Rat repair.

[swamp rat]

Thanks for the encouragement guys! Greatly appreciated. Didn't have time to do anything today, will get back at it tomorrow.

[swamp rat]

Question for all you body experts. It decided to dump some rain after I left for work. My truck is under the car cover but the roof is old and I haven't had time to replace it yet. If by chance some water drips onto the Bondi will that ruin the work I did? Gonna have my wife check on it when she gets home and toss a folded up tarp over the area.

[swamp rat]

Well the bondo work is mostly done on the filler opening, will probably need some final adjustment after the door hinge is in place.

Which leads to my current situation. Need to figure out the best way to raise the door to the surface, its got a ways to go to say the least and i knew this was gonna be an issue.

Whats the best approach to bend the hinge to raise the door?? Help!

Got a short stretch of sun yet before the rain starts, its already turning cold at night and i really need to get this bondo primed but am hesitant to prime until after the door is adjusted.

[swamp rat]

I should add that when i say its getting cold at night that when i get off work you can see and feel the moisture in the air, should i go ahead and prime this thing to get it covered even tho i may have to sand the opening a bit later?

[Vic1947]

This is sort of a tester. Obviously, there's no way to tweak the hinge other than very slightly. Faced with this much offset, what comes to mind is to slice the hinge and carefully weld in a spacer. It needs to be kept perpendicular to the face of the filler cover so as to not offset it in the hole. Being anal retentive with a dash of OCD, I'd probably make a little fixture to bolt to the mounting plate to offset it the exact amount and keep the hinge aligned in 3D space.

Attached photo shows a suggestion of where to make the horizontal cut. Then add the material you need to space the cover out, either to the cover or to the hinge. Then weld the two pieces together using the fixture if you so desire. This is just how I'd approach it given the structural constraints. Word of caution, stop often and keep the parts cool. I didn't see a way to comfortably remove the spring. Overheating could cause it to relax and not close the door solidly.

Hopefully someone who has actually solved this problem will weigh in with a "how-to".

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by swamp rat

I should add that when i say its getting cold at night that when i get off work you can see and feel the moisture in the air, should i go ahead and prime this thing to get it covered even tho i may have to sand the opening a bit later?

Good idea. Only epoxy primer will hold out moisture indefinitely, but several good coats of the primer you have will stop corrosion for quite a while.

[swamp rat]

Originally Posted by Vic1947

Good idea. Only epoxy primer will hold out moisture indefinitely, but several good coats of the primer you have will stop corrosion for quite a while.

Thanks for the reply Vic. I made a mad dash back out there and primed it. At work now.

[swamp rat]

Test.Uploaded from my phone. Cant rotate it.

[Dean'smeanmachine]

looks really good

[swamp rat]

Originally Posted by Vic1947

This is sort of a tester. Obviously, there's no way to tweak the hinge other than very slightly. Faced with this much offset, what comes to mind is to slice the hinge and carefully weld in a spacer. It needs to be kept perpendicular to the face of the filler cover so as to not offset it in the hole. Being anal retentive with a dash of OCD, I'd probably make a little fixture to bolt to the mounting plate to offset it the exact amount and keep the hinge aligned in 3D space.

Attached photo shows a suggestion of where to make the horizontal cut. Then add the material you need to space the cover out, either to the cover or to the hinge. Then weld the two pieces together using the fixture if you so desire. This is just how I'd approach it given the structural constraints. Word of caution, stop often and keep the parts cool. I didn't see a way to comfortably remove the spring. Overheating could cause it to relax and not close the door solidly.

Hopefully someone who has actually solved this problem will weigh in with a "how-to".

Per the last comment, yea i hope more people chime in too.

If you were going to weld in a spacer would you Tig , Mig? Boy as many burn thru's as i have had i don't know that i would be too successful with this.

I'm gonna do some side by side comparisons and see if its possible to sand even more bondo off, i still have to work the body line anyway.

One more problem I'll have to solve is finding taller rubber bumpers for the door to rest against.

Sometimes i think I'd be time and frustration ahead to just rip it out and start over...

[swamp rat]

Originally Posted by Dean'smeanmachine

looks really good

Thanks Dean!

[swamp rat]

I took a real close look at the other side and made a couture template and compared it to the other side, there was a lot of difference in that area so i got out the long board and took off more of the bondo, I'm guesstimating at least .050 on some places, then i primered it back up again, i still have some touch up work to do in it. At least its better.

Called Speedway about my back order, they got on it and my manifolds shipped today thankfully!

[swamp rat]

Been thinking about how i'm gonna solve the gas flip door problem and decided i didn't want to experiment with my existing door so i made a run to a local yard and spent $5, nice price for this stuff.

I figure i can try Vic's suggestion and try to weld in an extension to the hinge.

Or another possibility i thought of is to just raise the door skin surface by taking one of them and trim down the periphery enough to remove the outer flange, then cut the inner support out of one or both the other doors so its just the skins remain, or even shape a thicker piece of sheet metal as a spacer, drill some holes in the inner skins weld them together so only the outer most door skin has the flange on it, this would raise the surface of the skin. Or another possibility would be to use the body panel repair epoxy (whatever the material base is) and glue the skin layers together.

If anybody has another idea i'm all ears.

[swamp rat]

Been a busy week not a lot of spare time on my hands.

So I was convinced with my welding skills and lack of a tig welder that if i cut the hinge i would never be able to get it rewelded strong enough to last, i'm real good at burning thru sheetmetal.

So i decided to cut the raised portion of the bracket out of the door leaving the pieces that are crimped to the skin in place, then i cut a .125 plate and made a filler and fit it between the pieces that are crimped and i spot welded it in place, then because i'm good at burning thru sheet i also made a thinner gauge filler for the back side of the raised portion i cut out, this filled the gap plus gave me something to spot weld to, I spot welded the filler plate in place then i repositioned the pieces and welded that assy back together, not too pretty but it solved my problem.

Now its just a smidge taller than the bondo that i just sanded down so i'll have to go back and add a skim coat to do a final level out. Not perfict but a lot better than before.

[mjensen]

Looking good!!!

[Dean'smeanmachine]

looks great

[swamp rat]

Thanks Mike and Dean, I wish i had a bead blaster to clean it up a little, will suffice with a scotchbrite pad work on the it, i will add that my fix was a little on the heavy side, i should have added lightening holes.

Still need to add some more mud as i have been gone out of town the last 4 days on a little vacation, naturally while i was gone it was nice and hot.

In the mean time my new exhaust manifolds did show up the day before i left (thankfully) so i have to get them coated with the Eastwood Factory Gray Hi-Temp Coating and plan for the new exhaust install, guess I'll just go buy some grade 8 bolts and lock washers at the hardware store to speed things up a little.

http://www.eastwood.com/factory-gray...p-coating.html

Pictures to follow.

[DeadheadNM]

Great progress! Nice work on the fuel door. Pete

[swamp rat]

I stand corrected... Went to take a couple pictures and my cell was dead.. But.....

Speedway sent me 1 Corvette exhaust manifold and one strange funky looking 6 cylinder manifold off of who knows what in the correct box... Kinda pissed at the moment..

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by swamp rat

I stand corrected... Went to take a couple pictures and my cell was dead.. But.....

Speedway sent me 1 Corvette exhaust manifold and one strange funky looking 6 cylinder manifold off of who knows what in the correct box... Kinda pissed at the moment..

That's kinda weird. Speedy Bill is usually pretty reliable. Only had to deal with their customer service once and they were very professional. I'm sure they'll make it right. That doesn't recoup your time, of course. Makes you wonder how wrong parts get in the right box, though.

[swamp rat]

Manifolds ordered thru Summit, returns delivered to UPS.

Speedway said they got a bunch of miss packed parts from the manufacture. Free return shipping and a full refund when they get the package.

[swamp rat]

Sigh, just found out the manifolds were shipped to the wrong address, not having too much luck here, trying to contact UPS to straighten this out.

In the mean time I'm realizing i'm not much of a body man .....yet.

[cmabolt]

This whole UPS thing sounds odly familiar.
Not good. Not good at all! They did finally find my stuff a week
Later, but not encouraging to hear I'm not the only
One.


Chris

[swamp rat]

Originally Posted by cmabolt

This whole UPS thing sounds odly familiar.
Not good. Not good at all! They did finally find my stuff a week
Later, but not encouraging to hear I'm not the only
One.


Chris

I remember your little issue too,

The second part of my order is being shipped separately by a company called Ontrack whoever they are, just got off the phone with Summit and he verified that UPS was taken care of and he was gonna call Ontrack and square up the second package.

Was really hoping to get my exhaust work scheduled by tomorrow, now its gonna have to wait.

[swamp rat]

Manifolds still on truck for delivery, probably about an hour after i go to work..

Took it easy today as i worked last weekend, but i did get the replacement top up on my car cover, the other was so thin it was starting to rip out at the frame stress points.

My only goal this week is to get the exhaust done then drive the truck back to the tranny shop for the required checkup.

MY thinking is once this is done i'll start by pulling the hood and one fender, then start on the door for rust repair then to the cab for panel replacement on that side.

Question: is it recommended to unbolt the door hinges from the cab to remove the doors or is it ok to unbolt the hinge from the door and do it that way? in other words leave the fenders on when working the doors?

Will try and make a small paint booth in my over crowded garage to prime and give my hand at paint.