Fred's Backyard LE Restoration Options

[bkrantz]

Hey Fred is it as hot and humid over there as it is here? If it is are you still working on the car in this misery? If so, be careful stay hydrated ansd take long breaks. As always love the work you are doing. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

I feel for you guys. I only survived my time in Houston because I installed AC in my detached garage.

Here in Colorado we still have morning lows in the low 40s and highs around 75. We do have a heat wave forecast soon with highs up to 85. Don't hate me. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smash.gif)

[friethmiller]

Driver Side Door - Part 5 (6/6 - 6/7/2025):

Replacing the Bottom Edge of Door Skin

Here's a few pics of the process. I didn't exactly cut straight here but it really didn't matter. I simply used the 3" cutting disc to open up any overlap/closed gaps. It was absolutely critical to ensure good gaps along this edge - in order allow for good weld penetration. I didn't really get any photos of all 2,500+ overlapping spot welds but you can see the end result once the excess was ground off. Looks pretty good, IMO. Next step was to weld the inner door's bottom flange to the door skin. I had pre-drilled the holes for this and made sure both pieces of metal were shot with some weld-thru primer.







Heat-Shrinking

Once the bottom of the door was finally welded together, I noticed a good bit of oil-canning in one section of the door (see marker spot). With the correct backing pad on hand, I was finally able to mount and use my 4 1/2" shrinking disc on my grinder. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/piratenanner.gif) Wow! I forgot how good these thing work. Just took a few short sessions of heating and quenching the area and the oil-canning was gone. There are plenty of videos on YouTube to reference here. IMO, the key is focusing on the high spots. I used a rag in a small bucket of cool water to do the quenching. Stupid-Simple!



Finishing Work on the Door

Couple photos here on preparing the door for paint. Pic 1 shows the results of removing the original paint from the door handle area. Despite the tedious nature of this task, the rust under the original paint had to be removed/treated. I used oil & grease remover to get rid of all that magic marker on the door skin (pic #2). Next, I removed the excess from the new metal that was added at the bottom of the door. This was done by measuring and marking a line across edge (pic #3). After that, I greased and reassembled the hinges (pic #4) and shot the back of the door with 2-3 good coats of epoxy primer.







Door Mounting

After allowing the door to dry for several hours, I returned and screwed the door into the car. After fiddling with the adjustment for a good bit, I realized that the front fender had been mounted slight inward toward the cowl by a few millimeters. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif) And... this was suppose to be the door that aligned without a hitch. Oh well, decided to come back in the morning fresh and see what I could do to fix my predicament.



More to come in Part 6 - the door saga continues (IMG:style_emoticons/default/chair.gif)

[friethmiller]

Driver Side Door - Part 6 (6/8/2025):

Had one of those 2am wake-ups where you can't sleep cause you start thinking about an issue with your car. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif) How to fix a fender that's welded on just a little too close to the cowl? Keeping in mind the entire bottom of the car is painted. The answer is "you do what you can". First thing in the morning I was out on the car. Used my long die grinder bits to reach into the rear fender area to knock out my welds (pic 1). Used a screw driver to widen the gap just a bit (pic 2).



After this, I re-mouted the door and checked gaps again. Still a bit wide at the top for my liking. Decided to add a bit more welding rod to close the gap - knowing the fender will come down just a bit after I re-weld it. Couldn't really move the cowl gap too much without bowing the fender just a bit at the curve with the door. In the end it was a compromise. It's not perfect by any means but at least it gets me in a zone were I can cut to relief the fender or use a few mm of filler to match up the panels. TBD, I guess.





At this point, I cleaned and prep'd the door for paint. We have a week of rain scheduled and I can't hold off any longer. I shot 3 coats of epoxy (pic 1). You can see my upcoming work in Part 7 (pic2) and my mystery dent that I put into the door sometime on Sunday (pic3). I don't recall when this might have happened. At least it's in a spot where I can get a dolly on the backside. Finally, Pic 4 showing the sun screen and the extent of my backyard.

[Root_Werks]

Gotta love mystery dents!

When the bottom of the door is sucked in like that, I've had pretty good luck just grabbing the door and putting a twist on it. I was surprised it actually worked.

[friethmiller]

Gotta love mystery dents!

When the bottom of the door is sucked in like that, I've had pretty good luck just grabbing the door and putting a twist on it. I was surprised it actually worked.

Nice! I’m out of town at the moment but I’ll give it a try when I get back. Thanks for the suggestion (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)