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PAGE 33

Thursday 9/9/04 - Saturday 9/11/04

Passenger jamb icon
12.5 hours

I'm in a bragging mood today!

Door jamb before welding 1 Door jamb before welding 2
Door jamb cut with dime gap

This is the passenger side door jamb.

I cut the length of it from top to bottom once again leaving a dime sized gap for welding.

Then I slowly placed tack welds every few inches, then going back and filling in between welds,

I was a little more aggressive in my welding here due to the stiffness of the work hardened metal. I wasn't quite as concerned about warpage.

Here's where I start bragging!

the two photos below are after a very careful grinding of the welds.

The seam is invisible! I'm so amazed I could do this. It's way out of my ability!

Invisible seam 1 Invisible seam 2

I then plug welded the C pillar support shown to the right.

C pillar support plug welded
Passenger jamb icon
Rear of quarter plug welded 1 Rear of quarter plug welded 2

I moved to the rear and plug welded the rear of the quarter.

It's all one piece now! Just as good as when it left GM.

Door gap problem 1 Door gap problem 2

Once again reality reared it's ugly head to show me who's boss.

The door gap at the rear was very wrong and the rocker clearance at the front was way too tight.

Time to sit back and think a bit.

Bad door gap

Yuchh!

Gap fixed 1 Gap fixed 2

By pushing up slightly on the rear quarter and lowering the rocker I was able to achieve a very nice gap. Well within the factory specs.

Incidentally, both the quarter and rocker were flanged to allow the two parts to slide one inside the other. This just wouldn't work or fit. I decided to butt weld this area as well.

Using sticks, strings, straight edges and the good old eyeball I verified it was all straight and true.

Verified straight and true
Tack welds quarter to rocker 1 Tack welds quarter to rocker 2

As before I filled the gap with tack welds and slowly filled in the gaps.

Passenger jamb 2 icon
A pillar attachment point 1 A pillar attachment point ugly

Here is the A pillar attachment point. As you can see i had one heck of a time finding all the spot welds holding her together.

The picture on the right looks UGLY!

Let me grab a grinder and get things cleaned up.

A pillar cleaned up 1 A pillar cleaned up 2

Much better!

Passenger jamb icon

Now on the the lower portion of the B pillar.

Shown here is a replacement part. I'll only be needing and using the lower portion of it.

B pillar replacement part
Replacement part cut 1 Replacement part cut 2

Another expensive part cut in two! I've got to quit doing this.

Lower B pillar cut out 1 Lower B pillar cut out 2

Then the lower portion of the B pillar was cut out leaving a very healthy margin of overlap compared to the new part.

I'm out of time this weekend.

Come back soon and see how it goes.

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