body and interior Obsessive/compulsive Door Repair - Rust

[jerry]

Allow me to provide a cautionary tale on the dangers of adhering to idealistic notions of originality and saving/restoring inanimate objects for the sake of some 'higher state of purity', i suppose.

 

my car is a bastard in the truest sense.  it lost its purety years ago with some appreciable part swaps brought on by previous incidents of contact with other dense objects.

 

Because of the prior part swaps, i've done some extreme effort to retain as much of the original sheetmetal as possible, where the expedient method would be to replace whole panels.

 

My current example is the DS door.  Other than the rust at the bottom, it appears to have been for the most part, accident free.  it is original to the car, as is the PS door, so i endeavored to save it.

 

i hope my photos may provide some encouragement to other obsessive/compulsive restorers.  Yes, i have a couple spare doors on hand, but where's the sport in that?  i've thrown economics out years ago.  i work for pennies, apparently.  here's the proof.

 

 

because the bottom lip was almost non-existant, i had no choice but to replace the bottom skin entirely as shown

my original plan was to replace the rusty sections with salvaged sections from a scrapped door, but i realized that i'd merely be replacing horribly rusty metal with less rusty metal.  no choice but to make my own sections using my scrap as templates

below shows the method used to recreate the depressions on the door section.  this is a COMMON rusty area and i've done this repair 3 times now and think i've finally come to a decent looking recreation.  i hit it with the hammer as shown using a dolley on the backside to support the other side while the depression is being formed.  i made the hard bend by placing it on the scrap template and heating it locally with a MAPP gas torch while tapping the beejessus out of it.

the other corner

the bottom edge of the door had to be replaced, too.

here's the replacement door skin made from shelving stock (great stuff, and a near perfect match)

it is absolutely critical to take measurements and retain the proper curvature of the door sides.  this is where careful measuring, filing, fitment and rechecking are needed.  this is VERY time consuming.

not shown is the fact that i prebent the lap seam prior to final fitment and painted the area with some excellent zinc-chromate primer that is not available on the open market.  it won't rust again in my lifetime.  also note that i left one end unfinished until after the panel is welded in place.  this way all the movement from heat distortion and shrinking can be accounted for prior to shaping the door edge properly.

 

this effort was time consuming but immensely satisfying to return a hopeless door to service.  it is in no way a cost effective repair as i'm sure a replacement door is cheaper than paying a bodyshop for this.  of course, they may be much faster.  but for anyone who is contemplating this work, i hope this sways you one way or the other.  i have several more hours of grinding welds and hammering the panel into shape....

 

 

[Simeon]

About to tackle something similar myself. Thanks for sharing. 

 

I have a rust hole in the door skin in the rear of the door. Looks like the door frame is OK so hoping, once I have stripped all of the paint off, that I can get away with just cutting the skin off diagonally in the corner and minimising the size of the patch to keep the welding to a minimum. 

[ingramlee]

I dont think I have rusty door panels, yet! But I wish I had the talent to do this. Nice!

['76mintgrün'02]

little pin head sized blisters showing on my door bottoms, so it is only a matter of time.

I have poured Por-15 Ospho in the seam at the bottom, hoping to postpone the inevitable.

thank you for the descriptive photos of what I may have to look forward to some day.

projects like these leave plenty of time for philosophizing about why we do what we do.

much of the inspiration for me, is in the way you describe your approach (and acceptance of the situation).

obsessive-compulsive is not always a disorder.  Nicely done sir.

Edited July 28, 2014 by '76Mintgrun'02

[glemon]

Beautiful work, I have tried similar, but the results, while serviceable, are not nearly as nice as yours. I said to a buddy one day, "my welding skills still leave a little something to be desired, but I have made up for it be getting quite good with the grinder"

I wish I could say it was inspirational, but it reminded me of how much time and effort is involved in doing rust repair right, then multiply by the other sections on the car in similar shape, I am currently debating whether to start on my car, or try to find a better much less rusty one.

Of course you can try to compartmentalize in your mind "its only a door repair, I can handle that" then move on the next repair.

[Grover]

Nice one Jerry. I love to see dogged determination overcome logic.

[mateo m3]

Nice

[73touring]

You did better than me a few years ago. I warped a repairable door seam welding a repair section in. Although I think I would have done the weld at the lower trim line

[PaulTWinterton]

I wish I had your abilities, time and tools. Love to work with my hands, but I have to be realistic. I'm not a body guy. Remove and replace, that would be my motto, if I had one.

This company may be of interest to those who aren't aware.

http://www.restoration-design.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=BMW

Lower outer door skin, $57.00. Add body man and stir.

[jerry]

thanks for the kind words folks.  i've been working on and off on this particular car for over 3 years.  i started by the pedal box floor and worked my way around the rear floorboards.  looking back, i never imagined just how much work was ahead of me.  as was stated above, i compartmentalized the effort, it was the only way to manage the scope of this job.   i've had my share of burn-through welds and poor fitting patches and warped metal. 

[snowy]

I've been doing similar work on snowy, probably not as far gone as yours. But I retrospect I would spend the money and by new doors. It is very therapeutic !