Outer rocker panel fitting...

[mungus]

So the rear valance is sorted. Thanks all.

Now onto my passenger side (RHS) outer rocker panel.
My car suffered quite a bit of shipping damage (some here know the story, and the "agent"...).
One thing was someone in NJ put a forklift's forks into my RHS outer rocker panel.
Shame as it wasn't very rusty, just had a small rust repair in the wheelhouse end.
However with 2 decent sized dents, plus a nice shallow dent where he scrapped the forks sideways (yup he was a real winner this bloke), I decided it would be better to replace it.
So off came the old, inner rocker faces prepped and new outer rocker ordered...

However, it doesn't fit at all well. Brand wise theres nothing on it except made in Taiwan. The wiring channel is maybe 1/4" too wide along the whole length, and it seems a bit high (like it wasn't squashed enough when pressed). I think it might be slightly too long as well.

Google showed a few other folk have had similar issues, including some negative reviews at CJ's Pony Parts.

So does anyone here have experience with this problem? I'm used to fettling repop stuff a bit, but this one seems just plain wrong. All I can guess for a fix is to find a sheet metal shop with long set of folders etc, ask them to flatten the inside flange, and re-bend it 1/4" further in. Doing it by hand using heat and hammer won't make for a factory looking result and would take ages. Length wise - perhaps fit the front (so it aligns with the door's leading edge), then trim off the rear curve and MIG the wheel house flange back on?

Any clues? Anyone done this fix before?

OR does someone know of a new shipment or brand of outer rocker panel that does fit reasonably well out of the box? Perhaps its best that I just cut my losses before I cut metal, and sell mine on on eBay, and go that route?

[nassi]

any chance of repairing the old one, i.e. use sections from the new one?
Another option is to source a good 2nd hand one. Barry Reynolds may be able to help or Kerry may have something.

[mungus]

Not really, the old one was pretty banged up and was cut up during removal.

I'll have to fix this one or find another. Not sure how good a 2nd hand one would be? Hard to remove one without doing damage. But I guess its possible.

[Nuts]

Can you post some pics so we can really see what you're facing.

[ozbilt]

The Dynacon rockers fit well, I only have to form the indent where the door opens on it.

[mungus]

Photos wise it’s a bit difficult, as it’s really only evident comparing one that fits with one that doesn’t, and they are on opposite sides of the car. I’ll have a think overnight. Perhaps just a measuring tape on each sides top channel (where’s the wires run), might show it.

If you were to fit it as it is, (you can’t as it fouls on the bottom of the A pillar. Anyway if you could, result would be the outer rocker panel would be sitting proud of the rear quarter panel or door skin by about 1/4” to 3/8”.

[mungus]

The Dynacon rockers fit well, I only have to form the indent where the door opens on it.

Thanks OZ. Sorry to ask but when you say where the door opens, what exactly do you mean? Do you mean the wiring channel that’s under the door, that runs the length of the rocker? Or the curved bit right at the front where it meets the A pillar?

I wish I knew exactly what mine is. I bought it from Custom Mustangs in Melbourne, and it looks like the usual dynacorn style packaging but the box doesn’t have dynacorn on it. As we all know, Dynacorn buys from different manufacturers, and it seems there are different standards of construction between these manufacturers. The dynacorn ones on CJ’s site have the factory internal bracing inside them. The one I bought locally doesn’t. Also it seems the Dynacorn ones on offer at CJ’s a while back weren’t fitting well at all. Check out these reviews... Perhaps you got a good one?

[Dwayne]

There's a one inch square indent on the sill under the front corner of the door. Where it swings inwards.

[mungus]

OK so another day and a fresh look at all this. Firstly some measuring.
Somewhat surprisingly all the width measurements were very similar. The OEM rocker cover is a little skinnier, but only by a couple of MM, so that's not the culprit:

OEM = 119 mm overall linear width (curved tape)
NEW = 121 mm

Likewise the channel width from inner edge flange to channel peak edge, is very similar, again only out by a couple of MM:

OEM = 60 mm
NEW = 63 mm

Uniformity along the length wasn't too bad either, only varied by a mm or so from end to end.
However where there was a big difference was in the shape and depth of the wiring channel.

OEM = 21.2 mm
NEW = 17.3 mm

The profile of the old is a distinctly rectangular shape, whereas the repop is a "U" shape. What this is doing is fouling on all the upper half rigidity detents on the inner rocker panel, and forcing the outer rocker outwards. There is evidence of die skidding on the channel sides, so I'm guessing they simply didn't press it hard enough or fast enough.

As was requested I did take some photos, but they really don't show anything much:

NEW channel:



OLD channel:



Measuring the new:



I'll make up some patterns of the channels to make it more obvious. I'm thinking I'll just have to plasma cut the new one end to end. Pop the 2 bits in and tack the correct width across the channel.
I don't think re-bending the inner flange to any measurement will fix this one.

[mungus]

So here are the 2 channel patterns. Spot the difference!
No wonder it fouls the stiffening humps. This gave me hope that another (quicker?) solution might be to trim those humps and add stiffening elsewhere with some wee angle or channel.
But no, its still not enough. That only gives you a few MM, against the mismatch of around 6-7mm. So really its just revealing another pressing fault.

[mungus]

So anyway all this has made it kinda obvious that along with several forum posters in the US, the only real answer with all of this is to slice the wiring channel from end to end and go from there. So I pulled out he plasma cutter and did just that.

At last I could get it to basically fit. It was too high at the back (perhaps further evidence of unfinished pressing?), so some manual squashing got that right. Then refitting the front fender allowed me to nail the fore / aft position. And this showed once again, that per the US posts, its been pressed wrong. Its 15mm too long. So after clamping it up aligned with the fender's rear lower edge, off came the offending extra length at the back, where its easy to MIG on the wheelhouse flange.



So I'm thinking I'm wasting everyone's time continuing to post this here. As its just become another thread for my Bullitt project. It seems there are no quick fixes here, its just another repop trap to be prepared for...

[nassi]

Thanks for the update mate.

[rkmiller73]

Great to know, thanks for posting!

[mungus]

Nearly done, have been away for work. Should have it all back together shortly.

I'll post up photos of the process and final results then. Its been pretty straight forward really. The main thing is creating a new inside edge and correcting the poorly pressed wiring channel. To do that I folded up a piece of 1.2mm panel steel to a 90 degree bend, 1600mm long, widths from the apex about 25 x 30mm. And stitched that back on slowly with the MIG whilst everything was clamped in place on the car. Being careful to cool every weld with the air duster and take my time. You have to cut and curve the front section a bit, but no dramas really.
Anyway it now meets up as it should and the wiring channel now has the correct profile.

I think if anyone lining up this job half expects to do this it will go fairly easily...

Then again you could be so lucky as to get one that fits!!! ?