1959 356A S/R coupe project chassis # 108625

[JTR70]

Bruce, I remember seeing a similar treatment on "pimp my ride" once. The guy cut out little windows for plexi-glass in the skins so curious onlookers could watch his chrome plated window regulators operate. The insides of these doors won't be nice enough to justify that treatment. On a serious note having the skin off really makes me aware of what a false sense of side impact protection these old doors really offer the occupants.
Justin

[JTR70]

10/14/17

Loose ends and new bottom install

Finished out that looong seam weld finally.

These twin prepunched holes in the center of the bottom are not for an A-car; must be a T5 or 6 thing so now was as good a time as any to back fill them.

Plug weld holes punched and all other loose ends complete. These two are finally ready.

Started welding up front. After clamping the hinge down I fully welded up the ends of the old pins to fully secure them once again.


As a final finishing detail I took a pair of washer and plug welded them on to replicate the old heads.

Just a touch larger than the Originals but since I'm not using Plexi-glass it should be just fine once the new skin is all mounted on.

Then moved to the outside and plug welded up the flange and also started gas welding up the edges as they were done before.


More seam welding to the rear. All flange plug welds dressed and followed up with my spotter for final detail

No more and no less on the spots for a more authentic look; The best that I can do anyway. Should have this all buttoned up by tomorrow then its onto fitting the new skin.
Thanks for looking!
Justin

[merbesfield]

Thanks for posting this Justin. This will be my next project so good for me to start studying.

[JTR70]

Thanks a lot Mark! Best of luck with your door repair!
Justin

10/15/17
Left door shell inner frame repairs complete.

Inner pan flange to bottom all welded up. Originally there were just 5 spot welds widely spaced holding this together here. I put extra plug welds in for added strength but replicated only the 5 spots for an original detail.

Back corner fully gas welded up and the small repair patches on the wall finished out.

forward gas welds in and replicate what was there originally.

Front repair section also seam welded up as found.


Officially done welding and repairing the door shell frame.

Begin fitting the new skin on next.

New adventure begins tomorrow.
Thanks for looking!
Justin

[JTR70]

10/17/17

Begin new door skin fitment.

Getting ready to cut the cap of the new skin off by making extra sure I gave myself enough overlap to deal with any unforseen adjustments as this goes. The last thing I need is to be short and have to weld more length back on.

Capped and now slowly figuring out best adjusted position on the shell frame. Then it all has to fit in the car.

Of course the initial fitment is very crude and misaligned.

Small series of trimming to the flanges and repeated test fits slowly made it better.

I debated about whether I was going to use Trevor's step flange or not. As the fitting progress it just seamed to be holding things up.

I decided to cut free. I was very unsure about it as the cutting went but

Once I laid it back over the frame everything seemed to fall into place. It was the right way to go.


Remembering Bruce's warning about door handle height discrepancies I set about making sure this cup is in the right spot.

Both original doors to this car have the center of the handle coming in at center to that mount screw hole in the jamb. This wasted T2 door I have here highlighted perfectly what Bruce was warning about. Its a factory door but notice how it is almost a quarter inch lower than the marked position of the doors for this car. Thanks again for the tip and for bringing it to my attention.

More tomorrow...
Thanks for looking!
Justin

[JTR70]

10/21/17

New skin initially mounted.

Flanges on the frame side were fine trimmed, test fit and repeated until they slid together in good alignment.

I could now tighten up the skin flanges more and bring them over center.

Best way I had to achieve this without messing up those initial bends.

Thankfully turned the trick with no distortion to the outer surface.

Rear vertical flange was carefully pecked over next. Skin was then mounted onto the frame for the first time in its best adjusted initial position. Mounted to the car next to see what I ended up with.

Just three cleco's and off it goes.

Its very close. Edge of the new section carries on the line of the upper original edge and the door gap remains pretty good.

Rocker gap is promising too.

Forward gap is still factory but devoid of lead so a lot of wiggle room up here. Lower corner is hanging loose BTW.

More fine tuning and prep yet to go but its starting very close. A great relief.

Thanks for stopping by!
Justin

[John Pierce]

Not for the faint of heart!! Great outcome.

[merbesfield]

Looks good, but man I am not too excited about my having to do this. Maybe mine will not be as extreme.

[JTR70]

Thanks a lot guys! Not quite out of the woods with it yet but slowly getting the fitment I need.

10/23/17
Prep work for final skin install.

Sanding and prepping the inner surface for a good coat of sealer.

Also began pecking out the remaining damage while its easy to get at.

A little picking and filing leveled it closer but I can only take it so far until the new skin is fully attached.

As for the skin prep itself I needed to harvest this original backing plate for the door handle.

Final hole location for the handle was etched from the original to position the old plate.

Original plate was acid dipped to remove all the old rust that was on the mating surface. Plate in final position and ready to weld in. A lot going on at once and more yet to do before I can close this door shell up for good but its on its way.
Thanks for looking!
Justin

[JTR70]

10/30/17

Loose ends and final trim. Getting closer to skin installation.

Plate installed

Opening up the hole in the skin. I wanted to procrastinate on this one but now was the time while I have clear access and could see how far I needed to take it.

One more pre-installation chore complete.


Through all this I decided to take the final joint a little higher still to get past more of that old damaged section.

Usually I like to save more of the original but that new profile is so nice and we're only talking about two more inches. Also the length of the final joint is an inch+ shorter going this route. Most importantly I'll still have access from behind when the time comes to pick and file the weld joint. I lose the original side mirror holes but I marked and pre-punched them back in the new section first. Notice the downward angle of the holes; the owner told me that original Aero mirrors have a limited pivot angle so the mirror was offset to compensate for this.

One more careful cut. My worst nightmare is to cut too much off.
Thanks for looking!
Justin

[JTR70]

10/31/17
Prepping for sealer and paint.

Need to get a good coat of primer and paint on the inner surfaces before I close this door shell up. Etching the new metal with some 100 grit to give the sealer something to hang onto.

Initial coat of epoxy applied to both sides.

Between coats some heavy drip check was applied to the joints I wanted to seal out.

Not all the joints however. This long run here is better left to drain if any water finds its way in behind there.

Sealed out the reinforcement plate as well but I now realize I should have left the bottom of it open to allow any potential future moisture in between there to escape. I'll razor blade the bottom of it out on my next visit. Sometimes you can go too crazy with these joint sealers and inadvertently cause the damage you were trying to prevent by trapping water and not allowing it to escape.

Final coat of epoxy after seam sealer.

Also dumped some epoxy straight into those openings(green arrows) and sloshed it around for some additional coverage in behind there.

A quick scuff and a coat of flat black next. Then the new skin will be ready to go on for good.
Thanks for looking!
Justin

[JOP]

Eve Doorman Justin,
Looks very good.....better than when the door was new @ the Werk.
Did you want to show us something with the green arrows? Pointed at the rounded corners?
Thank you for your documentation of get a door together

[JTR70]

Thanks a lot Per but nothing is ever as good as when it was new. The green arrows highlighted where I dumped epoxy into for additional protection down between those panels.

Painted









Finally time to Begin fitting the skin on for good.
Thanks for looking!
Justin

[John Pierce]

Looks great Justin. The 3M Heavy Drip-Chek is $21 for a 5 oz. tube. How thin/far does this stuff go as it seams/seems very expensive?




John

[JTR70]

John, that tube I'm using is left over from my project. One tube will easily do one car. 21 bucks seems about right You may find it cheaper on Ebay.

11/1/17
Figuring out final skin location and frame preload.

Frame remounted on the car once again but this time with the latch mechanism to help me get a complete picture on how well or not the edge of the skin will fit in this opening.

Without the skin there is a ton of flex across this frame. As it stands now the lower corner here sticks out a bit too far.



With the lightest of persuasion of pressure that corner comes in and the upper corner comes back out even at the top. All is right again. As I fit this skin I not only have to make sure fits in the opening of the car but I also have to set the skin so it will preload the frame with this needed twist as I set and weld it on.

Its not a huge deal but it is something I have to keep in mind and shoot for versus just blindly tacking and welding this skin on in its relaxed position on my table. Otherwise after the fact, I'd be fighting to get the attitude of the end of the door right with car and once that skin is welded its not going to be very cooperative. Anyway developing that correct union between these two now.
Thanks for looking!
Justin