1971 HLS30-14938 "Lily" build

[Captain Obvious]

1 hour ago, Mark Maras said:

Do you mean, Santa Who Must Be Obeyed?

That's fantastic.       Thanks for that. I wish I'd have thought of it.

Yes, that's exactly what I meant! 

[Mark Maras]

 She's making a list and checking it twice, gonna find out who's naughty and nice.

[Captain Obvious]

LOL, well she already knows who's naughty and who's nice.  As a matter of fact, when I mentioned the welding helmet, she said that she's put in a good word for me and ask to have me put on the "nice" list.

My reaction was like "Wait... What list was I on?"  Haha!!

[Mark Maras]

You're on a roll. I'm sure your list is growing.

[Patcon]

Ok we have another episode of "Ugly Welds"

So I was looking at the drivers side of the hood and it wasn't right either. So I broke out the welder again, but I ground the primer back further so I wouldn't have to blow the flames out after each weld.

A little welding

Then some grinding with a 2" Roloc and then some flat file hand work.

I actually made a second pass on this side to weld up some of the voids

Looks ok now. I ran a coat of fiberglass to seal any pin holes and shape it up.

On a different note, I need some feedback from you guys. I was blocking the rocker panels and there is a pretty straight groove near the bottom of the rocker. Is it supposed to be there? It is on both sides and pretty consistent. So I don't know if it's factory or if somehow the car got damaged exactly the same way on both sides. Which seems kind of odd, but maybe.

In the second picture, it's the upper shadow line. It's maybe 1/2" to 3/4" from the bottom edge of the rocker where it turns under the car. They appear to run the full length of the rockers.

Here is the tip of the day.

I use Evercoat fillers. They cost a little more but they sand nice and work easily. Sometime thought the filler is difficult to get pulled out thin enough. Well, one day when I was browsing Evercoat's site trying to figure out the differences in each of the fillers they made. I came across this

From what I have found online, it's straight styrene. It has a golden color and you use it to make the filler more flowable. I put some filler on the mixing board. Then you add some honey and mix it up. Then you add hardener,  then mix and fill. It lengthens the working time of the filler and the filler has more of a glazing putty consistency. I really like it. I could almost just add a cup or so to the gallon can of filler to reduce it, instead of doing each individual batch.

[Patcon]

Nobody's got any input on the rocker panels???

[wheee!]

Nobody's got any input on the rocker panels???

Mine on the 76 did not have those ridges.

[Patcon]

4 minutes ago, wheee! said:

Mine on the 76 did not have those ridges.

Thanks Wheee!

[grannyknot]

1 hour ago, Patcon said:

Nobody's got any input on the rocker panels???

Nothing like that on the 72 or 77, could they have been replaced at sometime in the past with after market rockers?

[jwtaylor]

On 12/2/2018 at 3:33 PM, Patcon said:

Ok we have another episode of "Ugly Welds"

So I was looking at the drivers side of the hood and it wasn't right either. So I broke out the welder again, but I ground the primer back further so I wouldn't have to blow the flames out after each weld.

A little welding

Then some grinding with a 2" Roloc and then some flat file hand work.

I actually made a second pass on this side to weld up some of the voids

Looks ok now. I ran a coat of fiberglass to seal any pin holes and shape it up.

On a different note, I need some feedback from you guys. I was blocking the rocker panels and there is a pretty straight groove near the bottom of the rocker. Is it supposed to be there? It is on both sides and pretty consistent. So I don't know if it's factory or if somehow the car got damaged exactly the same way on both sides. Which seems kind of odd, but maybe.

In the second picture, it's the upper shadow line. It's maybe 1/2" to 3/4" from the bottom edge of the rocker where it turns under the car. They appear to run the full length of the rockers.

Here is the tip of the day.

I use Evercoat fillers. They cost a little more but they sand nice and work easily. Sometime thought the filler is difficult to get pulled out thin enough. Well, one day when I was browsing Evercoat's site trying to figure out the differences in each of the fillers they made. I came across this

From what I have found online, it's straight styrene. It has a golden color and you use it to make the filler more flowable. I put some filler on the mixing board. Then you add some honey and mix it up. Then you add hardener,  then mix and fill. It lengthens the working time of the filler and the filler has more of a glazing putty consistency. I really like it. I could almost just add a cup or so to the gallon can of filler to reduce it, instead of doing each individual batch.

The rockers on my 12/70 240Z has those same creases.  Very shallow and the full length of the rockers.  Filling and blocking gave me this:   You can see that it did not take much filler to fill it. 

Edited December 20, 2018 by jwtaylor
typo error

[jwtaylor]

I have had a thought on these lines/creases in the rocker.  On my car the passenger side floor pan has a slight upward bend in the foot well area.  I beat is back down some, so it's not that noticeable now.  The though is that maybe when the car banged on whatever caused the dent to the floor pan it may have also caused the lines in the rocker. 

Edited December 4, 2018 by jwtaylor

[Patcon]

10 hours ago, grannyknot said:

Nothing like that on the 72 or 77, could they have been replaced at sometime in the past with after market rockers?

I don't believe the rockers have ever been changed. This is a southwest car so virtually no rust. They look too pristine to have been replaced. I could look closer...

8 hours ago, jwtaylor said:

I have had a thought on these lines/creases in the rocker.  On my car the passenger side floor pan has a slight upward bend in the foot well area.  I beat is back down some, so it's not that noticeable now.  The though is that maybe when the car banged on whatever caused the dent to the floor pan it may have also caused the lines in the rocker. 

The lines on my rockers look exactly the same as yours. Same location and by the thin amount of filler, the same depth. I wonder if all the factory rockers have this but it was filled in when the cars were painted. Maybe it's a result of a metal forming operation when the rockers were first made.

I guess I will skim them out and cover them up.