Rat repair.

[swamp rat]

So nothing done yet, worked all weekend and not feeling to well today, spent my free time reading about body repair, its amazing how opinions vary about having no gap or leaving a gap, ect.. Kinda like an oil thread

While i'm ok with the body line contour from front to back on my door, basically its maintained a straight line, i am not happy with how the repair panel has sunk in between the spot weld seam and the bottom fold, I had all the edges are folded over before welding so trying to pull the surface out is just going to wedge the folds up against the inner shell tighter. I'm not going to slather that much bondo, just too thick.

My stock metal thickness is .043, the repair panel is .032. I called Tabco today and talked to Tim about my project and asked him about their door panel thicknesses he said theirs are .036, he said he was surprised mine were anything over .040 but i assured him i had the paint and rust removed before i mic'ed the surface. I went ahead and ordered 2 of their panels and headed out the door, he called me back in about 10 minutes and said if i had the time in 2 days he could reload the driver door die and try stamping a couple thicker pieces, the thickest being .046, he would include them free with my order and not charge me any more for shipping, all he wants in return is my feedback on which one i think works best.. Not that i think I'm the best guy to ask but i have come to hate the .032 stuff i got from Classic Industry's (Key parts i believe)

I'm not a fan of doing this but i think the only way i can do this skin replacement is to go ahead and cut an access hole in the bottom of the door that i can reach into so i can fine tune any warpage and planish the spots as I'm going, at least the access hole will be in a place that's not visible unless your laying on the ground. I just cannot reach all the way into the door from the inner access hole and run a hammer, let alone even see the skin for most of the door, even if the door is upside down or sideways.

So gonna start unfolding the folds first to see if some of the sunk down area springs back up first to see if the skin is pulling on the lower edge of the door, then start cutting the panel out slowly to minimize the heat build up.

I will not submit....