The big difference with MC door's are the '81-'85 used different mirrors that mounted farther back than the aero style of the '86-'88 cars.
BUILD THREAD Rustier then I thought!!!
- Thread starter RabbitHoleSS
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Good progress so far. You can get some fab practice/experience remaking the bottom inside of the original door. I’ve done it without a brake or any thing fancy. Clamps, long angle iron in a vice, cave man/OLD SCHOOL fab. The biggest concern is before re-attaching the door skin to the new inner you should put the door back on the car for alignment. The bottom of the door could be to far in or out. I learned that lesson my first year doing a/b, I remade the entire bottom of a LONG/HEAVY 72 Impala 2 door, welded it all up. When I put it on the car it was sticking out at the bottom. What a mess. But I LEARNED a good lesson. I like the one members idea of using the engine hoist for doors. It gives total mobility of the door, a jack isn’t in the way at the bottom, its totally supported. Once your alignment is good with your 1/4 and rocker you can attach the outer to the inner with adhesive or welding.
Thanks. Im actually enjoying the work and definitely the interaction with everybody on here. Hopefully it helps the next guy to either start over with a different car or say F××× it and dive in like I did.
Yea after pagrunt told me the doors are different I started stripping the bottom of the og door. Ill be honest I was discouraged when I started. I've read olds cool thread on doors.
But after a couple hours Im thinkin it aint that bad. Or Im becoming immune to rust.
The worst of it.
Its only holy on that flat section. The door skin lip is clean all the way across. I think ill get away with some basic patches. Doug, if i dont seperate the door skin from the inner structure do I still need to mount the door to repair? I was lookin at the gray 85 door and its so wavy i doubt i could use it anyway. The white door is smooth to the touch no waves.
I went a different route on the driver wheelhouse patch. I clamped the oversized patch in place then cut thru both layers. I used a cut off wheel but in hindsight I should have used the body saw.
It worked but the cutoff wheel took more out then i liked. So I still had to fiddle with it so its tight. I sandblasted everything, ground down the welds and prepped with w/g remover. Then brushed on the epoxy.
And since Im incapable of mixing a small amount of epoxy I saturated the seams with it.
Im no Bob Ross but it should be pretty resilient. Im gonna clean it all up eventually I swear.
Wheelhouse and trunk patches goin in tommorow.
It worked but the cutoff wheel took more out then i liked. So I still had to fiddle with it so its tight. I sandblasted everything, ground down the welds and prepped with w/g remover. Then brushed on the epoxy.
And since Im incapable of mixing a small amount of epoxy I saturated the seams with it.
Im no Bob Ross but it should be pretty resilient. Im gonna clean it all up eventually I swear.
Wheelhouse and trunk patches goin in tommorow.
Looks like you got lucky. The first pics looked really bad. You don’t have much to cut out and replace.
Yea I definitely felt that way when I first pulled the door seal off. It smelled like mildew and many big holes seemed inevitable. Im figurin 2 or 3 small flat patches should fix it. I should have took the damn glass out before I ripped the car apart. So I'll have to use redneck ingenuity to roll the window up/down.
I went ahead and started welding in the floor sill patches. Before I clamped it all down.
After I welded it all in. I still gotta make a patch for the front were the sill was completely rotted. Ill use the brake at work for that.
My plan is to make it have 3 bends and slide in place on top and in between the inner rocker/patch. Then plug weld it to the inner rocker and bottom lip.
Pass side prior to welding.
Pass side after welding. This side is ready for the floor now. I sanded the epoxy away wherever I weld. I ground down some areas that were pitted and after almost 2 months there was no sign of rust returning. That stuff seals it up good. Epoxy primer is savin this cars life.
I also managed to fit the wheelhouse patch better. The grinder left to big of a gap. Here it is tacked on place.
Then all welded up. I think I finally got the hang of the machine. To bad im gettin rid of it. I've used 3x 80 cu ft bottles and about 3/4 of a 10 lb spool of lincoln superarc. I cant believe thats normal. The gas stays on for 2 secs after you let off the trigger. Post flow like a tig machine lol. Im goin back to hobart. Im thinkin 210mvp. Ill need the extra juice soon enough.
And the back side.
Im gonna grind and chase down any holes tommorow. Weld in the trunk patch after I get more gas and start on this.
And the driver rear seat belt mount.
I doubt this would've protected much.
I went ahead and started welding in the floor sill patches. Before I clamped it all down.
My plan is to make it have 3 bends and slide in place on top and in between the inner rocker/patch. Then plug weld it to the inner rocker and bottom lip.
Pass side prior to welding.
Pass side after welding. This side is ready for the floor now. I sanded the epoxy away wherever I weld. I ground down some areas that were pitted and after almost 2 months there was no sign of rust returning. That stuff seals it up good. Epoxy primer is savin this cars life.
I also managed to fit the wheelhouse patch better. The grinder left to big of a gap. Here it is tacked on place.
Then all welded up. I think I finally got the hang of the machine. To bad im gettin rid of it. I've used 3x 80 cu ft bottles and about 3/4 of a 10 lb spool of lincoln superarc. I cant believe thats normal. The gas stays on for 2 secs after you let off the trigger. Post flow like a tig machine lol. Im goin back to hobart. Im thinkin 210mvp. Ill need the extra juice soon enough.
And the back side.
Im gonna grind and chase down any holes tommorow. Weld in the trunk patch after I get more gas and start on this.
And the driver rear seat belt mount.
I doubt this would've protected much.
Wow. Man. Killing the repairs over here. Talk about helping a guy feel motivated to get some work done.
Thanks Im slowly getting back to work as we come outta winter. Soon Ill be so swamped I wont have much time/energy to work on it. I really wanna get the floor in and back seat fixed, on the tip over jig by april.
So I started on the door repair. I figured I had to take the window out so I didnt ruin it. I used my dealt 20v battery to raise the window up to get at the bolts. Also makes the window sweep an easy removal. You cant get the middlr screw out with the window in. Unless you mess with the adjustment bolts at the bottom.
I cut out the rusty areas on the door. Made a cardboard template and cut out a couple patches. They fit pretty good.
The better the fit the easier it is to weld for me. These turned out better then any of my prior welds.
Then ground down smooth so the door weatherstrip sets right.
Turned out pretty nice considering what it looked like when I first pulled the weatherstrip. Its a smooth door but has 1 door ding in the body line. Im not sure how to fix it but I know I need to before I put the glass back in. I got the trunk patch mostly welded in. I used plug welds to attach the patch to the mount. Then welded the seams.
Ill be honest Im not real happy with my booger welding back here. Especially were the patch meets the trunk dropoff and wheel house.
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