1964 Bali Blue SC Coupe Restoration Project

[Red911]

Hello all,

The purpose of getting the rust off the door is to pull the dents out. Then, the stresses will be off the door bottom and the door skin. The door bottom and skin were purchased from Restoration Design.

Prior to working on the dents, I did a final clean up of the door skin with a small 2" 3M Roloc red scuff pad and a larger 5" Eastwood green fingered pad.



Here's how the door looked after the final cleaning with the Roloc.



Here you can see the two areas that need to be relieved.

I will start on the top of the door first:



Bottom of the door:



To highlight the dents on all parts of the door, I sprayed some black primer on the skin then used a 6" DA to find the highs and lows. I could not find my 3M black "charcoal" highlighter that can rub off better than sanding and cleaning the primer. Wouldn't you know it, the 3M highlighter was with the 6" DA, so that is found for later sanding highs and lows.

You can see the 5" marker line on the door bottom that indicates roughly where the replacement door skin will be welded in after the dent removal.



Tom

[Red911]

Hello all,

Now that the highs and lows are indicated, I can focus on removing the top dent first.

I use a Motor Guard Dent Puller with 2mm pegs as I cannot get behind the door skin on the front of the door.





To clean up the black primer, I used a yellow 2: Roloc fingered disk and a 2" Roloc red scuff pad to get into the crevices of the dent.



I spot welded some pins into the dent.



I started pulling with the Motor Guard dent puller slide hammer from the last (rear of the dented area) to the first part of the dent which is the front near the front.



Now, how to get the remaining deep part of the dent out at the front of the door.

Tom

[Phil Planck]

Tom
I made a special dolly to get to tight areas for planishing the long butt weld on my repacement door bottom. I welded a short piece of black pipe and filled it with lead shot, for a handle.



Phil Planck

[Scott B]

Tom thank for this. Very instructional. Keep the photos and commentary coming please. Doors are coming soon for me.
Scott

[Red911]

Hello All,

Last time, I started on the higher dent on the door. Here is where I am now:







What I have learned:
1. When using the slide hammer, you need to have the part you are working on mounted or supported. I was frustrated when the slide hammer came off the studs many times. Caused me to think about using another pulling method. Then, I put the door on the floor and put my foot on the door and pulled. Magic! The slide hammer's eccentric did not come off. Apparently, the smallest movement unlocked the eccentric wheel.

2. I have a heating tip for the Motor Guard Dent Puller that heats up a small area and shrinks the metal. The photos speak for themselves. I have a lot of highs and lows. In Googling stud pulling on YouTube, many crafters use water or compressor air to cool the heated area. Others on the Interweb say to let the heated area cool with ambient temperature because the metal hardens. I will let the heated parts cool naturally and not use water or compressed air. One fellow even used ice in his water to hasten the cooling process. That would harden the metal faster. We need all the help with older metal to work in without it being hardened.

3. Use a set of cutting pliers to twist off the studs so you don't have to grind the steel more and make the steel thinner. Here is a photo of my cutting pliers. This trick works great!



More on the door bottom in the next post.

Tom

[Red911]

Hello all,

Here is a photo from the side to see the progress of the upper door dent removal. Not perfect, but getting there.



Tom

[Red911]

Hello all,

Thanks Phil for your post. Your back up for the seam welding looks great. That is what is great about places for folks to share info like ABCGT.

Here is work to date on the door bottom.

With my increased skills with the stud machine, I started to both pull and heat shrink the bottom dents on the door.









Of note is the valley dent in the second to last photo almost to the bottom of the door (three studs) that has been pulled out without the slide hammer, but with a hand held stud puller. Compare photo two to three. This leads me to believe that a more controlled stud puller is beneficial to a smoother surface. I will research that tool.

Tom

[badsix]

not knocking your work, but I would have just remove the skin then you could hammer that all out nicely. your going to be half way there anyway if you do the lower skin repair. removing the skin is not that big of a job. i like your stud cutters I'll be looking for some.
Jay D.

[JTR70]

Tom, I can see and appreciate all the hours you have invested there so far

When you're faced with an area that's been creased+stretched this badly with limited access to really get at it from behind like this deep recess area of your door that you show, you would be miles ahead to cut out this damage/ trigger point and put in a fresh piece. Also that little window helps to raise any remaining low spots as you can see in there to locate the dolly a lot easier before you tack in the new piece. Spooning out such a strong deformation from the outside yields mixed results at best, at least for me. To get stuff like that out you have to be able to take full swing from the inside. Either way your hammer finishing but plannishing your new weld joints would will be far less work and a much nicer metal finish surface in the end. You're probably too far along and invested to consider this now but I just wanted to echo what Jay had suggested. Best of luck with this repair. I hate repairing door skins!
Justin

[jim]

I'm also doing a door that has had some major damage, not as bad as Tom's. I like the idea of removing the skin to work on it better. I have lots of hours trying to work the area that you cannot reach. Is it common method to remove the skin for major repairs. Would be interesting to learn more about this method. Thanks for the pictures, methods and ideas go a long way. Thanks

[Red911]

Hello all,

Thanks for you comments.

I never considered removing the entire door skin as I wanted to get up to snuff on my blind pulling skills. I have ordered a tool that offers more control with pulling on the studs. I'll try that an report back both on the tool and the process.

Tom

[Red911]

Hello all,

I had a shrinking disk, but lost it. I purchased a new shrinking disk from Wray Schelin, at Proshapers.com.

I asked him if he uses wet rags or compressed air to shrink the metal. Metalcrafters do not use wet rags or compressed air.

Wray wrote back saying: "I use a small amount of dish washing soap and water in a plastic spritzer sprayer. Use a Magnum Sharpie on the metal to prevent galling. Clean the disc with sandpaper if you get any galling."

Thanks, Wray Schelin proshaper.com

Tomorrow, I purchase a Magnum Sharpie and try out Wray's shrinking disk.





Tom

[John Pierce]

I took Wray's course in MA. He's a very good teacher. I've been using the shrinker with Wray's technique and it works very well. The disks come in 2 sizes.

JP

[Red911]

Hello all,

Tried out Wray's new shrinking disk, the Magnum Sharpie and spray bottle with soapy water. Here is a start.

[Red911]

More on the shrinking disk.



Side version showing the peaks and valleys that are going away.



Lower part of the door that eventually will be cut off so I can get a dolly behind the skin and a slapping dolly.