Sheetmetal gurus help me get started

[soundcontrol]

Nice job! Makes me wanna go back to mine and do the passenger side, haven't touched it in 2 years now.

[Jocigar]

Thanks for help Jimynick       

The outer edge at back is worse area.   I need to fit quarter better (dutchman gap) but I think I will need to slice and extended  wheelhouse lip area by 1/2" to meet qtr lip.

I looked at bottom door gap and it is even throughout.  however, the gap is large at 7/16 (11mm)... not sure if that is normal.
 
Before removing original qtr I made sure body lines matched and door edge gap was even.   I didn't account for door glass weight, that gets adjusted I guess as you mentioned.

General question: Did wheel tubs have undercoating from factory ?   also the center seam of outer and inner gets sealer, did they seal entire wide flanged area  or just at bevel edge where they meet ?   

[HP_Cuda]

You need to pull those quarters in. I know its a complete pain but in the end it's all worth it.

Think of it like a giant jigsaw puzzle with very finite pieces that need to go together. 

Most times folks like to set the dutchman first if they know it's solid. Meaning they will weld in cross members if they know the dutchman is correct before removing. This will ensure that you have a known good point to start from. Otherwise it's a huge amount of massaging to do.

Looking good though, keep up the great work!!!

[soundcontrol]

My bottom door gap is equal to yours, and there is no way to adjust my door to make it smaller, body line would be off. I looked at some other Challengers and it's wide on every car I've seen. Only way I see to make it smaller is to add metal to the door, but I'm not gonna do that.

[jimynick]

"Only way I see to make it smaller is to add metal to the door, but I'm not gonna do that." LOL! That's what I said initially, too! You could shove your fingers under the door between it and the rocker. Eventually I got sick of the lousy oem fit and welded a 3/16" rod to the bottom edge and filled/ground it to shape. If you take your time andd watch your heat, it's not a horrible job, but it IS a PITA that it needs to be done. When you see a show quality Ebody with 3/16ths gaps, take off your hat to the welder who made it happen! Joe, you may need to get ahold of a couple of pieces of say, 3/4" steel in about an 1/8th thickness and use them as clamps against the flanges of the 1/4 and upr body panel to pull them together without simply warping the flanges. A small mig spot or two between them can hold enough to allow you to wrestle with obtaining a fit and if required they can be easily slit with an angle grinder. I'd go for pulling the upr pnl and two 1/4's together in the best fit you can obtain and then screw, Cleco, spot weld them to hold, while you tackle those SOB's the inner/outer whlhses. If it's ANY consolation, your 1/4 to whlhse fit looks like mine did and it'll likely never be perfect, but you can bludgeon them into submission- usually. The upr panel/1/4 seams are the usual place where these cars developed a leak, which piddles into the trunk area and rots with abandon, and while you can spot weld and seam seal them, I said FI! and brazed them full and covered them over. The chalk mark boys will have a conniption, but who cares! No more leaky seams, yea! Roll on laddie! 

[Jocigar]

Thanks guys, this car had rocker gills so maybe the lower gap will not be so pronounced once they are installed.

I'm wrestling the quarter trying to close the dutchman gap, at the same time i don't want to dent the panel with open calm hits or bear hugs.   I do have duck-bill visegrips on dutchman to qtr flange.    I bought two more wide mouth clamps the other day thinking that would be enough        I'm thinking about welding an open-hole tab on QTR windshield lip so i can pull qtr with ratchet and strap secured to opposite side.   

I'm still on first install of quarter, I know it has to come off for some hammer dolly work on edges for starters.  I'll report back 

[soundcontrol]

Oh no... @jimynick , now you got me thinking about it and triggered my OCD!   

[jimynick]

Oh no... @jimynick , now you got me thinking about it and triggered my OCD!   

LOL! You'll be ok laddie. I've got faith in you!

[johnr]

     Myself, I believe in the "Three P's" !    Patience, Persistence & Perseverance.    Most definitely a winning recipe.

[anlauto]

    Myself, I believe in the "Three P's" !    Patience, Persistence & Perseverance.    Most definitely a winning recipe.

What about "ahh..piss on it" ?

[jimynick]

    Myself, I believe in the "Three P's" !    Patience, Persistence & Perseverance.    Most definitely a winning recipe.

Make that the "Four P's" you forgot the most important one- PESOS! LOL 

[Jocigar]

As an update, the quarter has been off about six times now 

I had to cut-bend-weld near gutter to follow trunk lid curve and close the gap.   Also had to re-bend the entire lower lip at rocker, it was off by 1/2".   

I still have a gap at dutchman that i cant pull closed by hand or vise, that is most frustrating.

I came up with a ratchet strap method but I am afraid to put too much pressure on it and crease upper edge of quarter.   it did work on pulling and closing gap with moderate pressure, maybe a wider strap would do better to spread out the pressure.

2-3 hours every other night as can be afforded= patience, persistence, faith AND the urge to piss on it and forget it    for some reason I keep going back... 

[jimynick]

Photo #1 makes me wonder if part of your problem isn't the upr bdy pnl rather than the 1/4. What it looks like, as per photos, is that the strain to pull the two together, is unrolling the sharp edges of the panels. If you can find a piece of sharp, straight, 3-4" clean edged steel of say 1/2" thickness, you could try to hammer form their edges sharper and more vertical which would help in pulling them together in a closed fashion. As per also your pics, the bottom of the flanges seem to be tight, it's just when they extend upward that they diverge. Is that correct? A wide cold chisel can also be a friend when trying to re-define a sharp edge, but be gentle with it's application. Overlapping, gentle applications of Brer Chisel will make your life easier when it comes to dressing out any wayward marks. You're getting there, don't give up! You're going to win!   

[Jocigar]

I measured the dutchman and its the same length as original but I will try and sharpen the edges.

If I want to make sure the height of truck lid matches the dutchman and quarter, do I just lay the truck lid down or would the gasket make a height difference, or can lid height be adjusted ?  I'm going to have to dig out the old trunk gasket if I can find it.

also, I wonder it anyone lightly heats the entire qtr panel when mounted to de-stress the metal.   Maybe I'm getting too scientific with that.

thanks

[Jocigar]

All,

I removed and replaced rocker using sheetmetal screws for now.

After install I noticed that the rocker lip leaves the bottom door edge starting at center point of door.

The issue is that the AMD rocker is 1/4" short at the front lip, and that line carries half way though the door opening.   

With all that work done, it looks like I have to cut and slice a 20" long strip on the door lip of the new rocker anyway, expand it to 1" wide at front, and then weld up the gap.       

Any suggestions?  I replaced original so as not to be Half*** by cutting and grafting in new sections on original rocker, and now it looks like I will be cutting a welding anyway.