. Note how flush (at my hand with ruler) the QP panel sits? The QP has a 90 degree edge coming from Walloth&Neesh, which I ground down at the bottom to let the QP panel sit flush with the part under the door. Easy going 0,5 mm trial and error fitting. 20 times to get it right (enough for me).
in this pic you can see how i trimmed the leading edge, on the bottom, of the QP. It just has a 2 or 3mm edge left that is in a 90 degree contact to the outer sill. Towards the top of the QP panel, the flange still needs to be folded over to 180 degrees, but that happened later on.
the opening that you mention in your point 2 indeed exists. here it is in my car with the panels in place. On final assembly, I glued a few of the joints that I didn't want to weld, and i glued this edge shut as well: left side of pic, you can see bare metal with black glue (almost not visible, as it's black glue in a tight gap)
In the front of the outer sill I closed it as well with glue:
end of sill looks like this:
Topic form a few posts back:
Here's an option to be able to inject wax into the rear end of the sill. as there are up to 7 layers of steel in some places, i though it would be good to create this opening that is accessible when lifting the rear seats. The point of the pencil is sticking into the underside of the rear seat cushions. It'll be covered with the original 20mm white plugs. Not original, but an improvement in my view.
If i understand you question correctly, it is this part that your interested in: :
Here's the outer sill, 3rd layer of the left side of the car. Left is under the door, right side of the pic is toward the rear wheel. (the 2 oblong holes here is an Erik idea to prevent water pooling in this corner)
Here is the same point on the car (left hand side), but now with the QP repair panel in place looking to the rear. Note how flush (at my hand with ruler) the QP panel sits? The QP has a 90 degree edge coming from Walloth&Neesh, which I ground down at the bottom to let the QP panel sit flush with the part under the door. Easy going 0,5 mm trial and error fitting. 20 times to get it right (enough for me).
in this pic you can see how i trimmed the leading edge, on the bottom, of the QP. It just has a 2 or 3mm edge left that is in a 90 degree contact to the outer sill. Towards the top of the QP panel, the flange still needs to be folded over to 180 degrees, but that happened later on.
the opening that you mention in your point 2 indeed exists. here it is in my car with the panels in place. On final assembly, I glued a few of the joints that I didn't want to weld, and i glued this edge shut as well: left side of pic, you can see bare metal with black glue (almost not visible, as it's black glue in a tight gap)
In the front of the outer sill I closed it as well with glue:
end of sill looks like this:
Topic form a few posts back:
Here's an option to be able to inject wax into the rear end of the sill. as there are up to 7 layers of steel in some places, i though it would be good to create this opening that is accessible when lifting the rear seats. The point of the pencil is sticking into the underside of the rear seat cushions. It'll be covered with the original 20mm white plugs. Not original, but an improvement in my view.
well, i used glue to seal it, as i already had it on hand for that panel. But as my car had the outer sill replaced already at one point in it's life, I can't comment on how it originally was closed. I'm guessing one or two tack welds for strength, and then a copious amount of seam sealer?
Anyone ever pulled apart an original condition car and can remember / confirm / have a picture prior to disassembly? I'm guessing that survivor bodies that get sandblasted or dipped will show that seam quite well in side view pictures.
I don't think my rockers have ever been off the car.
There was a small weld at the top of the joint, where the quarter panel first meets the rocker cover, and another at the bottom, just above the spot weld ridge. it seemed like there was either seam sealer or maybe lead in the top joint between the B-pillar and the rocker cover, and seam sealer inthe side joint between the rocker cover and the quarter panel. Similar up front at the A-Pillar.
I'll strip the paint off as best I can on the driver side when I do that, and take photos.