SC Coupe Restoration

[tperazzo]

Thank you Justin and Jack for your help on my door hole dilemma. I hope to see you both again at Jack's party...its on my calendar too.

It's been so long I forgot that this is covered by rubber, but I welded in another patch anyway making sure a socket can reach in there.



Only the finished product shot here with a bit of solder over it like the factory did. The top had some factory gas welds that were originally smoothed with lead.

Also in this picture you can see the solder that I added to the door to control the door gap.

Here are some progress pictures.





This is more solder than I need, but its much easier to have too much than try to add more later. Believe it or not the door opens and closes just fine with the small gap pictured. I did knock down some high spots and interferences with my die grinder.

My body files were crap, so I sent everything out to be sharpened, so I'm waiting for them before I level everything out.

I hope to be able to finish fitting this door before Thanksgiving!
Cheers,
Tom

[JTR70]

As Jack said, its definitely been hogged out for socket clearance. I'd punch a new hole in a repair patch and use a socket as your locating jig when you get ready to tack it in.

I'll put that on my calendar Jack!

[Jack Staggs]

I often see irregular holes in this area on factory cars, probably due to mis-alignment to the inner holes for the window frame hardware making it impossible to put a socket on the nut. Almost always on the upper hole. Generally the rubber piece that glues to the door covers it.
BTW, our 356 day party will be Dec 20 this year.

[tperazzo]

Hi guys,
As I was about to solder the door I noticed the large elongated hole at the top. It's very ragged and doesn't look factory. My other door has two equal round holes which seems correct, but I'm not sure because I repaired this area some time ago.



Can someone tell me if these two holes should be equal? My car is a Karmann T6C.
Thanks,
Tom

[JTR70]

Great idea Tom! I was planning something similar to get a large dent out of my gas tank while trying to preserve the inner coating but never thought about an application to the body. Nice work and thanks for sharing!
Justin

[JOP]

Thanks Tom,
You show us there is another way to do things IF you havent gotten that fancy "tool" for the specific job.
I have done a similar job.... I have the BIG puller as you and I have a smaller one that is used for changing brake pads that is good for smaller areas/ pulls
/ Per

[tperazzo]

Some of you may find this technique interesting....

Before I set the forward door gap with solder in the way the factory did, I want to make sure there are no valleys in the gap too. In my opinion both the gap and the shape across the gap are equally important.

Some time ago, I replaced the trailing edge of the front fender and it looks good until I put a long arching wood strip over the gap. Sure enough the body work dips down near the gap which I was apparently ok with then, but now my standards are creeping up.

The access behind the trailing section of the front fender isn't very good, so I decided that I would try to pull the metal up using my slide hammer. I don't own a stud gun because I don't like the pimply shape the metal ends up with.

While time consuming, I fabbed these little pull tabs and soldered them to the sheet metal.





A slide hammer slides in the hole and then, WHAM! a large section of the metal rises up.



It actually pretty amazing how much force the solder will take and I used a 60/40 lead from radio shack because it melts at a very low temperature to avoid heat distortion.

Then I constantly check the valley depth until its zero using a long flexible stick.



Same stick used down low too. Actually I have a 9 footer that goes the whole length of the car almost. Its taken a lot of work, but I want one continuous arc from fender to door to rear fender.



This shot shows a valley only on the door side which will get filled with solder once I'm happy with the fender position relative to the door.

This method is time consuming, but when there is a will there is a way. I did move the pull tabs around a few times to avoid creating rolling waves as I pulled.
Tom

[tperazzo]

Thank guys. Justin hit the nail on the head when it comes to my difficulty with this jamb. The moment I added more solder, the surrounding areas slumped making it super difficult. I learned to make sure enough material is added before filing although some areas are almost 1/4" thick near the top, so its tough to pile on that much material on a vertical surface will all those jamb profile steps.

Lead was needed all the way down the jamb to make the steps even thickness from top to bottom. Every shape was mostly sculpted by free hand.

Thanks for that picture Justin, I'm going to add lead to my door to look just like that. Excellent work.
Thanks
Tom

[roy mawbey]

Tom,

Very nice work for the first attempt. I had more on the floor than on the car when I started but like Justin says practice and it suddenly all comes together. I relate it to Modern Jive very hard to start but like turning on a switch it suddenly all goes okay.

Well done!!

Roy

[JTR70]

Looking good Tom! Yes, the guys who performed this work at the factory were true artists and it is a skill that is only developed through constant practice. Like I said before the easiest application is the first one then adding more solder where it needs it without melting or ruining what you previously created is the real tricky aspect of it all.


I can confirm too that the upper corner of the door was shaped in solder to tighten up the lines. Keep up the great work! Justin

[foamcar]

Looks good Tom. This is next on my list when I get all of the dents out of the nose.
Phil

[Don C]

Nice work Tom! Gaps look great!

[tperazzo]

Hi Phil, I have even more respect for the factory workers after trying the lead work on the door pillar.
It requires so much patience, that I just had to walk away several times, take a break and try again several days later. At one point I had to start over.

Anyway this is what I ended up with. It's hard to get a good picture of shiny solder!













Sorry for the sideways pictures. Maybe I can fix it later tonight. The gap is currently 2.5mm except for the very top. I will need to add solder to the door to bring this closer. There is factory evidence of lead there BTW.

Now I'm moving on to the forward gap which is another major headache for me. I ended up cutting the door skin away from the frame to reduce the amount of lead up there. More posts to come on that soon I hope.
Thanks
Tom

[foamcar]

Tom
Thanks for posting that pic. Once I get my nose taken care of, lead work is next on my list. Will be interested in your comments on shaping that upper lock pillar lead. I just watched all 5 segments of "Made BY Hand" again last night. Lots of lead work going on.

Phil

[JTR70]

Looking good Tom! I'll bet you're happy about getting the factory lines back. Keep up the great solder work!