Ok, enough with the throwback door repairs, here's a current update. Ive got the doors and fender back from the blasters. They're in epoxy and looking pretty good. One thing I didn't do before sending them off to the blasters is check fitment on the cab. Not a big deal, because I knew I could do it when I got them back.

I'm happy with the driver door gaps, they're straight and consistent all the way around. In this photo, they just need to rock back a hair to even the gap from top to bottom.



Here's the front, just a little tweaking still needed here too.



The only real issue I had was with the passenger door. Down at the bottom, the gap widens significantly in the rear. This is due to the fact that I replaced both the lower door skin and the cab corner (on both sides actually), but here they didn't quite line up right. I did the best I could, but these replacement panels are never a perfect fit. It looks pretty decent most of the way around...



But when you get down here, you can see how much the gap widens.



I took it down to bare metal to begin the repair, which also shows the gap even better with the contrast.



That's a lot of gap.



I used silicon bronze to TIG braze build-up filler on the corner. The beauty of TIG brazing is that it is plenty strong, but adds very little heat to the panel so that you don't get warpage, and zero chance of burn through. I've seen guys try to close these gaps with bondo... yikes!



Starting to grind it down to get the contour I need.



Turned out pretty nice. This is a seamless permanent repair that has zero chance of chipping off, and allows for perfect gaps on imperfect panels.



Then I just had to feather the inside edge in. It leaves a bit of a concave ridge on the inside obviously, but if you blend it just right, it looks like the frame was just cast that way. Plus you can only see it if the door's open, you're bending over, and you know what to look for.

 

that silicon bronze will come back to haunt you. Every place I have ever seen it bubbled back very quickly. We had to remove it afterwards from several customer cars after our shop 55 bubbled in under a year.

 

Been doing this for years. I think you're thinking of aluminum bronze. Paint has a tough time sticking to that stuff. Silicon bronze does not have that problem.

 

Nope,silicon bronze. Did a 55 chevy first. Repairs on the eyebrows on front fenders. Then a 69 charger and a 66riviera. Before we painted the rivi and charger the 55 had to have the bronze removed from the fenders every dang spot there was bronze under. We removed it from the 2 others and swore it off at our shop.

 

First guy I've ever heard of having a problem with it, sorry to hear that. Hopefully it will continue to work well for those of us who use it.

 

Actually, it just occurred to me, how long ago were these original repairs made do you know? If it gave you problems, it was most likely gas-brazed. Gas brazing leaves borax flux and metal salts in the substrate which is hard like glass. This will stay in the material for a while, but eventually creeps out from under the paint. With TIG brazing, there is no flux to worry about, so you don't get that problem. There are some old-school fellas that still use gas.

 

ohhhh I bet there was a torch used at one time. We used tig but we left what was there alone and it came back. I bet you hit it on the head there. Cool,I just don't want anyone to have issues down the line.

 

Before I let the Dodge Ram donor truck get hauled away, I picked a few other things off it, like the power rear view mirrors. I like these mirrors because they have the modern convenience of power adjustability, but they have retro styling which will look right at home on this truck. There are two obstacles to overcome first.

Obstacle 1 - How do I wire these things? there are 3 wires per mirror, and 8 wires coming out of the switch. All the factory wiring diagrams I've seen have completely different colors to what I have. A wiring genius I am not, however, I fortunately know one. FTE member "lasermike" heard of my plight and sent me a message saying that he could help me figure it out (he lives local). Turns out he is a brilliant electrical engineer (or something like that), and he helped me figure out just how to wire these things in. Very big thanks to lasermike!!

Obstacle 2 - How do I mount these to the truck? I like when modifications look factory (like they could have come from the factory that way), and I knew the factory Dodge plastic housings obviously would not fit. So, I set off to make my own housings.

Here is the stock mirror. The plastic housings are meant to go in the front corner of the Dodge door, and are obviously nowhere close to the contour of the Ford doors.



And with the plastic housing removed, here's what holds the mirror stem itself. It's a small plastic mount which them mounts to the body of the truck.



I came up with a plan in my head of how I wanted to build these housings, but never actually sketched it out or mocked it up... keep your fingers crossed.

I started with a piece of 4" 6061 aluminum round tube.


Then I cut a small section out of it. I just wanted the curve after all. Then I used a body contour gauge to measure the shape of the door, then trace out a pattern onto a piece of 1/8" 5052 plate for the sides of the housing.



Next I made a backing plate to which I could mount that plastic piece that holds the mirror stem, and matched up the bolt holes.



Then I welded the contoured side pieces to the backing plate. You can see where I had tacked the curved piece temporarily to get the spacing right, then removed it to weld the backing piece.



Now the curved piece gets permanently reattached.



Next I welded on the top plate. You can see in this photo that I decided to scallop the top and bottom of the curved piece, for no other reason than to be stylish.



Here's a plate welded to the bottom scalloped section.



And one to the top.



Like most folks, I really dig the look of TIG welds, so it was almost a shame to do this, but in order to remain consistent with the look I'm going for, I had to grind all the welds down and blend them smooth. In the background you can see the pieces laid out for the other housing.



Test fit



Looks good.



A before and after shot of the weld smoothing.



And both done. Well, as far as the fab work. Still some sanding and smoothing to do on one of them.






After powder coat. I know, I know, they would have looked pretty slick polished, but I'm blacking out the brightwork on this truck anyway, so polished would actually have looked out of place in the end.



And fit up again.

 

Very nice work on the rust repairs.

 

Oh yeah...my ears really perked up when I got the email about the mirror mod. I've been thinking doing modern mirrors for quite some time, just haven't found the time. Nice work so far.

 

Thanks, I'm happy out worked out. My biggest fear was not being able to get them to function, but I knew there had to be a way.

 

What's your plan for a gasket between the mirror base and the door and door mounting?

I have noticed that mine move and rattle quite a bit when the door is shut and I think it's because I don't have the brace between the mirror and the inside frame of the door.

I'm sure you thought of this but make sure you have clearance for the window wing to open and that the passenger side isn't blocked by the window track post.

As always your work is awesome!

 

Thanks! I'm just going to cut a rubber gasket that will sandwich in between the mirror and door. I also temporarily dropped the window tracks in the door while I was mocking it up. You make a good point about the wing windows, they weren't installed in the frame during the test fit. I'll keep my fingers crossed!

 

Great work on the mirror mods, man those TIG welds looked GREAT! You're right, the smoothed welds look the part much better. Atta-boy on the panel gaps too, I've never heard of that before, well done sir.




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Time to get some fuel from the in-hole to the fuel tank. I was going to do this part in aluminum, but I ended up going with stainless simply because I had a few scrap pieces, and the bends were easier to locate.
First I started with a 3" mandrel-bent section, cut it, and welded it back together.




Next I cut an inside mounting flange (ugly cut, but it will never be seen).



Then I welded the flange to the main body, along with a section that necks down from 3" to 2.5", then from 2.5" to 2". I also added the overfill vent on the side.



Next I had to make a baffle that will keep the filler nozzle in place while filling. This required a few trip to the gas station for test fitment.
I ended up just dropping a couple of pieces in a slit that I cut partway through the tube. Works great! Hard to see, but they're in there.


All done!