Restoration: 1978 Honda Civic (1200) Part 2

[Randy]

Getting the inner rocker was a bit of a challenge due to the old jagged outer snagging the dimples and jacking point.

During my last trial fitting I noticed the gap was a little bigger between the seat bracket and the inner rocker. I used a ratchet strap to pull it in and was able to tack it in place.

Next I have to position the rear seat post which will be easier to line up as I drilled through the spot welds and the floor.

Then I will be racking the floor to the rocker and spot welding it together along the pinch seam underneath.

https://youtu.be/IhLST-5l8iE

[Randy]

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Spot welded the floor to the rocker top and bottom and put the the rear seat post back in.

The spot welder is very heavy and needs to cool down the circuit, I found it tripped the breaker once. It is much quicker and faster than the MIG and no cleanup grinding.

https://youtu.be/dmOFUVMnpXw

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[Randy]

Found the outer rockers tonight and did a dry fit. Found the back end needs to be straightened out and a bit more metal added on in the wheel well at the bottom

https://youtu.be/_UGiivvEpz4

[Randy]

not a lot happening today, I finally after 2years got my air dryer hooked to the air compressor. I welded some Unistrut to the side of the auxiliary air tank self back to back makes it perfect to attach the heavy dryer. The fitting I purchased well the gear clamps were on the crap side, they camshaft with an air spice kit. I took the clamps off and put some Antisize on the gear then they worked.

Put the rocker on to figure out where I am going to trim it, the front will be trimmed back from the hinge where the rubber curves around the bottom of the door as the new rocker does not have the proper shape there.

The rear part needs about 2” added onto the end to wrap around the bottom of the wheel arch comes to an end.

https://youtu.be/85t9nBVBthw

[Randy]

A bit of fitting trying to hold 20guage piece to 22 or 24g.

Did I say it was very cold.

If I had a shrinker I could easily get the corner of the wheel well done up nice, I will have to slice it up and weld it into shape.

YouTube Fast Forward
https://youtu.be/85t9nBVBthw

This is the almost finished shot.

[Randy]

Rear Jacking Point

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I have to remember this goes at the rear of the rocker panel just in front of the wheel arch where it has collapsed inside it’s self and this fell out.

I am pretty sure this will never happen again as I will be beefing it up and making it highly visible and sturdy.

[Randy]

It was not a good night to work on the car, it was mighty cold in the garage and fingers were nimble and cold.
I planned out the cuts for the repair panel, I decided to keep more of the original panel just behind the door. I am not too impress in the repair panel for this area.
I then made the cuts and transferred the outline to the car and the left a bit behind to leave a little extra for precise trimming.
That’s what was planned, but not executed as one of the lines was cut short. I can tack a bit back on no problem.

[Randy]

Here I have the bottom of the rear door post showing.

I have a bunch of new videos coming soon.

[Randy]

Uploaded the last video’s this morning, everything is up to date.

This one is about the topics just above trimming and fitting the NOS panel to fit the car. The next step is to add a bit back onto the car as I cut a wee bit too much off.

https://youtu.be/CYPMJ8Sb9Jg

[Randy]

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Fixed my boo-boo this evening, turned out pretty good. I only wish the fitment of the rocker was just as good.
The rocker stands off by about an 1/8 of an inch, now I will have to cut the lip off and trim the door ledge and weld it back on.
If I had known it would be out by so much there would be no advantage of using the pre-made rocker panel.
I could have just cut the bottom of the existing and welded a new bottom on. Oh well.

https://youtu.be/Ugch_FbusqM