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PAGE 17
Saturday 1/24/04-Sunday 1/25/04
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14.0 hours |
I 'm basically starting this weekend at the very same spot I was in last Saturday.
The doors will not close. They hang too low at the rear and hit the lower rockers.
I need to determine where the problem is. My gut tells me that the rear quarters are welded in too high when I installed the B pillar supports and welded the inner rear quarters to the floor.
I asked my brother Dan to come over and give me his opinion. He's a body man and has a lot of experience.
We looked at it for a long time.....
I tried again to shim the body mounts, I tried to muscle the body into submission, I tried praying!
Nothing worked satisfactorily.
We concluded that the frame must not be true. That is was possibly bowed up at the floor mount at the rear seat or the tail end of it was hanging too low.
Well the best way to find out if it's the frame is to yank it back out from under the old girl.
I wasn't expecting to do this again so soon.
The frame was measured every way possible .
According to the service manual specs it's close enough.
This is not my problem with the door adjustment.
I decided this time I bolted the frame to the body I was going to use some wood in place of the body rubber mounts.
I wanted the body to be securely mounted to the frame without any give. This should eliminate any discrepancies in the rubber mounts or the difference due to some being tightened more than others.
A piece of 1 inch pine sacrificed itself for the good of the project.
I drew a grid of 1 1/2 inch squares, drilled 1/2 inch holes in the center then cut them out.
Here are a couple of my wood mounts sitting in place on the frame. I think I'll bronze them when I'm done.
The frame was AGAIN slid under the body and bolted back in place. The photo on the right shows the passenger front and toe mounts in place.
Ok, so now I'm back to square one. Three days completely wasted trying to avoid the obvious solution.
What a waste of time. I thought seriously about putting an ad up for a junk 57 Chevy that was beyond help. I was so fed up with this problem.
The only way to fix this is to cut out my welds and reposition the rear inner quarters down farther on the floor pan.
I drilled out my welds along the floor pan between the two red lines on the left picture, and I cut the lower portion of the B pillar brace and the support strap on the rear seat riser.
This freed the forward portion of the rear quarter to move.
I placed a floor jack under the rear of the quarter and jacked it up. This brought the forward portion down.
I brought it about 1/2 inch below what I wanted to allow for some deflection back to where it was.
It worked perfectly.
I did the same thing on the passenger side.
I TACKED the metal in place. I'll weld it permanently later when I know it's all going to work.
Things really worked out too well, it's got me scared.
My trunk floor to rear support looks right on...
The rear quarter also measure the same from the floor.
Even the level says it's all even..
Let me get this straight, the doors close properly, the rear quarters are in the right place and the trunk pan is where it's supposed to be?
I just don't buy it! Something must be wrong here.
Well if it all still looks OK next weekend I'll get moving forward again and get some trunk work done.
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