Ruby B post picture.

[Denis Sweeney]

Dave, I had very much the same problem with loads of aluminium sheeting, rivets and filler as you can see hopefully on the attached pictures.
There is a structural member that runs right up through the door post and on my Ruby this was rotted through as was the floor pan, outer body work and inner sections. You may find that you will need to remove more metal to take it back to something more solid and this may mean removing more of the outer skin to gain access to the inner door post.
However before cutting anything away I fitted a steel frame inside Ruby made from angle Dexion top to bottom and criss-cross to stop any movement of the body when you end up removing so much material.  This may have been over the to but I did not want to risk the body shifting. 
To be honest I made all my own sections with very limited tooling, it is amazing what you can conjure up with a little imagination.
I used a small portable MIG welder to weld all my sections back in place, I was never able to perfect the art of continuously welding as this gave far too much distortion on the thin metal and so adopted a spot welding technique, one small weld every two inches or so and then going back in between the welds again and again until eventually the sections were fully welded.....and lots of fettling and angle grinding.
The last pic shows the door post finished welded but further fettling need and skimming with filler but I the original door post finished above the running board, but I took mine down below.
If you can get the chance to see someone else's Ruby, as has been offered in earlier posts, grab it with both hands.
Good luck.


Denis S

[Jamie]

It sounds like there's an opportunity for someone to market repair panels - say the bottom 4", or maybe 6", as an assembled unit to tack onto the remains of the original body - anyone?

I think that Oxfordshire Sevens do these, thinking about it.

[Peter Naulls]

Dave,

Our Ruby is quite different to the last photo posted by Denis. I'm not sure if I can get to it to photograph it this evening but I'll try tomorrow. Basically the visible face of the quarter panel folds inwards at the bottom and meets a slightly smaller vertical square section which drops down through the running board aperture.

Someone with an un-welded Ruby might be able to confirm which of these options is correct. As with most cars there will have been some educated guesswork when ours was restored!

Peter.

[Nick Lettington]

Thanks Dennis. Your photos are a great help to interpret what I need to replace. 

I took my car to a friendly MOT tester who was happy to say he wouldnt have failed it for the bodge tape. His view being that its a grey area as the structure of the chassis and inner sill are sound, the missing section is unlikely to contribute much to the strength. Of course corrosion within 300mm of the chassis mount or seatbelt mount is failable. He suggested however that it should be considered a body panel rather than structural... Im still going to fix it though!

[Mike Costigan]

Ps. Having grown up being transported in various Lancia's my father had, I would love to see that Lancia Appia in the flesh.

Dave, at the risk of derailing the thread, here's a pic of the Lancia:

   

[Denis Sweeney]

Nick no problem hope it helps, I note the previous comment that my interpretation is not exact in that I have taken the outer body section thro the running board, this comment is correct. However the original metal on my Ruby was completely rotted away and had been replaced with aluminium which finished square above the running board. I am however not the only restorer to have done this, I noted that Bryan Purvess (source book fame) had made the same modification on his Ruby that I had.
Cheers Denis S

[Pricey]

Dave, I had very much the same problem with loads of aluminium sheeting, rivets and filler as you can see hopefully on the attached pictures.

However before cutting anything away I fitted a steel frame inside Ruby made from angle Dexion top to bottom and criss-cross to stop any movement of the body when you end up removing so much material.  This may have been over the to but I did not want to risk the body shifting. 

The last pic shows the door post finished welded but further fettling need and skimming with filler but I the original door post finished above the running board, but I took mine down below.

Denis S

Denis

Thank you.

Did you notice any movement when cutting, i.e. Could you see your braces taking up the strain?

Also what was your reasoning for extending below the running board?

---

Dave,

Our Ruby is quite different to the last photo posted by Denis. I'm not sure if I can get to it to photograph it this evening but I'll try tomorrow. Basically the visible face of the quarter panel folds inwards at the bottom and meets a slightly smaller vertical square section which drops down through the running board aperture.

Someone with an un-welded Ruby might be able to confirm which of these options is correct. As with most cars there will have been some educated guesswork when ours was restored!

Peter.

Peter thank you.

A picture would be good if possible. The more I have to reference the better.

[Peter Naulls]

As I say, no guarantee that it is strictly accurate but it may help ...

   

   

   

   

As an aside, the restoration is 35 years old and all the paintwork underneath was hand painted with exterior gloss black paint, except the running boards which were sprayed with cellulose. Worth the extra time with a brush I think!

Peter.

[Denis Sweeney]

In truth I did not notice any movement in the body ...….but I did not really give it a chance. 
When I looked at how much of the body had to be removed at the bottom of the post and as you can see in my attachment no. 0014 that gaping hole of the rear wheel arch which appeared when I removed the Ali sheeting and filler, the hole ran the full length of the rear wheel arch.  Add to that the front door post was in a similar condition there was little to stop the body sagging. I must also point out I had none of the interior woodwork and so had to replace all of this too. So to me it had to be suitably braced.


As for taking the bottom section of the rear door post down below the running board, if you look again at the attachment no.0014 you will see that the biggest area of rot is all around the same location as the running board. All of the outer body work, the inner structural member and the inner section of the wheel arch have all disappeared. Maybe I am wrong but this looked too much of a coincidence to me and so I made the choice to use a bit of licence. 


I removed the outer body far enough to get back to solid metal and to leave me sufficient access to the inner structural member to remove all of the lower end. I then replaced the lower missing area of wheel arch, formed up new sections and replaced as required. I was also able to blend the section nicely into the wheel arch section. See attachment 120 


I felt that if I left the body section above the running board you have a thin metal section at the bottom that is extremely difficult to suitably prepare and paint in a manner that will leave it sufficiently protected. My work experience in the design of equipment on oil rigs always taught me not to leave sharp edges/corners which were to be painted and this is effectively what you would have at the bottom. So by taking the section below the running boards it protected the inner sections and meant that I could paint it and liberally apply dinitrol or wax oil up inside the sections and also paint all the exposed surfaces with a good underseal/stone chip seal.  

This does give you a problem with fettling the running board and rubber cover to suit, however maybe I was just unlucky but when I came to fit the running boards and rubber covers they were some 20mm + too long and had to trimmed and rewelded to fit anyway, and yes I did check the locations of the front and rear wings several times before I gave in and cut them to suit!!

I certainly believe Paul's arrangement to be more accurate than mine, but you have my reasoning.


Best of luck whichever you way you go
Cheers Denis S

[Peter Naulls]

Excellent workmanship Denis, very tidy indeed.

Peter.