1970 L-78 Nova Restoration; Saga of The Green Bastard

[L78_Nova]

I'm going to start doing just a couple pictures at at a time. Really struggling with downloading the pictures... only half are loading.

[L78_Nova]

Continued removal of the quarter







Close up of the rusted area. Top of rocker is badly pitted.

[L78_Nova]

With the panel off the quarter window post will be easy to correct.



While waiting for the replacement rocker piece and required trip to the wrecker in Fargo for the interior panel (fingers crossed), continued with stripping the roof and melting out the lead. Previous paint at some point included a very aggressive stripping job... lots of coarse gouges which will add some work later (If I only knew ).



Carefully pulled apart the roof seam and drip rail. Anyone that has done this job knows it is quite difficult to release what are a few layers of sandwiched and spot welded pieces. Including drilling out welds and folding back some of the interior bracing to get the old panel loose (to be later coerced back into place and welded once the new panel is in position.



The tail panel had medium-heavy bondo and needed to go as well. Digging in looks like the rear corner had taken a light bump at some point. The RH side of the trunk flange needed a little straightening.

[Too Many Projects]

Yeah, buddy, you're in deep there. My '67 Camaro is in about the same state, sans right quarter and tail panel.

[L78_Nova]

ALLRIGHT !!!! Let's get into some repair !!!!!

The Rocker was pitted badly at the rear section and also under the lower corner of the door jamb. So if I was cutting it this far apart, I might as well include that section as well. Plus it's easier to align the longer piece when installing. In this photo I had not yet cut out the lower half of the original.



Close up better shows how bad this was, particularly the front edge along the 1/4 panel to Rocker seam. It would have been impossible to spot weld repair that.



Of course the replacement panel is not exactly the same size. Here you can see an early mock up where I had already slit the front face of the panel. It had to be sectioned to shorten the face to the exact width.





Top half mocked in. Doesn't show in the picture but the wheel opening end was also reworked to replicate the original folds.



Here's the bottom half. Note the weld line, the lower face was also too wide and had to be sliced and cut down ! The cross section of the replacement panel would have nested over the original section... Way Off! The wheel opening end was also reworked.

[L78_Nova]

Wow... I just spent over an hour putting a post together and lost the whole thing.
Particularly frustrating that downloading photos fails at least one file every time. When it fails it also corrupts the original file.

Time for a break.
G

[L78_Nova]

I fabbed a backer with plug welds to provide some extra strength to the rocker joint





Hard to see in the photo but a taught string line along the corner allowed for an easy alignment visual when tacking in place.

[L78_Nova]

Lower half of replacement piece. I made a clamshell die to replicate spot weld dimples along the lower body flange. I then drilled holes in between the dimples for plug welding



All tacked in place



Underside also shows holes for plug welding to the internal reinforcement bracket



Lots of careful grinding now required

[Crush]

Great work man you have some skill!!
Subscribed!

[L78_Nova]

Replacement rocker also plug welded to inner reinforcement bracket.



Flange also plug welded at interior flange (welds from inside). Not yet welded in this photo.