57 356 A mild resto

[John Pierce]

It's very easy to make them yourself. Use the original as a template and make them in several different thicknesses. Below is a picture of what came with my car. I threw away all of the poorly made ones and used the one on the left as a template.

[merbesfield]

Does anyone know who sells door hinge shims?

[merbesfield]

Got another good 6.5 hours of shop time in. Got the DS door bottom roughed in. Time to break out the Dykum and do some detail marking.

First I had to cut out the old, which required spot weld cutting and removal of old rusty door bottom. Cleaned up all the rust and get the old door ready. Lots of measuring and recording of dimensions so new goes back the same is old. I had to cut the new door bottom patch panel open so I could add the 3mm that the piece was narrow. To make the patch easier to repair I first made the cut and opened the piece 3 mm. Then I cut back in the opposite direction from zero to 3mm and squared out the opening. Then I took some scrap I had from RD floor surround kit and made filler pieces. Welded it up and metal finished it. I also had to add 3+ mm to the tail end of the panel. Then I started the process of fitting it to the door bottom.

[John Pierce]

Simonson panels are 19 gauge and very accurate.

[merbesfield]

Hi Mark,

I misunderstood your issue. I thought where you welded the lower door skin on, there was a valley. You clarified that the door bottom was in due to the door shims from the PO. Therefore, my recommendation is unnecessary. Sorry about my confusion.

Tom

Tom, you read correctly. I have/had two issues. Valley in door skin and bottom alignment. Bottom alignment was solved w shims. Valley is still there, but I will worry about that a little later. Thx for pic of fender patch panel. Is the thickness the same as our original German cars? Another words, thinner than the RD pieces?

[Red911]

Hi Mark,

Per your request, here is a photo of the Zim's rear front fender replacement panel.



I will be shaving the panel somewhat before installing.

Tom

[Red911]

Hi Mark,

I misunderstood your issue. I thought where you welded the lower door skin on, there was a valley. You clarified that the door bottom was in due to the door shims from the PO. Therefore, my recommendation is unnecessary. Sorry about my confusion.

Tom

[merbesfield]

Short day at shop. But glad I figured the door out. I started disassembly of Drivers side door. Got it gutted and ready for rust repair. While plotting my course of action I confirmed that the bottom repair piece supplied by Restoration Design is not correct exactly like the Passenger side was. Except I caught this one before having it on the car where last time I did the revision on the car. The bottom piece is about 3mm too narrow at the widest portion of the part. I will have to slice it, open it to correct dimension to fit my car and then weld back up. Same as I did on PS. I also have to move some of the window frame holes over about 4-5mm to match original. I guess with all these cars being hand built back in the day this is all normal. Next trip to shop will be adjusting new piece and starting the process of cutting out old metal and fitting new.

[merbesfield]

https://youtu.be/dnZ_tm5jLOw

[merbesfield]

Link to video. https://youtu.be/dnZ_tm5jLOw

[merbesfield]

[Red911]

Hi Mark,

Not to disagree with John, do you think that a stud welder might pull the depression out for you?

Again, I am a 2 out of 5 restorer, unlike John or Justin. Just my $.02.

Tom

[John Pierce]

Mark. At this point I would recommend cutting out the welded in section along with any thinned and pitted metal above that region so you can make a new panel and weld it to good metal. Take a look how I did it on my build. I used Bruce Baker's technique and it came out nicely. Tom Perazzo has a blog on how to do it on the ABCGT homepage also.

Good luck.

John

[Red911]

Hi Mark,

Your work is professional.

Your questions are my questions on my '64 Bali Blue door repair. I support your efforts and maybe we can play off each other to make our doors work.

My door skin depression is much worse as it was stressed due to an accident in two places.

Keep the faith.

Tom

[JTR70]

Yeah, that was another hard learned lesson of mine too. I'd get impatient and tack weld, then weld two sections together knowing they were not in the optimal position or alignment to start with and I remember telling myself, I'll just hammer it out later. The problem I'd soon find is that the weld firmly locked in the undesired angle or feature and I'd end up beating the hell out of the surface trying to correct it but with only mixed results. The panel normally ended up stretched, and with numerus trigger points along joint causing all sorts of waves and irregularities. "oil canning" soon developed as I tried chasing those out. Life is so much less complicated when its set where its needed or wanted from the first tack-weld. If you're going to try and salvage it make the correction change to the bottom first. If go after the skin first the tension angle will change again as you move the bottom out and you'll probably end up having to restabilize the surface once again. Keeping my fingers crossed for you Mark!