Fixing poorly shaped 55 rocker panels

[MP&C]

Have been working on door fitment lately, and with the lower corner of the door fitting better, it becomes all the more obvious how poor of a reproduction these outer rocker panels are. The "concave" radius does not match the fender to the front or the quarter to the rear of the rocker. This would have been a good fix using the Wheeling machine with a Go Kart slick, had it been noticed before installation.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y167/rmccartney/1955%20Chevy%20Wagon%20Restoration%20Album%204/Picture1100.jpg

Matching the lower anvils of the Wheeling machine to the radius on the quarter, this one fits the best. Also notice how it doesn't fit as well in the rocker panel..

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y167/rmccartney/1955%20Chevy%20Wagon%20Restoration%20Album%204/Picture1108.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y167/rmccartney/1955%20Chevy%20Wagon%20Restoration%20Album%204/Picture1107.jpg

At this point I thought I'd try a "portable" version of the Wheeling machine to add a bit more radius to the rocker panel.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y167/rmccartney/1955%20Chevy%20Wagon%20Restoration%20Album%204/Picture1109.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y167/rmccartney/1955%20Chevy%20Wagon%20Restoration%20Album%204/Picture1110.jpg

Built in guide......

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y167/rmccartney/1955%20Chevy%20Wagon%20Restoration%20Album%204/Picture1112.jpg

After some "wheeling", and some bumping of the leading edge with a door skin hammer:

Just to show the comparison, before
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y167/rmccartney/1955%20Chevy%20Wagon%20Restoration%20Album%204/Picture1100.jpg
After:

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y167/rmccartney/1955%20Chevy%20Wagon%20Restoration%20Album%204/Picture1113.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y167/rmccartney/1955%20Chevy%20Wagon%20Restoration%20Album%204/Picture1115.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y167/rmccartney/1955%20Chevy%20Wagon%20Restoration%20Album%204/Picture1116.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y167/rmccartney/1955%20Chevy%20Wagon%20Restoration%20Album%204/Picture1117.jpg

[chevynut]

Pretty cool stuff Robert, and it turned out great. Do you need to fix the quarter panel too, or is the radius okay there? It looks like the gap widened between the rocker and the front of the door now. How do you plan to address that?

It's just amazing to me that these companies get away with selling crap like that.

[MP&C]

The quarter panel isn't as bad as the rocker, but don't think it has as much radius as the fender either. Not sure if that is by design, but was blatantly obvious that the rocker was off. I didn't notice any variance in that door gap opening while I was laying on the floor and rolling away, so I'm going to guess it's an optical illusion from the camera being right on top of it. But I'll have to double check it now... you're just adding to my "to do" list :(

[carls 56 (RIP 11/24/2021)]

nice, thanks for sharing Robert. :cool: