Starting Reassembly

Only had one day with time available to work this week, unfortunately today the outside temp never got above 10 degrees!  Ray's furnace does a pretty good job, got the shop up to 60 degrees in about an hour.  No one had cleaned the snow for me either:

Oh well.

Today was some cleanup from the completed welding and then begin installing the front fenders.  Both fenders are in place with all bolts installed but most of them loose.  Here's how the front door gaps look in this condition:

I am pleased with the gaps.  I then laid the hood in place to make sure it's a good fit, this is not the original hood although it is aluminum like other early cars.  I think the hood fit is also going to be just fine:

Hood is just laid in place but I can tell once the hinge screws are in we will be able to get very nice gaps here too.

Welding Complete!

Today was a major milestone.  Our welder, Nick, has completed his tasks!  And I am very pleased with his work.

The driver's side rocker panel had to have a patch piece put in to bridge from the top rear of the rocker to the rear fender.  This turns out very well:

Nick then welded the rest of the rocker in place both top and bottom.  Then he went back to both sides and did the last step on rocker welding - welding the filler pieces we fabricated to the original rails at the sides.  Here's some views of these pieces.

Drivers side, front then rear:

Passenger side, front then rear:

After application of undercoating the prior gaping openings behind the rockers will be completely enclosed and look like when the car was new.

Two other minor weld jobs - driver's side door "crack of doom" (backed up by extra metal like other side):

And then the trunk latch retainer:

I also got the rubber pieces installed on the front splash panels that are under the front fenders:

I've had the front fenders on/off several times checking alignment and gaps.  I am really glad we left the doors in place so we could manage door gaps when installing rockers. 

Time to now install all major body panels (front fenders, hood, and trunk lid) to make sure of good gaps and complete the body filler process.