[drewm]

I recently posted in the wanted section for a 66 drivers side door. Mine has had a rough past, with multiple sizeable dents and some typical lower corner rust. While I was waiting to see if anyone had a good donor door, I decided to try to tackle the bad areas of the door. First, I made an acceptable repair to the rusty portion of the door. Then, I decided to cut out the biggest dented area and weld up some fresh metal. After doing my first round of welds and a quick grind, I am not sure if my skills are up to the task of making this door work. If I run my hand across the repair, one of the old dents is really bleeding into the new repaired area. It felt like it was going to be ok when I first made the repair and I thought I was welding the new metal on to undented old metal, but once I had the new metal and weld ground down a little, it just feels really bad. I also cannot adequately get to the backside of the door to get a hammer in there if I wanted to try to work the smaller dents with a hammer and dolly. So I was wondering if anyone had any luck with the repro door skins available? Or should I continue to look for a donor door? Im just not sure I want all those patches on the door. The prospect of a new door skin with no dents or rust is enticing. On pictures 2 and 3, its the lower right hand corner of the repair that is still dented. All the spots on the door that have the paint sanded off is where the putty was.

Thanks
Drew

[MUSLCAH]

Should have just worked the dented area…too late now.. You’ll have more hours into a re pop door,trying to get it to fit. Keep looking for an OEM used door

[drewm]

Originally Posted by MUSLCAH

Should have just worked the dented area…too late now.. You’ll have more hours into a re pop door,trying to get it to fit. Keep looking for an OEM used door

Since the dented areas were already pulled and puttied many years ago, and I would not have been able to get a hammer behind the dent due to the inner door shell, I thought that cutting out that bad spot would work. And I think it might have, but in my haste to get it done, I think I missed too much of the dented areas around the large dent. So I found a donor door and have recut all of the dented area out, and will transfer that pattern to the donor door and carefully cut and fit into the old door. At least this way, the metal thickness and curvature should be the same. And hopefully the putty will be kept to a minimum. Live and learn.

[tjs72lemans]

One of the problems with your initial approach is the metal shrinking from the welds and causing more distortion than you had. I tried a small patch on my 55 Chevy door once. It looked really good. When it cooled, it sucked the curvature of the door skin in. But, that type of door has big open areas to get behind to do some hammer and dolly work to help fix. With your big patches, I can see a real issue.

[drewm]

Originally Posted by tjs72lemans

One of the problems with your initial approach is the metal shrinking from the welds and causing more distortion than you had. I tried a small patch on my 55 Chevy door once. It looked really good. When it cooled, it sucked the curvature of the door skin in. But, that type of door has big open areas to get behind to do some hammer and dolly work to help fix. With your big patches, I can see a real issue.

Definitely a concern. I am still a rookie welder, learning as I go. All I can do at this point is go very slowly, air quench after each weld, and hope for the best. I don't expect it not to need some filler when done, but there was an excessive amount of filler on there before I started. So I guess anything is an improvement.

[ZeGermanHam]

Yeah, a big square patch right in the middle of a relatively flat section was destined to warp. Seems most fabricators I know try to avoid using straight lines with 90-degree corners. Looks like there may not have been enough of a gap around the edges of the patch, either, but it could just be the camera angle. If the inner shell of the door is solid, I think most people with adequate skills would just re-skin it and move on. But if you're not confident in your ability to do that well, finding an original door that didn't need work in that area is your best alternative. Speaking from personal experience, finding a 100% solid original door that needs NO work is not an easy task. They're old enough now that most will reveal after blasting that they need some level of fixing.

It sounds like you are still trying to use your original door but are now cutting metal from a donor door to weld into your original? Did I read that correctly? If so, I'm not sure I'd go that route, as you run the risk of warping it again and you will have ruined the skin on your donor door in the process.

[HoovDaddy]

If it were me, I would reskin it. I would avoid a repop door assembly due to the amount of fabrication work required. If your door shell is solid, a new skin requires less work than you're doing now. You'll have to drill mirror holes, weld in the mirror reinforcement, crimp it on loosely, align it with the fender and quarter, tack the corners and make sure the vent window gap is correct and weld the tab. The most work will be block sanding the waves out of the stamping. Just my 2 cents.

[drewm]

Ill report back in a few days when I get some time to work on it. The donor door I got is solid where I am going to cut, but roached otherwise. If this doesnt work, i figured that I would just get a repop skin from Ames and go that route. But at least this way, ill be repairing old metal with similar thickness old metal with the correct curve. I dont expect it to be perfect and need no filler, but hopefully a minimal amount. I have heard from a few people that said the repop skins need alot of work to fit right.

[drewm]

Originally Posted by ZeGermanHam

Yeah, a big square patch right in the middle of a relatively flat section was destined to warp. Seems most fabricators I know try to avoid using straight lines with 90-degree corners. Looks like there may not have been enough of a gap around the edges of the patch, either, but it could just be the camera angle.

I tacked the repair panel and then cut around the panel and welded, removing the old piece from behind after completing the cut. If that makes sense the way I described it.

[ZeGermanHam]

Originally Posted by drewm

I tacked the repair panel and then cut around the panel and welded, removing the old piece from behind after completing the cut. If that makes sense the way I described it.

Ah, so the photo must have been taken before you made the first cut. Got it! That is indeed the proper method.

Good luck!