Strange noise, thoughts?

Coming back from a cruise this weekend with my 67 Dart, 273, automatic, pulled off the interstate and stopped and heard a noise that at first sounded like something hitting the fan, shifted through the gears after about 10 seconds the noise went away. My first though was of the repro fan shrouds sagging and hitting the fan, then I remembered I don't have a fan shroud either oem or repro, DOH! Stopped for ice cream and checked under the hood and nothing in the fan. The noise came back about 40 miles later when I stopped at another exit. There was a heavy side wind and I remembered that the drivers side rocker trim pops out of a couple of the clips, got home and it was about 1/4" from the body and tapping it I could get it to contact the body. Could this have been my noise? I did sound like it was coming from drivers side. Plan on checking tranmision/ starter shield. What else should I check. It sounded like something coming in contact with a rotating part.
Thanks
Aaron