# Order of Operations & Body Questions (A Pile of Them)



## Wob (Dec 2, 2010)

I know, I know...these have been asked a million ways but clarity or ego "knows" my situation is slightly different and must be handled uniquely. :lol:

Finished my frame on 65 Tempest Custom Coupe and started the body work. 

*Background:*
-My pax side 1/4 is wrinkled like a balled up shirt and will getting replaced with a new skin. It was hit and near a fire and has some rust holes so its done.
-My outer and inner rockers on the pax were hit at some point too. The outer is denty and likley could be saved except they welded it to the fender and then put a nice long bead welding it to the 1/4 as well. So figure its time for an outer if i am doing the 1/4 anyway. The inner has a small rot hole about the size of a quarter which I will patch and has a bead that the repairman so brilliantly seam welded to the outer alllll the way down the inner/outer.
-My floor braces are good and actually MOST of my floors are solid. Some rust holes above the middle brace and some pin holes and dime sized holes other places. But from the crunch on the pax side at some point the floor is wrinkley at the door and near the "rear inner door" and it will annoy me. So I am going do a front, middle and rear floor on the pax side and a front and middle patch only on the drivers side. 
-My trunk is pinholey and I am going to do a 3 piece floor on it. I know a 1 one piece would be easier but between cost and the fact I am doing a 1/4 skin and not a full its still a pain and I imagine would need to be chopped up. Plus I may be able to minimize the use of the pan and only use parts of it. I will need to replace the drop off on the pax side though. 

*Question #1*
-What order would you do this in?? I have been scratching my head and came up with the following:
1 - lower the car back onto the frame and bolt it down everywhere except the middle trunk pan bolts
2 - brace the door frames and brace across the car
3 - cut out the 1/4
4 - cut out the outer rocker
5 - patch the inner rocker
6 - cut out the floor sections and replace
7 - install pax door and replace the outer rocker 
8 - replace the 1/4
9 - cut our trunk floor
10 - replace the trunk floor and trunk drop off
11 - smile or set car on fire (depending)

Does this order make sense? I am scared to cut away too much structure and then have massive twist or door gaps etc. Since the pax side is already tweaked a bit its not super useful measuring door gaps etc for me.

Seems like it would be a good idea to have the 1/4, rocker and floors etc in hand before I start cutting or is there a good guideline to follow that its not really needed?

*Question #2*

My drivers side 1/4 has some small dents on the bottom near the door. I feel the urge to buy a stud welder for my trim studs and then i could use it to pull the dents from that I would assume. the only other way seems like you would have to cut the "rear inner door" out and hammer and dolly it? Any advice?

*Question #3*
My trunk locked was pried out at some time. I know my trunk lid fit and its virtually rust free and I would like to use it but that area around the lock is a bit janky. Any advice on how to get that right?

*Question #4*
My roof since it was near a fire is denty and oilcanny in spots. Was going to try the method of heat and wet rag to solve oil canning. I have a dent near the body line at the rear of the roof and on the pax side near the drop off towards the rain rail. I cant get to it with a hammer unless I cut out the inner roof behind it. Advice? I also have a sagged cross brace (the one the dome light mounts to). Was thinking about cutting it out at the spot welds and trying to re bend it a bit. the front to back brace should sit flush on the roof and the side to side should sit flush on the other correct?

*Question #5*
Cut off pax side and drive half of a car?

Pics are here: TempestCustomResto's Library | Photobucket

Earlier pics are assembled, middle after sand blasting, later are more frame pics. 

Thanks
Rob
There are pic


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## Wob (Dec 2, 2010)

As a fun update second to this process, what I thought was a small patch on the drivers side inner rocker turns out to massive rot of the structure behind it. :lol: I like this repair much better than the windshield channel stuff though. Beefy and satisfying welds.

End off topic rant


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## Instg8ter (Sep 28, 2010)

sounds like a plan, yes get your panels in before you start whacking away at it, you WILL most likely have fitment issues especially with repops and you will want to know how much meat you have to work with on the panels. once all your metal work is ground down put a few coats of epoxy primer over it to inhibit rust and provide a good base for your fillers. That roof is gonna be a biatch, my daughters ex sandblasted the inner frame of my hood and got a bit overzealous and did the skin on the inside too. Warped between every frame rail. He was so proud of how clean he got the inner hood, if i had'nt already had plans of eventually getting a GTO hood things might have gotten ugly. Two weeks getting the hood back to flat, now with a few seasons on the road the heat cycles are causing the warps to come back. Have a GTO hood i got cheap because someone pried the catch pin hole like a sardine can. Sending it to my body guy next week to get the patch welded in and have it painted. Keep up the pics on the work and don't get discouraged, it will all be worth it when you see that paint go on a fresh straight body.


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## Wob (Dec 2, 2010)

Thanks man - as alwasy you are a big help. I owe you like a brewery worth of beer at this point.


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## Too Many Projects (Nov 15, 2008)

I might be a bit late responding to this, but I would leave the 1/4 intact for strength and remove the right rocker and floor sections that you want to replace. If the floor pan is still wrinkled, the rockers are bowed too. I would have a full inner rocker ready also and cut out as much of the welded, rusty original as possible. Once I had the floor and rockers straight and strong, then I would remove the 1/4. Look at the wheel opening lip. If that is rusted away on the quarter, it's most likely gone from the inner wheel housing too. You may need to have that on hand to section in.


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## Wob (Dec 2, 2010)

Thanks Mitch. Its not too late - I put the body back on the frame this weekend and successfully got rid of the oil canning on the roof!!! What a relief!

How do you weld the top of the outer rocker in place with the quarter there? 
Moreover, my quarter is bowed ina little at the rocker and they are welded togther. If you do rocker first, what is a good method to know that your rocker and new quarter will be plumb and aligned? Meaning if I install the rocker then I do the quarter how wil I know the rocker is straight since the quarter is not....?


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## Too Many Projects (Nov 15, 2008)

I would work off the rocker for alignment and ignore the bow in the quarter for now. Just tack weld the rocker to the floor pan for now to allow adjustment later. The rocker is spot welded to the quarter and you can duplicate that inside the inner structure by drilling holes in the quarter before final placement and plug welding to the rocker. It may be necessary to obtain a donor door pillar for the quarter skin to attach too to have a straight, true piece to work with. That's a tough area to guess what is right when the pillar is bent too. If you can't find one from a coupe, I would think one from a hardtop would be enough to get up to the window channel and eliminate most, if not all, of the bowed pillar. Again, tack weld enough to hold it and test fit the door and rocker alignment. Once that looks good, go ahead and cut out the quarter and start fitting that to the new pillar and rocker. Even if you are off a little from factory, by aligning them all together, it will look good.


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## Wob (Dec 2, 2010)

Great advice. Thanks. 

OPGI is a short ride away, I am waiting until they get the 1/4 and a floor piece in stock at the end of the month and taking a ride down there so I have a little time to still tweak plans.


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