I usually spray it on, use a scotch pad to rub it in, and try to wipe it before it completely dries, but sometimes I forget, which leaves a sticky film and excess white residue. Anyway, I will wash it with water and soap, dry, a quick scuff with the DA, followed with degreaser before spraying. Not all epoxy primers are compatible with acid treatment. Check on a case by case basis. After the Ospho treatment, the surfaces pretty much stay rust free for months if you don't handle them. PPG also has SX metal treatment products which is compatible with their DPLF epoxy primers. It's a two stage process. I googled and found lots of people who regularly use epoxy right over Ospho treated metal and have no problems, but I would definitely verify before attempting. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I spent the day making a pilgrimage to the paint store to pick ups some primer. I was pretty much speechless that they want $300 for a gallon of PPG primer! Ended up going with the Omni 170 series for about half. I have used it before and it's great stuff, but has a disclaimer not to use over self etching primer and had me somewhat concerned because of the Ospho treatment. The guy at the store said it should not be a problem. I'm not too concerned because I washed all surfaces down with soapy water and will follow up tomorrow with a DA and degreaser. I decided to remove the door hinges while at it. I tried tapping the hinge pins out after removing the cotter pin at the top, but they didn't budge. I tried rotating them to break free, but again, no luck. I finally was able to pull them out from the bottom by welding a 5/16" bold to the head of the pin, sliding a piece of tubing over the threads, and using a washer and nut to force it out. The pins have a knurled 1/4" section adjacent to the head, which keeps them from rotating and backing out. They have some wear on them, so I will give some thought what to do. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Sprayed some epoxy primer today. Ready to be blasted on the outside. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I moved on to patching the door. There is quite a bit of filler on one door where the bottom was rusted out and a arch was riveted on top and filled with bondo. The inner structure is rusted out as well. I started by making a template of the curvature on the good door for future reference. Cardboard template made.. Starting to make the bends. None of the bends are straight lines and none are a constant angle, so a lot of eyeballing and adjustments are needed. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Forming the lower lip where the door skin will be folded over. Ugliness revealed... Inner structure trial fitted. So much for this weekend! Stay tuned. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I decided to build a wooden buck to define the final contour of the lower door edge. The inner structure has some spring in it and needs to be clamped to the skin to move into the final shape, that's why the picture above shows the vise grips used at the flange. This let's me work on the door skin without the inner structure in place. I also added a contoured wooden brace at the door skin cut line to make sure the overall crown matches the other side. I made all the patterns from measurements I took on the good door. This shows how much curvature the door skin has in the bottom couple of inches. Maybe this carpentry work is complete overkill, but unfortunately Merc doors don't grow on trees. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
A few from last night. Continuing with the rust repair at the door bottom. The scrap metal strip clamped to the edge helps make sure the new pice aligns with the existing edge on the other side of the door hinge. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Nice to see you are still disciplined and progressing well. The only way to get thru these jobs is to stay focused. The reward will be the satisfaction of having done it right.
I have to keep telling myself it's the journey, not the destination. There is no other rationalizing doing a project like this. The feedback and encouragement keeps me going. Thanks all! Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Probably the 60 grit blue flap discs from Harbor Freight. Then the 3?" Cut off wheels on the pneumatic grinder. I use the thin 3/64" ones so I can cut between 18-19 ga panels and end up with my comfortable weld gap and use it to dress down weld beads before switching to the flap wheel. I also have a couple of carbide burrs for the air grinder to dress welds and such. A DA palm sander with 80 grit is nice to finish off and indicate high spots. The 2" sanding disc on the air tool are nice, but wear out too fast. I also use regular files to dress minor high spots and tight radii. I also have a Dremel tool when my ADD kicks in . Basically whatever gets the job done. I usually switch to the next tool when I get tired with the one I'm using at the time. Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Excellent work, really enjoying this thread. Thanks for taking the time to keep it going. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
This is my go to build these days. Keep up the fight. Looking great!! Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
Patching the other corner. Using the shrinker... Cleaned the rust with the wire wheel, neutralized with Ospho, the sprayed some weld through primer before welding in place. Now comes a shameless plug for HF door skin installation kit. It's $24 and I absolutely love the hammer which I use for all kinds of tasks when I need a little more heft than a regular body hammer and need to get into tight corners. The angled head has a straight outer face which allows one to work along a straight 90 degree corner. Plus you get a couple of dollys, which are so so, and a dinging spoon. Primed and ready for a door skin. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Just discovered this thread today. It is so good I read the whole thing in one sitting. Amazing work, you deserve every accolade you've gotten here. Glad to see you haven't had the dustless blasting done yet. I hope to talk you out of it. The problem is easy to visualize. Just imagine water packing sand( glass ) into every nook and cranny of your car. At least with dry blasting it is loose and can be blown out. https://www.jeep-cj.com/forums/f7/dustless-blasting-review-20063/
Hutkikz: that's why I finished the inside and only have them do the outside. Any wet media overspray I can wash off easily from the epoxy primer. I will be present when the blasting is done so I can intervene if things start going off the rails. Thanks for the kind words and your interest! Sent from my iPad using H.A.M.B.
Wheeled a door skin last night. This really gave me fits in the beginning when I just tried to use the English wheel which didn't quite give me the right crown and was starting to wave at the top edge as I was trying to add the curvature at the bottom. I switched to some 20 ga for a practice piece and ran into the same issue, but decided to add more crown with the mallet and sandbag. This did the trick and the panel started coming back into shape. After the practice session, I picked up the 19 Ga panel again and did the same exercise. I used a smaller 3" wheel radius at the bottom and also pushed down on both sides to add curvature. Had I left the panel a couple of inches wider at the bottom it would have given me some better leverage, but because of the crown the overhang would have started to buckle, which I observed to a small degree. I used the shrinker along the bottom edge carefully to get rid of the buckling. Before finishing the bottom radius, i marked the area where the curvature needs to be added to help where to wheel. This shows the right curve at the bottom After some more wheeling and manual help the panel has a decent fit with minimal force required to stay in place. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
The wooden support at the cut line was a great help because it let me except some pressure on the door skin during the fitting process. If I didn't have it in place, the door skin would have moved all over. My big dilemma now is should I apply the 90 degree bend before I weld the panel in place and risk messing with the panel shape, or try and form the door seam with the skin in place, risking an uneven, lumpy seam. I think I am going with the first... Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
First task was to make the 4 drain holes Marking the cut line for the skin. Skin is cut to correct length. I made a tool to help me form the 90 degree edge for the door seam. It has a hard edge, but a softer side with a slight radius for clamping the curved skin to the table and form the 90 degree edge. The length is such that it will not leave a permanent deformation in the curved door skin. I used small tapered shims between the table and the skin for the same reason. The first pass was to get the metal to a 60 or so degree angle, then on the return pass the full 90. Back again to tighten up the radius and smooth out any bumps. This worked like a charm and the panel still fit without any noticeable distortion! I had to make small adjustments to the width of the flange on both the inner structure and the skin, but finally it fit nicely and it should let me fold over the skin without interference. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
View from the underside I removed the wooden brace so I could scribe the cut line for the door skin with the panel fasteners in place, the remove the panel, cut along the scribe line with the cut off wheel. I then used the calipers again to scribe another line 1/16" from the edge, then removed that much with the grinder for a weld gap. I reinstalled the wood brace and the skin and aligned the panel for a trial fit. Everything still fits perfectly! I will leave the brace in place for the tack welds as it perfectly aligns the panels. I took the panel off again and sprayed some primer on all inside surfaces which will be hard to reach once the panel is welded in. Hard to believe but this was a 6 hour job from when I drilled the drain holes. Countless times trial fitting, taking off, putting on, etc. these days I go by "small steps mean small mistakes". 20 years ago I would have probably made the same panel 3 times a fucked up twice. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Welding the door skin. I tacked with the brace in place in 4-6 places, then removing the brace and switching to the panel clamps which give a better panel alignment. I had the run the cut off wheel again between all the tacks as it pulled the gap a bit in some places. I halved the distance between tacks with help of the panel clamps until I had only 1-2" between tacks, then started doing 1/4" welds and moving to the next tack. I ended up with a high spot I didn't like probably because I didn't use the panel clamps originally and the panels moved without the spacer in between. Anyway, I cut the panel again in that 5" section, aligned and welded again which took care of bump. I gave it a quick pass with the grinder before moving on to the door bottom: I drilled 4 holes for plug welds to keep the door skin tacked to the inner structure so I could remove the clekos and start folding over the seam. I drilled holes in the door skin flange for plug welds once the seam is formed. My nifty new hammer works beautifully to knock down the flange. Two passes will get it down, then going over a few times to flatten the edge and make things even. This would not have been possible without forming the 90 degree initially. Sides had to be done using the "universal tool" The difficulty here is to match the existing edge, which I ended up just a little short and had to build up a sixteenth or so to blend in. The finished door seam is even and fair, although I probably have 3/16" of curvature in the middle because the inner structure pushed a little more than I anticipated, but it should be no problem clearing the running board. Outside came out nice as well. There are very faint irregularities from the panel beating which the English wheel didn't completely get rid of. They only really showed up once i used the DA sander. Nothing a thin coat of filler wouldn't take care of.
Your work looks great. I thought of this project when I saw the NOS 40 Merc sheet metal in the classifieds for a giveaway price.
I saw that too, but can't really justify it at this time because I'm pretty much done with most of the rust repairs, but it would certainly be great to have some spare fenders and doors! Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
The door still had a spot that had obvious rust in the seam by the increase in thickness. I cut out the inner layer leaving the edge intact Using mostly the cut off wheel to grind off the rust and an Ospho treatment followed with some weld through primer. New strip welded in and ground. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Same issue with the "good" door. Despite the tar insulation, the lower door seam was suspect and the inside of the skin shows pitting. However everything seems structurally sound so I will just try a salvage. From inside: I had previously scraped the tar as much as I could with a scraper, heat and solvents. I cut seam as before so I could spread the skin from the inner structure and clean all surfaces. I used the cut off wheel, wire brushes, scrapers, sandpaper etc. to remove the rust, then followed with Ospho. I will probably use some POR 15 on the heavily rusted areas before closing it up. So much for today. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
The Jalopy Journal
