Separated Driver Side Door Skins

[BigSmoke]

I have a nice set of doors on my 52 but someone had mounted mirrors to the outer door skin at one time. The lower holes that need to be filled are easily accessible for repair but up towards the bottom of the window channel is almost impossible to reach with a dolly or hammer.

The only true way to repair the doors was to separate the two halves. I went round and round with myself, trying to talk my self out of this project but I knew that in the long run, I would be much more content.

At least I can put a little more effort into my work and fix the problem from the inside, out. I'm just hoping that I'll be able to mend them back together and end up with a nice solid, rebuilt door.

It took me about an hour to split the door using basic shop tools. I did invest into a Spot Weld Drill Bit from a local autobody shop and I purchased a Door Skinning Plier from Harbor Freight for $6.99. This tool works great but you must be paitent and take precaution not to damage the outside surface of the outer doorskin.

I media blasted the folded flange of the outer skin and tabs inside the window channel to reveal any spot welds that needed to be drilled or cut. After the welds were cut/drilled, I used the skinning pliers to carefully peel back the edges of the outer skin (Take it easy with these pliers). I then grabbed a flat bar and a piece of 1.5" x 3/4" solid oak strip for a backer board to protect the inner shell and carefully pried the flange outward enough so the the two halves would separate.

I'll take the took halves in for professional media blasting next week and then the work shall begin.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo...eat=directlink

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[Gordon Maney]

I have a nice set of doors on my 52 but someone had mounted mirrors to the outer door skin at one time. The lower holes that need to be filled are easily accessible for repair but up towards the bottom of the window channel is almost impossible to reach with a dolly or hammer.

The only true way to repair the doors was to separate the two halves. I went round and round with myself, trying to talk my self out of this project but I knew that in the long run, I would be much more content.

At least I can put a little more effort into my work and fix the problem from the inside, out. I'm just hoping that I'll be able to mend them back together and end up with a nice solid, rebuilt door.

It took me about an hour to split the door using basic shop tools. I did invest into a Spot Weld Drill Bit from a local autobody shop and I purchased a Door Skinning Plier from Harbor Freight for $6.99. This tool works great but you must be paitent and take precaution not to damage the outside surface of the outer doorskin.

I media blasted the folded flange of the outer skin and tabs inside the window channel to reveal any spot welds that needed to be drilled or cut. After the welds were cut/drilled, I used the skinning pliers to carefully peel back the edges of the outer skin (Take it easy with these pliers). I then grabbed a flat bar and a piece of 1.5" x 3/4" solid oak strip for a backer board to protect the inner shell and carefully pried the flange outward enough so the the two halves would separate.

I'll take the took halves in for professional media blasting next week and then the work shall begin.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo...eat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo...eat=directlink

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That is really fascinating. Would you be willing to write an article for the Power Wagon Advertiser? Great photos!

[BigSmoke]

I finally got busy and sent the doors off to the blaster. I just recently tried to strip the paint off of a M37 engine cover using a chemical stripper and it does work but has no where near the effectiveness of a media blaster.

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I first wanted to tackle the window guide that's spot welded to the inner door shell. The upper end of the guide was welded solid but the bottom end had come loose at some point in time. It appears the previous owner had tried several different methods inorder to secure the lower mount from the outside. I found one self tapping screw and one bolt/nut combo.

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Here's the guide once I got er loose from the inner skin.

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And this is what I have to patch up.

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All patched and ready to roll, . . sort of. Welding sheetmetal can be cumbersome and these truck are no exception to the rule. I use either a copper plate or a big chunk of aluiminum block on the opposite side of my work for a "backer". It also helps absorb a great deal of heat that welding creates.

As you can see in the above pic, the area is riddled with holes. I could have cut out the entire area and replaced it with a patch but it seemed like it would eat up a lot of time. I simply ground down the burs that were created from drilling the holes and put the hammer and dolly to use. I got the area as flat and uniform as I could be but left a ever so slight indentation on the outer surface (side that's normally visible). I do this because I will apply a little filler to smooth it out before paint. It is possible to achieve a near perfect surface just by welding and grinding but it usually takes numerous attempts of welding then grinding and welding then grinding and I just don't find it necessary to over heat my doors.

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The hinges on my doors looked a little beat up so I decided to give them some flap wheel a dremel action to clean em up.

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Then I discovered a small crack that had developed in the upper hinge.

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I used my dremel with a 1/8th" carbide bit and ground out the crack a skosh and welded er up using .023 wire. I used the same 1/8th" bit to clean up the weld and finished it off with a shot of primer.

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This next pic I took is of the upper door hinge. You can see that the skin has some tears in it but I don't know why. The hinge is soild and DOES NOT wiggle around at all. The door however, when mounted to the cab, pinches or rubs the front upper corner of the cab when closing and actually pushes that corner out a bit.

Yes the door hinges do need some adjustment to fit properly but after many hours of gawking at this thing, I'm convinced that my cab opening on the driver side is out of whack.

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To Be Continued..........

[Bruce in BC]

A couple of tricks to consider

Run a rod through both of the hinges to line them up . Twist and adjust until the rod slides through all four holes . Close is not good enough . Lining them up will make a great difference in how well the door operates .
Consider bracing on the inside of the door . It is possible to tie the lower edge of the hinge to the far side of the door.
Paint everything except the spots that you will weld when you put the skin back on . Consider using panel adhesive when you put the skin back on . this glue will keep the water out of the door seams .
Run or pour some paint into the doubled up metal at the hinge area .
These tricks might keep the door around for another 70 years .

Bruce

[Nick]

Hey Jason,
I just took my doors apart today. Well not like you did. I mean I took the window cranks, and door latches out. I didnt realize your window track was still in place when I picked em up from the blaster. I almost called ya to see if it was.

Anyway I got all my stuff outta the doors, so if ya need anything for the door skins lemme know and you can have these doors. The bottom sill is rotted out of both of them. Thought about saving them for the next project, the quad cab. But eh, who knows. Dont know if replacing the bottom is hard or not.

Good pics. Lemme know if ya wanna try it again, and Ill bring mine up!! LOL

Nick

[BigSmoke]

Nick ya beter hold onto those doors.

Ya never know what tomorrow will bring ya!

[BigSmoke]

Just laid down a coat of Dupli Color primer to the interior section of my doors. With this Ca rain, it could take a long time before the final coat of paint is applied.

I'm gonna paint the interior of the skins a bright white. I'm hoping the (white) will brighten up the interior of the doors when the times comes to put all the innards back together.

Jason

[Bruce in BC]

White paint , i have done that too.

The white paint trick works under the dash as well .
Why don't you do a dry run and assemble all the door guts without the skin on ?
You can check everything to see how well everything works and all you need to do is pop out the window and molding before welding the channel area back together . Just a thought and a trick I have done a couple of times . Although I seem to find a reason to take the guts back out on occasion , which is a bit of a pain . I find a better door latch or window mechanism or something real lame like I want the screws to match ........

[Bruce]

Good Idea

Just laid down a coat of Dupli Color primer to the interior section of my doors. With this Ca rain, it could take a long time before the final coat of paint is applied.

I'm gonna paint the interior of the skins a bright white. I'm hoping the (white) will brighten up the interior of the doors when the times comes to put all the innards back together.

Jason

I wish I thought of that, but my doors are finished. I will however do my dash this way.
Thanks & Merry Christmas,

[BigSmoke]

I finally finshed priming and painting the inside portions of the door skins.

It took more time waiting for the blaster, paint to dry and taking pictures than it did to the seperate the door, weld the repairs and start to reassemble.

I started to put the skins back together tonight, gently pushing and prodding the outer skin back onto the inner panel. I used a medium sized ball pein hammer first to start folding the outer flange back into original postion.

Suddenly an adult beverage started to call upon me so I called it quits for the night and I'm sitting here happily with a tall frosty and sharing my experience.


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Jason