Hello listers (hopefully including some of the spot weld drillers!)
I’m restoring a 67 OTS, currently on a rotisserie. I’m in the process of removing the IRS cover panel, and all is going ok on the cross car joints.
However, regarding the left and right joints, the panel appears to be sandwiched between the inner wheel wells and the IRS brackets. If so, how do you deal with this joint, how do you weld in a new panel, and do you need to trim material from these sides of the new panel beforehand? Just to keep it interesting, there are spot welds on the IRS cover itself inboard of this joint, even though there’s no other panel attached to it! Any input would be most appreciated. Thanks Roger
FHi Roger. Looks like you are not getting any replies. I do not fully understand which panels you are referring to and suspect others do not either. If you could post some good quality pictures of the areas you are working with I expect someone will be able to help you. It always helps if you post some long distance shots for orientation as well as the closeups.
Geoff.
Geoff, Good idea, I should have done that from the get go.
So here’s a shot looking forward thru trunk opening while standing at right rear bumper. The small sunlit hole near top is for the RH rear wiring harness. I’ve removed most of the IRS cover panel, so the bright left/central portion is actually looking thru this cut-out to the shop floor. Similarly the black jaggedy section is actually looking into the nowvisible RH IRS bracket. The joint I’m confused about is shown in the marked up oval.
Sorry, hit send button too quickly. Second shot - taken from middle of car over IRS panel looking downwards and to the right - shows (working up from bottom) - 1) IRS bracket flange 2) section with hole … bottom of this bracket 3) one inch strip of panel that remains after cutting/drilling to removed rest of panel. These three surfaces are horizontal in car. Section 4 is the vertical inner surface of rear wheel inner. The joint that has me scratching my head is arrowed. Thanks guys
Oh well, thats what you get for rushing. My mark up circle did not make it onto the top pic. However, the joint in question runs down the center of the shot, starting a smidge to the right of the wiring hole. Thanks again Geoff for your input.
Roger. First of all I have not had to replace that panel on the 67 ots that I have on the rotisserie so take this with a grain of salt. If the seam you are referring to is solid and you are able to leave an inch or so of good metal after trimming I would suggest that you either butt weld in your new panel or put in a stepped flange and then plug weld it. The area is not visible when the interior is done so it is not as critical as an exterior panel. If there is any serious corrosion then you have to dissect it down to solid metal and then build it back up again which is a major job in that area. Hopefully someone who has done a replacement of that panel will chime in.
Thanks Geoff. I like the idea of using the remaining metal strip on the side shown and welding to the new panel. Unfortunately on the left side joint, corrosion has claimed the panel metal right up to the junction, so I think I’ll be drilling thru that joint (I have since found out from Chuck at Monocoque that this panel is the meat in a three panel sandwich) and building back up. Alternatively - and I’ll make the call after having the body blasted - I may make a couple of angled brackets and simply weld in above and below the new panel. Thanks again. Roger