Today, I was going to paint the top of my tub. Had to drill a few holes in the back, no problemo, right? Well, the first couple were okay. But got to the 4th one on the jerry can holder, that was another story. The hat channels on the back panel were so far off from the rear floorboard that I had to cut them where they started to bend, then bang them down, then reweld the cut. Well, the drill bit hit the weld metal, didn't feel like chewing through it, and in about a nanosecond, it chewed through 1/4 - 3/8 of metal, enlongating the hole. Great. Just great. That ticked me off a good deal, but since the jerry can has such masive spacers, I figured no one would see it.
Started to drill the holes for the spare tire carrier. Bottom two came out okay. Had no real easy way to measure where the top 2 went, so I just held the tire carrier up and marked where they went. Started drilling...and this is where the problem starts to occur. All of the sudden the drill kicks out of my hand cause the drill bit locked up. Looked on the opposite side, and long and behold, right below the horizontal top hat channel (actually both kinda cut half moons into the horizontal hat channel).
I was positive I tripple checked my measurements. I checked again. Finally, I checked the horizontal top hatchannel (the one towards the rear seat)'s height. It is about 3/8-1/2 short, and thus, causing all of my problems. Its flush on the bottom with the wheel wells like its supposed to be, but its just too darn high.
Needless to say, I'm freakin' pissed. I did a little research and foundout the company I bought it from got it from MD Juan. Ironic we just had a topic on MD Juan's quality, eh? Needless to say, never again will I buy another panel that was MD Juan made unless Im there with a pair of calipers checking every dimension known to mankind on that thing.
It originally didn't come with the two bottom frame mounts, which wasnt a big deal -- I fabricated a few. And the verticle hat channels were up to 3/4 of an inch off....never consistant, some touched and others didn't. These were just little hassles, and okay fixes. But now that my whole spare tire carrier is messed up plus some enlongated holes for my jerry can as a byproduct or direct cause of their failure to produce a truely accurate panel, I'm just downright, royally, ticked off.
If my Cessna 152 held enough aviation gas to fly over the pacific to MD Juan, I would - and I would tear their quality control department a new one. I talked with my dad about possible fixes. We came up with the idea of getting a 1/8th inch piece of steel and drill the top holes in it, then keep that plate on the backside of the hat channels, and run the bolts through that. Now, I know there is suppsed to be carriage bolts there. Is that because the rear seat comes that close to the rear panel? If so, I probably wont be able to do this. Anyone else have any other ideas then?
Thanks,
A super ticked off, yet thankful for any help you could give, Bob Collins.
A picture is worth a thousand words. 
