Rocker Panels- Convertible vs Westchester

Another observation of mine is that some of the original body panels were welded together and were pretty crude. However the guys who did the body lead work were real craftsman. Many of the lead joints were “wiped” expertly, and many area of lead show no file marks. For some of your old school body men out there, you know what I’m talking about.

Terry I bet the extra door skins were a surprise finding during your body restoration. Now I'm going to be looking closely at my doors for this too.


Gary Parsons

I can agree with Jim. A lot of the parts cars that I’ve had, the curved area on the rear rocket sill at the bottom of the doors are “loaded” with lead . Never really measured but many were easily 1” or more thick.

Jim this does sound pretty extreme, can you post a sketch of where lead was applied to a 1" thickness to give us a better understanding?
I have seen lead 1/4" thick on some Cords here in Australia.
As to repair work, the door gaps on my own Westchester were all over the place.
During the restoration we found extra skins were placed over some of the doors. I have no idea if this was done in Canada of the US. We spent a lot of time and money getting things back to square one.

THe Lead was from the factory. I have found this on several Cords.

jim was this "up to 1 inch of lead" you found in the rocker panels factory or something a shop did because thats what they had at the time. I have found some amazing ( crazy) ideas of how my Beverly has been fixed in the long ago past. My car came with no bustle trunk latches. It was opened by pressing a button on the dash to trigger a spring loaded solenoid valve. It also came with a smooth steering wheel and the driver had a spot light to use if required for whatever. All the trunk latch body work to cover the holes in the lid or body were done so nicely I had no idea it had been done. It was perfectly blended to the original sheet metal. The inside of the trunk had pieces of brass shim stock soldiered in place to plug the holes. I had not worked on the body latch cover holes because this promises to be a huge for me undertaking..
Its amazing what we find in our cars from years of "fixing them"...


Gary Parsons

The lower portions of the rocker panels are the same. The upper portions of the rocker panel, around the doors are obviously different. The original rocker panels are no where near what you see on the outside of the car. I think they installed the rocker panels, then hung the doors on the car, then leaded out the rocker panels to meet the door lines. I have found up to 1" of lead in the rocker panels to get the lines right.

I'm not 100% sure, but I always thought the rockers on the convertibles were made from a thicker metal than the sedans, that or they were reinforced inside.

How different are the rocker panels for the Convertible and the Westchester. Is one just shorter than the other ?
What I'm getting at is could one use a Convertible rocker to cover a portion of the Westchester rocker area by cutting, notching, sectioning ?????
and then fill in the remainder with small custom made additional panels???? I would greatly appreciate any help/advice you would be willing to pass my way. Thank you in advance.