[Stan65]

I am putting together a 71 and am trying to figure out the water shields.

I know they use dumdum on the sides and tuck into the slot at the bottom.

I also believe they sandwich between the brace (circled in yellow) and the door.

Now for the question, to sandwich between the brace (circled in red) and the door which sets deeper into the door, the water shield will wad up and wrinkle. Is this how it was done originally or did they cut a slot?

Thanks in advance.

[Formulabruce]

Put on water shield first. And don't use the factory paper one as the plastic can be sealed pretty well.
Obviously need screw holes

[Formulabruce]

Your sound deadener is installed correctly and looks great

[Aus78Formula]

x2 nice clean doors and assume large sheet lowered into door while no glass. Good work.

The early Fisher Body manuals describe what to do but no specific mention of the armrest brackets. These are screwed on, not riveted, can be removed as required?

You probably have something similar to these diagrams, this is a service update notice issued during '78 for sealing the shields.

78 Firebird body Seam sealing scans6 by Aus78Formula, on Flickr
78 Firebird body Seam sealing scans7 by Aus78Formula, on Flickr

[Stan65]

Thanks for the replies, I have the 71 fisher body manual and it has even less info the the 78.

It just seems odd that the shield will lay flat when you put the brace circled in yellow. But when you put the one on circled in red , it wads up as it sinks further into the door. Seems odd, but it that’s right that’s how I’ll do it.

As far as the clean doors, I re-skinned them with NOS skins and rebuilt the bottoms with repop lower door shell parts.

Thanks.

[unruhjonny]

1971 doors with original shields (doors were outside for a while before I got them and I had to flatten the shields with magnets for this picture)

[Stan65]

Perfect thanks!