Correct placement for speaker box assembly

[ScottBerry]

I am fitting in a new lower section of the speaker box assembly. I was fortunate enough to obtain a NOS speaker box piece. I transposed a cardboard template from the piece and test fitted the template.

A few questions.

On the cardboard template where the “arrow” can be seen – does the new metal tuck behind the outer longitudinal section as shown or should a 90 degree tab be made to sit on top of the outer longitudinal top?

The dash – dotted line – assuming cut off excess material to follow edge of longitudinal.

The cardboard template that shows the “?”. The NOS piece tab that would weld to the closing panel stops short of the side of the wall. Should this not be extended over to attach to the card body?

On the shot that is a side view – it would appear that the new piece sits back a bit meaning the front closing panel would slop backwards a bit towards the rear of the car. Should the front closing piece not extend upwards on a vertical straight plane or does it angle back a bit. It seems the lower part of the new speaker box piece should be in perfect alignment with the outer longitudinal edge – both the angle leading to the car (horizontal ) and upwards – vertical .

Any help would be appreciated.

[Phil Planck]

Scott
Maybe this will help, from the exploded parts book:

[David Gensler]

"On the cardboard template where the “arrow” can be seen – does the new metal tuck behind the outer longitudinal section as shown or should a 90 degree tab be made to sit on top of the outer longitudinal top?"

There should be no 90 degree bend here. The "speaker box" metal (what I call the "hinge pillar") remains vertical down and behind the longitudinal. The longitudinal should be trimmed at an angle, starting at the base of the weatherstrip channel, going forward and down to the lower flange that mates up with the bottom of the door cell metal. There is a factory lap weld (gas torch) here where the edge of the long. mates with the bottom of the hinge pillar

"The dash – dotted line – assuming cut off excess material to follow edge of longitudinal."

Yes, excess metal here should be trimmed approximately at the edge of the longitudinal flange. Later you will add a 3rd layer to this sandwich when the rocker panel is fitted.,Rocker panel should go under, not over the door cell/longitudinal flange. Sometimes this is a little tricky, so test fitting the rocker at this stage is helpful.

****Important****Check the vertical dimension from the upper long flange of the longitudinal to the lower short flange. The last pair I bought from RD was bent incorrectly, and had the wrong dimension. If yours are this way too, the new metal you are adding at the bottom of the hinge pillar will be cut too short. It will look fine up until the point you try and fit the rocker panel, but then you will have a very big problem.

"The cardboard template that shows the “?”. The NOS piece tab that would weld to the closing panel stops short of the side of the wall. Should this not be extended over to attach to the card body?"

No, it stops just like that. Later when you add the hinge pillar support panel and inner closing panel it is covered up.

"On the shot that is a side view – it would appear that the new piece sits back a bit meaning the front closing panel would slop backwards a bit towards the rear of the car. Should the front closing piece not extend upwards on a vertical straight plane or does it angle back a bit. It seems the lower part of the new speaker box piece should be in perfect alignment with the outer longitudinal edge – both the angle leading to the car (horizontal ) and upwards – vertical ."

Not completely clear on your question here, but yes, the inner closing panel is essentially vertical. You should be able to locate from the spot weld remains the line along which it intersects the inner fender well. The flange for the lower door cell area should be along the same plane as the longitudinal flange.

DG

[ScottBerry]

Phil, thanks so much for the information. Your detailed reply has been very helpful. I wasn't clear on your response regarding the need to check the vertical of the upper and lower flange. Can you elaborate more.

[ScottBerry]

Mating Rocker Panel to outer longitudinal panel

David – great detail and suggestions – thank you. Just following up on a few suggestions by David and some questions that have been generated for David or anyone that can chirp in.

As David remarked, now is the time to rough test fit the rocker panel to otter longitudinal.

Questions:
Arrow #1:
It looks like the angle of this outer piece needs to run in a perfect plane with the outer edge of the longitudinal. Looks like this needs to be tucked in slightly to be in good alignment all the way to the car body.

Arrow #2:
In some photos I believe I have seen the inner edge of the small threshold sill level with the upper flange of the longitudinal – but this looks to fall about ½ inch below and looks like the edge of the sill would be welded to the vertical section of the longitudinal. Is it in the right place? Looks like it also wants angle downwards slightly to the back of the car. But no drain hole to drill.

Arrow #3:
Assuming this needs to be pushed inwards so it tucks tight to the outer longitudinal.

Arrow #4:
Do I need to trim the tab on the longitudinal panel farther inward along the dotted line I have shown or just keep it as is with no trimming?