Door repair thread

[pfarber]

I got everything I need to fix my 'B' doors so I'll keep everything here as I work through it.

The door had been repaired at least once before... these weld beads show that something was patched. I cannot find what part was replaced... maybe the entire skin?

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Fairly typical rust.... at the bottom where the skin folds around the bottom sill, and the sill itself.

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I started by pulling the door skin away and immediately saw the rust. This was done with a pair of channel locks that I ground a small lip into the top jaw to grab the bent over flange. Its ugle but it works.

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Then it was time to get to the bottom sill. Its held in by spot welds at both ends.. they were hard to see that's why the metal tore.

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With the old flange out all the rust being held in by other rust and paint fell out. Here's a small sample of the outer skin and the holes that where there just painted over:

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Once out I could test fit the new sill. I figured it was best to install the sill that way I had much better reference marks for the outer skin. Here's the new part and the old:

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They are not 100% identical... the new part is missing a flange, but can easily be welded on. And for $36 compared to $80 I'll weld a piece of steel for a flange.

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Here's the part mocked up. I need to take the hammer and dolley to the door frame... but easy enough to do. I have a spot welder so I may use it if the tips will fit into the flange... if not I'll use the MiG.

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I did have to spend $14 as Sears for some cold chisels. I have about an hour into it... going slow and taking pics and playing with TJ. So far its about 3 CCKW tires out of 11 as far as difficulty is concerned.

[pfarber]

Here's the door frame with the bottom sill removed. Light rust. I had to pound the flange flat and will weld up the holes when the new sill is installed.

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I trimmed up 3.5 inches so the bottom sill could be test fit.

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The new sill fully fitted. I still need to weld in the one flange.

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This is how excited TJ and Yeager were with my progress:

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[pfarber]

Didn't get as far along as I would have liked... had to keep the wood stove going and play with the spot welder. I tried to video the spot welding but the Nikon eats batteries like a fat chick eats potato chips.

Here's the the hinge side lined up and in place, I measured the outer skin before I removed it, but I also have the other doors to reference:

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And the latch side:

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It seems that the replacement sill might be about 1/8th of an inch to short. That spot welded flange I added, the original had it but the replacements did not. I could not put the flange on the inside because the sill is two parts, sport welded and there is a lap joint that make it not flat. I did video part of the spot welding... I may upload it.

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The latch side matches up pretty good:

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Tomorrow I make final measurements and start welding. With any luck the door will be done and ready to sandblast.

[pfarber]

Tried to figure out why the new sill is not lining up with the old spot welds:

New panel flange width

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Compared to old panel flange width:

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Off by about an 1/8th of an inch... almost like the guy forgot to add in the bend allowance.

So that means the new sill have to be about an 1/8th in lower:

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Tacked in place, I didn't bother trying to fix the hole.. no one will see it:

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Fitted the skin and held in place with butt clamps (haha). Skin was a pretty good fit, overall. Tacked in place along seam.

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Follows the door skin fairly well:

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I decided to fold over the skin before tacking.. I figured that the skin being contoured to the sill and held in place on 3 sides it might help with warpage:

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Make some tack welds, check fit, hammer.. wash rinse, repeat:

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There is a low spot in the middle of the panel... it doesn't show up in the photos very well but I'm hoping the work it out with a hammer and dolly.

So far the repair is going well... its my first door ever and while there are minor issues with the replacement parts I would definitely order another set. Once I get the seam welded I'm going to mount on the cab and see if I will need to put a skim coat of bondo on it or if it will look OK as is.

I probably have about 3 hours into it so far... but that's a lot of photo's, tending the wood stove, playing with dogs etc etc.

[pfarber]

Door is as done as its gonna get.

Here is another round of spotting welding the seams. At this point I was about 60-70% done

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The side flanges came out kinda ok... here they are up against a straight edge

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I have a video of the final result... will post it later.

[pfarber]

More door pics. These are the last of the all metal door showing what the skin looks like after I beat/sanded/ground everything as far as I could

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This is the first application of bondo. I got it at Harbor Freight. Its real bondo.. just 20% cheaper than everywhere else.

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This is the bondo dried before sanding:

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This is after 80grit sanding. I used a palm sander and it is pretty much useless. It may down on wood but I don't think the vibratory action is enough to really sand down bondo which is much harder than wood. So I really had to lay into it... and while this photo looks pretty well sanded, there is still a lot I need to take off. I have since bought a pneumatic DA sander and that should help take the bondo down quick.

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My finger is on the weld joint.. so even though the panel looked good, you can see by the amount of pink that most of the filler is on the older skin side.

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Will be taking my new sander out to the garage (its 30F out... will take about 30 minutes to fire up the wood stove and get some heat out there) and sand this down even farther.

[pfarber]

This is the video I made after I figured I had done all the welding I could have done on the door.

[youtube]1HU61PIRscs[/youtube]

Check out those fancy graphics!!

[pfarber]

Here is a video of the door being fitted to the cab.

The jist is that the cab and door were at one point damaged. It was not obvious until the door was hung. I did get the bottom rear corner to fit much better by hammering it down, but the cab frame is still damaged and for the most part beyond my ability to repair until I get more experience with forming metal.

I passes the 6 ft test, though. All in all I am happy with repair.

[youtube]bNdmp7Zv9MM[/youtube]

[pfarber]

I found a photo of the $80-90 lower sill. This photo is from http://www.americanclassic.com

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Note that it has three major things that the $30 panel did not.

First the front and rear portions are recessed to the door frame will allow the inner door panel to lay flat.
Second note that there is a flange (black arrow) to stiffen the thin frame side.
Third it had the center drain hole.

Note that this is also two parts spot welded together, like the $30 panel.

You can definitely make the $30 panel work, but if you truly want a drop in part.. the $80+ panel is the one you want.

[pfarber]

Since the video features were borked and I actually made a video of the is door at the end, here's a repost of it.