VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 39 Holden Convertible.How rough?

I am restoring the 39 convertible here in the collection and am not wanting to over restore. The sill,lower door jam areas are quite wavy and rough.These were filled and straightened with bondo when last restored as I am fairly certain that plastic fillers were not available in 1939. Was it normal to open the door on a Holden of this vintage and see what we in US would consider poor quality workmanship? It appears that alot of this body was hand made.Same thing goes in the lower trunk opening jam.Many other ares have lead filler and I do believe that is original.Also, the spotwelds were mudded over in the door jams etc. and I wouldn't have thought that they would have worried about that.

I would appreciate a little guidance on this matter, possibly from some of our members that have firsthand experience with these cars.

Thanks and see you in Flint. (Maybe with this car)

Admittedly I've not personally seen a '39 convertible but what you describe sounds like a repaired car (wrecked???) that was repaired poorly. On my '38 lead was originally used to fill body seams that were visible.

All seams are leaded as in an American made car.Car has not been wrecked.Primary area that I am talking about is where the rocker folds over the floor pan. Looks like it was beat over with a hammer by a caveman.The construction methods in 39 australia are vastly different than US. Still using wood in the decklid and around the trunk opening. Trunk hinges made of 1/2 square stock instead of stamped steel.Kinda primitive.

On my 39 roadster there is leaded areas at the bottom of rear quarter panels at the door opening, the lead being used to shape curve forward to match the curve of the bottom of the door.
The "peak" at the top of the rear quarter where it meets the door is also finished in lead wipe. These peaks are unique to the 1939 roadsters ,as 1937 and 1938 roadster had lower doors. The top of the two door halves are lead wiped to join the inner and outer door skins, where a wind up window would normally have been.

The door sill area may have had the sill area hand fabricated at the holden body factory, or they may have used the same pressing that was used on the 2 door sloper ( all enclosed coupe) , There was lead at the rear sill joint to the rear quarter panels. The inner and out door sills are a common rust area on 1939 holden bodies , as there was no paint applied into this enclosed on the bodies during manufacture.

The upper windscreen panel also has a leaded joint at the upper join with the sides , and may have lead filler across the top surface aswell.

Thanks, Definately hand formed where the sill bends over the floor pan. Just wondered if that was made that way. Sounds and looks like it was. pretty wavy from the rocker to the sill plate. Most likely was that way since new. I suppose I will skim just enough to fill any pits and small creases, but don't really want to straighten out metal that was not originally straight.

The inner sill at the back area where the quarters join to the floor is like an L shape and then overlaps onto the floor sheet.
The 1939 sedan floor is about 3/4 " narrower on each side than the roadster is , so the inner sill is used to fill the gap.

The outer sill is an open P shape and ends vertical at 90 degrees to the floor.

The floor pans used in 1939 holden body chevs is i believe an imported item (into Autsralia) , as all floors have on the front LH Side have a manufactured panel to replace the LHD cutouts.

Jack I was working on the 39 and looked at the floor board. The left side does not have a panel installed to replace the cutouts, of which there are none. The floor is all one panel with a trans. access panel only.Intended for a right hand drive car from day one. Thanks, Andy.