Found Object

[ardiesse]

(This post was meant for yesterday, but when Microsoft decides it's going to load updates for the operating system, it cripples every other operational aspect of the computer, image upload included.  And there's nothing you can do about it.)

I reconditioned the driver's door hinge because I wanted to install the driver's door hinges because I wanted to swing the right hand doors because I wanted to check the panel fit because I wanted to re-attach the section of the division strip between the RHF and RHR doors that I removed to repair the B-pillar, about eighteen months ago.  Clear?

Right hand doors swung.  Actually, having the shell on a rotisserie helps.  One can stand the door on a saw-horse, then raise, lower, tilt the body until the parts align.



Yeesh.  It looked fine two years ago.  And now I think, "This is as rough as guts."  The rear edge of the driver's door, the one with a hastily repaired scrape, sat about 1/4" below the division strip, and I could stick my finger into the gap between the strip and the leading edge of the rear door.  Tap tap tap and the strip's centred.  Sort-of.  Then some work on the rear edge of the driver's door with Mister Hit (remnant bog fell out of the door frame), hammer and drift on the door frame to straighten bent metal, fence paling and Mister Hit on the stretched and welded part of the door skin, and the panel gaps are better.  "It's only a ratty . . ."

The piece of division strip sat proud of the B-pillar.  I didn't get the profile quite right, and needed to dress welds down until the strip sat properly in place.  Note Mister Hit in the door opening.



A day's work to align a small part.

Rob

[Errol62]

Que sera…


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[ardiesse]

I didn't mention that the door-swinging exercise was also in preparation for replacing the right hand sill.  I can't put it off any more.

I had read, probably on FB-EK, that problems had been reported with fitting reproduction sills.  They'd line up well at the front (for example), but sit out too far at the rear . . .

Automotive stylists are masters at deceiving the eye.  Thus, for example -

(i) Straight lines aren't.  Otherwise you end up with the Volvo 760.  And even it may not have one straight line anywhere.

(ii) Parallel lines aren't.  I discovered this the hard way when fabricating a repair for the bottom section of an HD rear door frame.

There's no such thing as a surface which curves in one dimension only.  Corollary of (i) and (ii) above.

I'd noticed, in repairing the left hand sill, that it is convex, rather than straight.  How much does it bow?  String -



OK, so that doesn't show up too well . . .

At the front -



The flash obscures the graduations.  It's about 10 mm.

At the rear -



Still can't make out the graduations.  About 9 mm from memory.  But another thing: the sill curves away quite quickly at the rear 250 mm or so.

I wonder if the reproduction sills are a straight, uniform pressing.  On inspection, no.  Fortunately.  They seem to be curved in profile about the same amount as the originals.

This is a "second-generation" Rare Spares replacement sill.  It is a much higher quality part than the previous ones.



Except for a few details, like the depth of the indents for the lower door returns.  OEM is (I'd guess) 5/16" everywhere.  The dimension in the front door opening is pretty much spot-on.  But in the rear door opening, it's way off.

Options:  Go to Rare Spares armed with a steel rule and ask to go through all their sills until I find one that matches factory dimensions . . .  Rework the rear door opening of the one I have.  It'll take making profiles from hardwood . . .  Join the replacement to the body at the outside corner below the rear door.  Shrinkage?

Undecided.

Rob

[Errol62]

Or weld up the rear doors and make a coupe. Alluding to the fact that I’ve only done sills on a van, with front doors hung and missing rear lower quarters, which I set to fit the sills.


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[Errol62]

One mark one and one mark two rare spares products.


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[Harv]

Options:  Go to Rare Spares armed with a steel rule and ask to go through all their sills until I find one that matches factory dimensions . . . 

Now that Prospect Rares is shut  , where is our nearest actual Rares store?

Cheers,
Harv

[grey nomad]

Isn’t Repco doing Rares stuff now     AL.

[ardiesse]

Yes, Repco has taken over Rare Spares.  You could, if you're brave, go to your local Repco outlet, and order from the Rare Spares catalogue.  But I remember the last time I went to Repco for a grey motor head gasket . . .

Rumour has it that Rare Spares has now opened a flash new outlet at St Martins Crescent, Blacktown, near the hospital.  The street directory tells me that it's about a km further north up the Prospect Highway.

Rob

[Harv]

Ah. Some Googling shows a fancy red shop near my friends at the RMS. That shopping centre once had a Robbo's auto in it that were not too bad for parts. Shame the Bunnings there closed shop, or I could have done all my errands at once 

Cheers,
Harv

[ardiesse]

So . . . Option 2 (rework the rear door opening to get the profile right) ended in abject failure.  I made a hardwood form, but might as well have been blowing through a straw for all the effect that hammering made.

After that encouraging discovery, I fiddled around at both ends of the right hand sill.

I added the drain slot at the rear and put in the slight upsweep that's needed at the rear of the inner sill.



And then I dug through all the rusty offcuts until I found the front six inches of the RH outer sill.  I placed it on the repaired cowl, and then needed to massage the cowl's profile quite a bit to make the offcut line up.  And then the offcut, being rusty, required repair work of its own.  OK, so why re-use a rusty section when I have an entire replacement?



Habit.  I'm only going to use the very top bit, but when it's in place, the reference location for the entire sill is established.  And I did it this way on my "other" FC.

To sum up: I've had twelve consecutive days working on "Found Object", and still haven't replaced the RH outer sill.  But I have a fairly good idea of how to do it, now.

Rob

[Errol62]

I found that once I had the inner sills in place indexed to the rear chassis rails ends, floor seam and a-pillar bottom, the rares outer sat on them just right. I think my b-pillar bottoms were mostly air but donor ones I grafted in fit nicely. With four door cars you leave the b-pillar floating until you have the doors on then get it all to line up with the new outer sill.


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[ardiesse]

It was raining, so I replaced the busted door hinge springs in the LHF upper door hinge.  It's important to make certain that both holes in the hinge body are interference-fits for the hinge pin, otherwise the hinge tongue ends up with end float, which translates into up-and-down movement.  I got it right on the third attempt.

And the weather mocked me.  There was a short clear period which turned rainy because (i) there was washing on the line, and (ii) I decided to get out with the welder.  Nonetheless, I welded in the front six inches of the old RH outer sill:



And on Friday, I went to the flash new Rare Spares outlet in Blacktown, and amongst other things, got a LHR floor pan.  The floor pan will be a story in itself.

Rob

[Errol62]

Did you paint the floor rob?


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[ardiesse]

Yes.  It's a bit jarring on the eyes.  Rust-Guard red oxide primer from Bunnings.  I find that it tolerates being welded quite well (yes, you do have to clean the paint off the weld site).

Rob

[ardiesse]

First attempt at fitting the RH outer sill.  I cut the remains of the old sill off, then marked up and cut the new one.  As usual, the closer it gets to position, the worse it fits . . .



Rob

[ardiesse]

I'd better make it look like I've done something.



The RH outer sill, held in place with self-tapping screws (and a G-clamp).  The inside of the inner sill is red-oxide-primed and matt-black painted.  I'll prime and paint the inside of the outer sill when it's ready to weld in place.

But first, I want to swing the RH doors.  And mount the front subframe.  And fit the RHF guard.  Just to check alignment and adjust gaps if needed.  I'm probably being way too cautious.  Who cares?

Rob

[Errol62]

Well it does look like ou have done some work there Rob. Reassuring to bolt things up and get them fitting. Then you put the car back on its wheels and do it all again of course.

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[ardiesse]

Call me Brontes.  Or Sterope.  Or Arges.



So I've spent the weekend fiddling.  The subframe's back on.  The right side doors are on.  The driver's side striker plate was way out of alignment, and now the driver's door closes better.  The subframe bolt hole in the replacement outer sill wasn't that bad, all things considered.  It was only offset by half its diameter; nothing a round file couldn't fix.  With the subframe bolt installed, I tapped the metal at the front of the sill down until it conformed to the shape of the body.

Then the RHF guard didn't sit all the way in at the bottom, so there were a few off-and-on cycles to remove metal until it sat down.  It still sits a few millimetres proud of the driver's door and the sill, though.  Scope-creep makes another appearance.  I wasn't concerned about panel fit when I repaired the RHF guard, and what looked OK a couple of years ago now doesn't.  I could, if I wanted, slit the return at the back edge of the RHF guard, tap the profile into alignment, and weld it up shut again.

I played around with the removed section of B-pillar division strip until it fitted; then decided that welding it back in place would be tomorrow's job.

So then I fiddled with the rearmost part of the RH outer sill.  A couple of slits, and some hammer-and-dolly work:



Don't be fooled by the abrupt angle at the inner edge of the wheel arch.  That'll get trimmed back to profile.

The astute observer will note that I still haven't welded the sill into place yet.  Patience . . .

Rob

[ardiesse]

I made the RHF guard align better with the driver's door and sill.  It was mainly a case of tapping the cowl panel down a bit (in the right spots), but I slit the return behind the repair and opened up part of the weld.  Then I used a piece of fence paling and Mister Hit and gently pushed the back of the guard inwards.  It's not perfect, but lines up better than it did.



And then I ground a little here and there, adjusted the profile inside the driver's door opening, beat the reveal line at the very front of the sill out to match the guard's profile, welded up the cut, filled in the offset part of the subframe bolt hole, and checked the fit yet again . . .

. . . and pronounced it good to go.  So I sanded the inside of the sill and put on a coat of red oxide primer.

Rob

[ardiesse]

The RH sill is now on.  There it will stay.



And yea verily, there was much rejoicing.

The job takes as long as it takes.  If you rush, it takes longer.  It took me eight hours, give or take, just to weld the sill in place.

Rob