The trip to the body shop was for the G-body firewall plate to be smoothed out, complete rocker replacement, door jamb hole filling, door jamb painting, and firewall painting. The drip rail above the firewall plate was painted separately then reassembled. Prior to the G-body firewall plate being finished out, it had studs welded to the back and was matched to the firewall. The new rockers were replacement panels for a Monte Carlo from OPG and fit just like the originals. The internal sides of the rockers were very nice, and were rust proofed before everything was welded back together.
The frame was built up before the car was sent to the body shop and I will detail that in a later post.
The fire wall before the painting.
Both rockers were replaced. As you can see, these were very clean when opened up. This area was painted with rust preventative paint before welding in the new rockers.
The rockers were replaced because a couple small soft spots were found in the exterior rocker sides. The Monte Carlo OPG parts worked very well as a replacement. This car will have a nice paint job when finished, so a solid base to start from was necessary.
Seen here is the final finished G-body firewall. The firewall plate is matched to the other side, and the G-force drip rail is installed.
In the next post, I will start to showcase the frame restoration and rebuild.