I was lookin at Metaqlshape's[Alex's ] post about his metal work on his T copupe and thought- we are all doin about the same thing lately... I thought maybe somebody may want to see how to save a door that is past most folks "repairable condition".. I did these repairs this past week on some 32 Ford Pickup doors. these particular doors were rusted pretty good/completely missing about the 6" inner [and outer] too-on both doors. This means no pattern to build from...I mocked up the shell in the jamb and made a measurement/pattern from the available space it was to fit in,,right? These doors also required outer skins from the Beltline down... A previous owner had pop riveted [lapped]patches over bare door and rusted out entire door skin... These were done with Howell's panels/door skin. No one makes the inner door here that I am aware of... I will post a pic of the doors as I recieved them and after repairs....
here it is on the cab...chopped it 3" while I had the saw out....the upper door posts had rust too, so it seemed only natural that it should be .....removed- too!
Great work! Reminds me of my roadster doors.... http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=32313&highlight=door Rich
real nice work! seems like that type of craftsmanship always goes unoticed. the thing about these old cars the fit from the factory was "crude" at best. people think if it doesn't have panel gaps like a lexus their is something wrong. i've seem original fenders need 3/16" in spots added to keep gap even.
I am doing about the same thing to my tudor. the entire lower 6" of the car is gone. Patch panels arent even tall enough for some of the areas on my car. Great work by the way
The door skins have a lot of radius in them and look scary at first glance...did not fit too bad actually condsidering all things.... The cab corners and cowl patches are just ok I guess......better than making some.
My A doors were not nearly that bad, but I did have to patch parts. My 48 doors look just like those.
My passenger door was not as bad as the one you pictured & it turned out really good with the Howell (lower 6" patch) & the door bottom patch. So did the the lower cowl areas & the lower rear cab area. However, my driver's door is worse than the one you have pictured & has forced me to become creative. I had to cut out both hinges & restabilize those areas. I got the full door skin from Howell, so we'll see how that goes. To be continued. Maybe I should call my truck "patches?"