Stripped all the paint and body filler off 1963 drivers door. Tried to repair but it is too far gone (oilcanning). Plan to buy replacement panel for lower 12" of door.
Is there anything I should know before I attempt re-skin of a door.
I have done rust repair before but never on a door where the outer skin wraps around the edges of the door.
Any experienced advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,
John

 

Get one of the special bits to cut out spot welds, this will save you lot of time. Then grind off what left once the skin is off. I use a wheel cutter to cut panels, and take your time so you get it straight. And make sure you welding skills are up to snuff. Make sure you get is align up correctly or you will have a warped door.

 

If you will be lapping the panels, use a weld through primer between the overlapping sections, and use a good 2k seam sealer on the seam inside to prevent water from entering the seam. Also make sure it is epoxy primed between where the new skin peice folds over the inner door, and grind back off just the areas that will be spot welded up and shoot some weld through primer on those areas. I prefer to butt weld even though its a bit harder weld to do, but makes easier to treat the backside of the weld area fairly well and have no overlapping seam. Also may be a good place to use a panel or door skin adhesive, at least on the folded over edges, no heat or burning off corrosion protection to worry about. The cost of the special applicator gun for the adhesives can be pricey, but believe evercoat now makes one that can be used in a standard caulk gun. If you only replaceing the lower part of door skin though, you still should probably weld the top seam across the patch solid because the adhesive could lead to a ghost line in the paint at the seam area to appear. When welding there is potential of warpage, so go slow short welds at a time and skip around where your placing welds, and keep cool with a air blow gun. One of the hardest things could possibly be folding over the edges of the patch over the inner door edges, and without leaving the any wrinkles to fix. Been quite a while since I did an actual skin and not a lower patch I made. Use a hammer and flat dolly as a backup, and slowly work over the lip and your way around it.
Here some tutorials on door skin replacement that should be helpfull and similar even though your not doing a complete skin and its not the same vehicle door.
Welding.
http://hardcorepontiacs.com/forum/16...placement.html
Adhesive. The seam sealer they talk about apply when using the adhesive I believe would only for apperance to duplicate the factory look. The adhesive itself should seal and provide corrosion protection to the joint, or you could even run a bead of the adhesive and smooth with finger along the folded edge seam if you wished to somewhat mimik a factory spot welded skins look where seam sealer is needed to protect water from entering the seam.
http://www.lordfulfillment.com/upload/RP3002.pdf

 

NOW THAT'S THE KIND OF ADVICE THAT I NEEDED.
Your time is appreciated.

John

 

John, here's a fairly detailed account for a door skin replacement, this is for a full skin replacement and although this is for a different vehicle, it should be a similar procedure. I'd follow the advice Kenseth gave for welding the panel in, and try to use a butt weld if at all possible, it will be easier to do any hammer and dolly work afterward with a single thickness on either side of the weld, and minimizes the possibility of a moisture trap/rust generator that you have with step-flanged welded panels. But in the end, you have to use the method that works best for you based on your skills. Be sure to keep the door hung in place while you install the new skin so you can check the fit/gaps to the door jamb. It's harder to move the flange once the fold is complete, as opposed to checking the gaps as you go.



http://www.trifive.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4943

http://www.trifive.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5909

http://www.trifive.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8370

http://www.trifive.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8686

http://www.trifive.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8776


For dressing the welds on a butt weld, this thread may give some insight

http://www.trifive.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9511

As I'm sure you've heard, jump around to minimize heat and just do tack welds. Much of the distortion you'll see comes from the shrinking of the metal as the weld cools. By skipping around with tack welds, you can use a hammer and dolly to "planish" out the tacks as you go, to get rid of this shrinkage. After planishing the tacks, grind them down so they won't be in the way of planishing the following tack welds. To grind down the welds, I use a 3" x 1/16 cutoff wheel perpendicular to the weld, and move back and forth along the weld to grind it down. If you stay in one spot, that's when it has a tendency to cut, so keep the wheel moving back and forth. The minimal contact area of the cutoff wheel will also give you much less heat buildup than using a sanding disc, flap wheel, grinder, etc. Grind the weld down until it is just above the surface of the door panels, then you can swith to a 3" angle sander, I use about 60 grit rolocs. Hope this helps.

 

Fantastic stuff!
Thank you for your time and knowledge.

John

 

One more tip..

Before the door is cut , leave enough metal to bend a 90 degree (or so ) lip,(inward) just below the seam,a 1/4 -1/2 inch will do ,(if you are overlapping),,, it will help to keep the new welded seam from warping....