midyear birdcage surgeon advice needed

[Tony DiGiorgio]

Hello all
Helping friend with body off. Discovered that birdcage area affected with cancer needs surgery. Has anyone had experience with this? if so, your comments and advice are badly needed. My buddy is dying because he thought this body off thing was going to be a piece of cake. I am learning a lot just by watching. Thanks for your help in advance.
Tony

[Scott Marzahl]

Sorry Tony, no picture is coming up *NM*

[Jack H.]

Re: midyear birdcage surgeon advice needed

All can be done, but some body 'skeletal' repairs are trickier than others...all depends on where the rot is located! The approach to repairing is to survey the damage, find EXACTLY where remaining 'good' metal starts/stops, then contact a Corvette 'boneyard' (one who specializes in parting out wrecked Corvettes).

Often, the cars they have were either front ended or rear ended and NOT rolled. Therefore, a left over main body segment is available from wrecks that have been gobbled up for frame, engine, interior and exterior components. Last time I did this, I got a nice center section for about $400.

Now, you MEASURE, MEASURE and REMEASURE the rotted segment of the bird cage you had to cut out. Then, go make the equivalent cut from the clean donor car and transplant it by welding and grinding the weld marks.

A couple of hints... First, if rust has attacked so badly as to rot through certain sections of the bird cage, you can bet there's residual oxidation on the inside portions of the remaining 'good' sections. Blowing a rust preventative down inside the remaining rails before you close 'er up by splicing in a fresh replacement section from the donor car is an excellent idea!

Second, some drill 'guide' holes and inch or so below the cut on the remaining good section, then TIG an extention rod inside the mating donor part that over laps the guide hole. When the donor section is moved into position, there's ususally 'some' adjustable 'slop' at the interfaces. The donor section can be moved ever so slightly to achieve a correct/true position and 'tacked' into place by welding through the guide hole to the extention rod. Now, when you proceed to make your final circumferential welds at the upper/lower cuts, nothing will move to distort the final attachment!

If the damaged area(s) extend beneath fiberglass panel to birdcage bond areas, the repair job becomes trickier. You'll either have to break the body panel bond to gain working clearance or be truly EXPERT in the art of cutting and welding in short bursts using external cooling as appropriate to thwart melting/distorting the attached fiberglass body panels...

[Scott Marzahl]

Re: midyear birdcage surgeon advice needed

Tony,
I was able to see your sketch on my home computer. I just repaired similar damage on my car. Best way is to remove the latch cover and the small panel from the wheel well side to access the door pillar. You may be able to fab your own sheet metal section or look for a donor section as suggested by Jack.
From the sketch it doesn't appear that the bottom rail is damaged, if so then your job just got a lot bigger. Other than that, just take your time, measure, measure and stich weld the new section in. You'll want to make sure your door is aligned and the bottom rail is supported well when you start cutting. I would use a cut off wheel for the job.