Heater channels and support rails

The Beginning	The Donor	Floorpans	Wiring and Interior
Cutting out the rust	Heater channels and support rails	Brakes	Reassembly
The motor runs!	Paint Prep	Paint	Top

January 20, 2003
Before I start grinding away on what's left of the door sills, I added rails to the inside of the doors to maintain the integrity of the door openings. I must have measured 6 times but I still ended up having to shim the passenger side to get it right. I understand it is critical to maintain the correct distance so the doors open and close correctly.

The door sills and heater channels show a ton of rust. The support rails are completely gone, there is quite of bit of metal missing at both sides. The plan is to add metal where needed, then replace the heater channel bottoms and support rails.

January 20, 2003
Here is the left quarter panel edge. I added metal on the inside corner between the arrows. At this point I've replaced the captive nuts that will accept the bolts of the running boards on this side. You can see the new heater channel bottom that will soon be welded to the heater channel.

The rusted spot on the side of the quarter panel is troublesome. I guess that will be bondo-ed in the future?

This is the right side, at the bottom edge of the sill, beneath the rear quarter panel between the fender and the door. The white line highlights the added piece. This area was badly rusted, I'm sorry I didn't get a pic of that first. I took a 1/8" piece of flat steel, bent the bottom edge with the vice and a hammer, then cut and fit it and welded it in, then ground the welds.

Close up once it been ground down.

A shot from below the right heater channel. The outside is fixed, you can make out the new piece, but you can see the work left on the inner edge. Also, the heater tube is shot, so I'm thinking of using muffler pipe to replace that.

3-15-03 Here's another view of the heater channel cancer. This is the inside right, about at the back seat foot area, inside the rear corner of the door.

All fixed now. (The cord is the drop cord light, not integral to the car. The ground clamp of the welder also can be seen.)

I've recycled a flexible muffler pipe and a curved tailpipe to replace the rusted out heater channel.

Next is getting the heater channel bottom plates lined up and welded. The current design decision involved making sure they lined up and matched the floorpan. I lowered the body onto the pan, with the heater channel bottoms stuck in there to be sure everything lined up, then tacked the bottom plates to the body, lifted the body back off and welded them tight.

Of course, nothing ever fits like its supposed to. When I tried to line the heater channel bottom plates to the floorpan, the bolt holes didn't exactly align. I had to cut them about 18" from the back and add about 3/4" to the length to make them fit right. Here you can see where I've added a strip of metal to the cut I'd made. (The cut is very evident in the previous picture.)

Here are the support rails after they've been installed on the car. These support the convertible in lieu of having a solid top. These fit pretty well, just a little bending to match the curve at the front of the car.

The view from underneath the support rail.

Here's the right support rail all squared away. The big factor with these rails is to be sure you have the car aligned to allow for proper door operation. I checked and checked for that over and over as I'd tack these rails into place. I used the floor jack and a 2/4 to get it right, so that now both doors open and close without binding, while the seam at the door is even.