I am repairing some rust through on the bottom corners of the doors on my '72. I have made a cut about 1 1/2" up from the bottom, ground away the folded over edges and removed that portion of the skin. The remaining skin looks pretty sound although I may take another 1/2" off. The inner door is pretty thin at the bottom but still in one piece so I think I'll keep it as-is.

My question is; how do I attach the new piece. I was thinking of gluing it with body adhesive but there is now way I can flange all the way along the edge of the old skin because the inner door and skin come together at the edges. The only other way I can think of is a welded butt joint. Is that the recommended way?

Any other ideas.

 

You flange up to that point ,then you butt to the old ,then mig/tig/braze the butt .any of those types of welds will work ,just keep the heat down .Don't want warpage on your panel .then flange the edge just like you took off the orignal .
use some good weldthrough primer.

Rich

 

Thanks Rich. Do I drill holes and spot weld the flanged part?

 

In the corner of the door, I would suggest that you not flange the patch as it will rust again.
Butt weld the patch in and them fold over the seam and weld the tab to the door frame with a couple of spot welds.
One of the reasons the door rusted in the first place was because of the moisture content inside the door cavity. If there was mud, dirt or leaves inside, it would have excellerated the rusting process. But if the door holds water to begin with, your going to regret flanging.

 

Which Flange part ? the flange on your old door skin ? or the flange that you are going to bend over the old inner door panel?

did you grind off the door bottom then flip the door over and remove what was left of the orignal skin? if so you should have encountered spot welds there.
You can just mig spot weld the edge at 3-4 inch increments.

As Rosati says at the 90 degree corners of your door you will need to keep the drain holes open for drainage.
Butt welding the skin to skin is also a way to do ,some guys need more practice to do it that way or need to have the butt edge holders instead of the flanging tool .
Pctures of what your doing could help us help you .

Rich