something to keep in mind with this,when you do get to the point where you're aligning the doors to the 1/4's keep the latches or striker's out of the equasion that way the door will land naturally and it's resting place won't be steered by them.same thing w/hoods and trunk lids.
84' Cutlass pro touring build
- Thread starter Tony1968
- Start date
Just getting ready to pull striker and the lever for seat belts.
as much of a bummer that is,think how mint that roof turned out to be under that vinyl covering.
No big deal as I planned to take it to bare metal anyway. Just going to take a little longer.
Roof is done and no rust found. Driver door had 2 patches welded in. I need opinions on these. To me they aren't perfect but I can only screw them up more with my welding.
maybe it's jsut me but I'd do some touchup welding, wouldn't hurt. then again if there is no rust there.....
You should probably put a straight edge on the door and make sure theres no crazy highs or lows from the heat. The welding is pretty gnarly, you can do much better with a little practice and patience, but if you think you can fill it,without covering the entire door in filler go for it. Check the backside of the patches for rust too. Welding causes the area to flash rust almost immediately, so if they didn't treat those patches after they were done it'll be full of rust in there.....It looks to me like there's pitting on the bottom of the patches and maybe between the two. How are the seams inside the door(they're sometimes covered in seam sealer) and the area that the weatherstripping snaps into? Before you go fixing or filling, I'd look that door over inside out so I didn't waste my time. I figure if your worried about perfect panel gaps, these patches aren't up to what u want. There's a guy Corey Charlton in Northern Indiana. He might have a door for you. He's got a gbody junkyard. That's what I would do, or cut those patches out and try again. Especially if I'm right about the pitting.
PSA: I'm not a bodyman, I'm a construction worker so take what I say with a grain or 2. Research is key if you wanna be successful with this. I'm pretty sure Rktpwtd project oldscool thread has your name written all over it. D Explains his thought process really well, and gives insight into what's worth fixing and time Involved. I think he had a door dilemma on that car too.
Aside from that thread, Fitzees fabrication and Kevin tetz paintucation on youtube have been invaluable to me as I try to teach myself bodywork.
Both patches are very slightly lower. I'd say 1/16 of an inch and there was a thin layer of body filler only in that area. The pitting is taken care of already using 3M roloc bristles. I went over both sets of welds around patches cleaning them up significantly. The pitting is 99.9% gone. I brushed a coating of rust converter last night. A few specs of rust turned black. Other than that inside door I see no rust. I can see welds. I do want to seal up the inside of door somehow though
Did you check the whole door horizontally with a straight edge? Especially adjacent to the patches in the middle of the door skin. With the look of those welds, I doubt he took his time so he didn't overheat and warp it but you could be lucky( you are judging by that vinyl roof) What rust converter did you use? Some of it has acid in it and isn't suitable under epoxy primer. Take a pick and poke at the areas you've "converted" underneath will probably be brown rust. The only stuff I found that worked (barely) is ospho. As for the inside of the door. Blast it with epoxy primer, then before it cures poke the weep holes clear. Then sling a bunch of cavity wax in it. That's my plan anyway.
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