Of all the work that my 49 needs, the doors are scaring me most. This is my first ever classic truck build. I have never had to deal with so much rust or holes in my life. The doors are very scary. How am I suppose to get to all that rust inside the door shell? Ive go the glass and handles removed. How did you guys get to that rust. I cant even see how a sandblaster is going to work up in there. Did you have to cut the door around in the inside? Then sand blast, then reweld the inner portion of the door? Anyone have pics of door overhauls? Also, almost all the F-1's Im seeing having rust through at the very bottom of the door itself. Does anyone make patches for this? Or is everyone making templates and cutting there on sheetmetal to weld in.

 

Joe

If the rust has eaten away the internal structure you may have to de-skin the door to make the repairs, and that can be a major project.

If there is just surface rust on the interior there are several ways to remove the rust, most use from mild to wild chemicals and can be a little intimadating at first glance.

 

To get rid of the rust I soaked my panels in a solution of 1 part sulphated molasses to 4 parts water, I have heard of other people using muratic acid but I think that is a bit more severe

A pickup bed lined with polythene makes a good dip tank

I replaced the bottom inner sections of both doors with repair panels from mid-fifty but they just seem to list parts from 53 - 56,

Some pic's in my gallery may give you a few ideas

 

JoeGodbee, you could have your doors acid dipped, this would remove all rust from your doors inside and out, then just start fabricating and welding, i just made that sound sooooo ! easy didn't i ! good luck

 

Are the doors worth fixing? You might be able to find doors in better condition to start with. I have seen a few on Ebay advertised as well as entire truck that have sold for parts that might be less expensive.

 

Do any companies sell complete doors?

 

I have some good doors out of a '49 Panel truck that I am parting out.

No rust-through any where on the doors. Left door does have some minor surface rust (as seen in the photo) that can be repaired with little effort. Doors are straight.

I want to sell just the door shells, unless you need the guts of the door. You'd spend less time and money on these doors than repairing yours. There aren't any patch panels for the bottom edge. You'd have to fabricate it yourself. The doors are not being reproduced by anyone. You'd have to find an NOS door or a good used set, like mine.





I have the inner door panels available as well if you need them.

Let me know if the doors are of any interest to you. I am in San Jose, CA, and can figure out a way to ship them to you.

Ilya

 

They should not be that heavy when gutted. Box them up and send them fedex or ups. My guess is about $75.00 with the box especially if you send them ground.

 

51PanelMan,

I may be very interested. Can you send me more photos of the bad spots? Also, these are froma 51? Will they fit right up to my 49 cab? Also, I can see rust inside the door through the opening where the panel goes. Every set I see has this. How in the world do you get all that out?

 

Joe Godbee,

The doors are from a '49 Panel truck. However, doors from 1948-1952 remained pretty much the same. There weren't any body changes in the inside and on the outside. Doors from any '48-'52 Bonus Built truck, except the COE's, will fit.

I will take more pictures as you requested and either send them to you or post them in this thread. I wouldn't worry too much about the inside surface rust unless it's really bad. If I were you, I'd try to sand as much of it as I can and then spray POR 15 inside on as much as I can. This is what I plan to do with my current doors on my '51 Panel.

You can also sound deaden the inside of the doors. Dynamat sells different adhesive sheets that will damper the sound and/or insulate the door. I am contemplating about doing this. I believe that there's also a spray-on sound dampering/insulating material.

Ilya