Rat repair.

[swamp rat]

I didn't get back to the 72 door today but instead i took a little road trip and picked up these 67 doors for my waiting in the wings 67 project.. the color is the same as the cab i picked up and real close to the longbed too.

Also about 2 weeks ago i ordered a spool of easb easy grind .023 wire, installed today, i cant believe i had a brain fart, i had bought a small spool of .023 wire long ago to start the body work, i forgot to change it out before i started on the gas filler and cover, not to mention the filler door... still had the .035 in it, Duh...

[mcbassin]

Crazy deal about the seal on the compressor. It may have been assembled on a Monday.
Nice score on the doors.

[gdavis]

nice find on the doors. I did all my patches with .30 and .35 that is all my welder would fit. so Good luck George

[swamp rat]

Originally Posted by gdavis

nice find on the doors. I did all my patches with .30 and .35 that is all my welder would fit. so Good luck George

Hi George good to see ya round! best of luck with that engine.

[swamp rat]

Ok i have been a little scarce, been working a bit of OT again and admittedly i have been fighting that 2nd shift rutt, cant fall asleep till past 2 every night ect..

But i have been researching and asking questions both in PM's and in the body and paint folder, following Vic's advice i found myself a small angle and put my shrinker (i bought a shrinker and stretcher last holiday season) on one leg and put a bit of a curve in it clamped it in place and drilled 5 holes and pop riveted it on (no Cleco's yet)

Then i started working the repair panel to size, now i never rolled an edge on a body panel before and was very concerned that i keep it straight so i improvised a little, i cut a piece of square stock to fit along the lower lip and clamped it in place and brought the lip to a 90 while keeping the radius consistent, now the next thing would make a body shop guy laugh his head off, with no other smaller angles to use i took a strip of oak and sanded a beveled edge to it then continued to roll the edge over in 3 stages sanding more of an angle every pass, stopped about 25-30 degrees, then i felt confidant that i could flatten it and not mess the edge up.

The inner door corner repair did change contour a bit so i had to bump the metal around to restore the contour the door had before i started, I also had to shrink the flange on the skin to match the door, i watched a video a while back and the guy traced contour templets so i did as well.

One of these day's i'll remember how to get the pic's in the correct order.

.

[swamp rat]

Now whats left is I need to roll the front edge over and i'm still having to deal with that extra length it has, not too sure how nice its gonna look when i'm done, I still need to take the door out and blast the inside and treat the rust, but its been raining so hopefully this weekend.. once thats done i'll tack the skin in place and mount the door.

[57taskforce]

I didn't read it all but I looked at the pictures and skimmed thru the thread. Pretty cool truck. My hats off to anyone who is willing to save an old K/20! I'll get you the part numbers as soon as the dang rain goes away!

[swamp rat]

Originally Posted by 57taskforce

I didn't read it all but I looked at the pictures and skimmed thru the thread. Pretty cool truck. My hats off to anyone who is willing to save an old K/20! I'll get you the part numbers as soon as the dang rain goes away!

Thanks for stopping by!

[swamp rat]

Working again this weekend, spending a little time with the wife before work.

I think what i'm gonna try on Monday is to mark where the fold should be and then start folding the edge over on the workbench first, then put it back on and tack it, then finish rolling the edge. I always thought that the skin was rolled tight on the inner edge of these doors so you would have something to roll the edge against, not the case at least with my truck.

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by swamp rat

Working again this weekend, spending a little time with the wife before work.

I think what i'm gonna try on Monday is to mark where the fold should be and then start folding the edge over on the workbench first, then put it back on and tack it, then finish rolling the edge. I always thought that the skin was rolled tight on the inner edge of these doors so you would have something to roll the edge against, not the case at least with my truck.

Mike,

You might want to check out this video. It's an Aussie demonstrating how to repair rusted corners on doors. Around the 12 min. mark, he begins to roll the lip on the patch over the door shell... similar to the technique for attaching a full door skin or patch panel. There are certainly other methods, most requiring more expensive tools, but carefully working with the right hammer and dolly can get the job done.

[swamp rat]

Thanks for the link Vic, i know your pushing that deadline so doing my best not to keep asking you questions right now, my HF body kit has a similar dolley, just not sure about the shape on the tip of it being the same, i may wanna do a little fine tuning on that thing. I think i'll go back and read sevt chevelle's What's hiding in the tool box threads
.

I have come to the conclusion that i wish our doors had a squair corner rather than the radiused corners, i think they are much easyer to work with.

[swamp rat]

I have been stuck trying to figure how to have the skin mounted on the door and get some type of backing dolley in the correct place to reposition the skin edge while dealing with the inner shell flanges not being true to the required bend and also in the way of the dolley, i couldn't get outta the box so to speak... Some time later and a couple weekends of OT I read a thread where one of our resident body metal masters affixed a rear corner to the cab and the front bend was way off, so he marked it where it needed to be bent with tape, removed it first then hammer and dollied it over, probably holding it with his legs i assume, I finally had that light bulb moment, Well lets just take the skin off the door after marking the bend line with some tape, lay the skin on the bench and clamp it carefully and hold a dolly to it and hammer the edge over.... Such a simple thing....I feel like an idiot.

Now that said i was real careful about following my tape line but as it was being folded over it shortened the length of the skin a little, I should have known better, I tried to open it a little and massage it over but it wasn't cooperating so i guess when i do weld it on i'll have to add a little weld to the side of the skin and smooth it out.

I also sand blasted lightly on the rusty areas on the inner shell, discovered that the other inner corner needed to be replaced too so i got to try out the EASB .023 easy grind wire, i think this is going to help a lot. Still have to do some touch up before i remount the door and fit it all up.

[swamp rat]

So as posted above i bought a small angle and used my shrinker to put a slight curve in it then drilled some holes and pop rivited it on place. I finally got to working in it the other day and i drilled some holes so i could weld the angle to the upper skin before joining the two skins together, i'm not sure why but i welded a couple holes on the end then drilled the pop rivet out and as soon as i removed the pop rivet the angle and skin separated, not sure why that happened, i decided to remove the angle and re clean it and the skin then put it back together, this time i welded 5 holes with the same result, still don't know why the weld wouldn't stick to the angle, it is magnetic, it was clean bare metal even on the back side of the skin, i'm left scratching my head, don't know if maybe its just a heat and feed setting but if i used much more i would have just burned holes in the skin i think...

So i decided to give up the angle approach and got out my little harbor freight butt weld clamps and ran a spot weld about every 3 inches across the skin, now i'm at the same place i was at with the gas door where i didn't planish the welds and the skin sunk in.. So I've been trying to figure out how i'm going to be able to back up the spot welds with a dolly and somehow reach around and swing a hammer on the skin side to planish the welds, man i'm just not seeing it, I'm looking at the inner opening and where i'd need to be to swing a hammer, the only thing i can think of would be to weld a handle onto a dolly and somehow maneuver the dolly in place, but even that seems like an impossibility looking at the inside opening.

EDIT: I did have a wet rag and cooled each spot weld completely before doing a second weld, something i didn't do on the gas door, wondering if this alone would keep the shrinkage at bay enough to not have to cut the inner open?

Now i'm thinking what may be the only viable alternative would be to cut a rectangle opening in the bottom of the door just large enough to get a dolly thru with a handle welded to it. Man i hate to cut into a perfectly good, rust free inner door bottom!

[DeadheadNM]

Nice work!

[NONHOG]

Would something like this work?

http://www.autobodytoolmart.com/spoo...FYOTfgoddVUASA

[Vic1947]

It's a shame the angle piece didn't work out, Mike. As you're seeing, a long unsupported run of thin sheet metal is a bear to keep straight. Even when I weld a few short stretches and walk away, there's enough heat to warp the metal somewhat. Quenching the hot spots with water shrinks the metal, which is only a good thing if the area is crowned. I try to stay with the hammer and dolly until the last weld is done. Then use a shrinking disc or stud welder tip to heat the crowned spots and quickly quench with a cold wet rag. Some guys can work magic with an acetylene torch, but I always overdo it so I avoid that technique.

Sometimes access to the back of the panel with a dolly is a function of how the door is positioned. For instance, if I lay it flat on my scissor stands, the top is accessible, but the underside requires a triple jointed arm which I don't have. If, however, I stand the door on the top of the window frame and stand at one end or the other, I can comfortably reach both sides of the panel. At least I can hold a dolly on the inside and hammer on the outside. If I need to work out a low spot and have no room to swing a hammer I try to use wood blocks and a prybar. As a last resort I grab the stud welder and spot pull pins to the low area - which understandably isn't an option for everyone.

Just keep rubbing on it and work to get it close. For most of us, bondo is our friend. A true metal man can drastically reduce the amount of plastic filler needed, but I don't know anyone that can eliminate it completely.

[swamp rat]

Originally Posted by Vic1947

It's a shame the angle piece didn't work out, Mike. As you're seeing, a long unsupported run of thin sheet metal is a bear to keep straight. Even when I weld a few short stretches and walk away, there's enough heat to warp the metal somewhat. Quenching the hot spots with water shrinks the metal, which is only a good thing if the area is crowned. I try to stay with the hammer and dolly until the last weld is done. Then use a shrinking disc or stud welder tip to heat the crowned spots and quickly quench with a cold wet rag. Some guys can work magic with an acetylene torch, but I always overdo it so I avoid that technique.

Sometimes access to the back of the panel with a dolly is a function of how the door is positioned. For instance, if I lay it flat on my scissor stands, the top is accessible, but the underside requires a triple jointed arm which I don't have. If, however, I stand the door on the top of the window frame and stand at one end or the other, I can comfortably reach both sides of the panel. At least I can hold a dolly on the inside and hammer on the outside. If I need to work out a low spot and have no room to swing a hammer I try to use wood blocks and a prybar. As a last resort I grab the stud welder and spot pull pins to the low area - which understandably isn't an option for everyone.

Just keep rubbing on it and work to get it close. For most of us, bondo is our friend. A true metal man can drastically reduce the amount of plastic filler needed, but I don't know anyone that can eliminate it completely.

Thank you Deadhead for the vote of confidence!

NonHog thanks for the suggestion, that dolly would not be long enough.

Hey Vic, There was some small livable waviness in the metal which i think was from folding the edges but the weld area was still pretty straight, only a couple small waves, that said i did forget about quenching and shrinking, i was just trying to keep the part cool. At this point i felt it was not a problem to continue, and probably find out how bad it would get...

I went ahead and tipped the door upside down like you said, i could reach about 1/2 of the welds, i was looking for a way to build an extended handle that might work for planishing the rest of the spots.

Having the door upside down revealed a couple things i didn't realize from looking directly at the face, from the forward bottom up to the weld seam, the face of the forward edge of the door curves inward which i believe is to help with clearance when the door is opened and closed, my patch panel had actually gotten curved the opposite way so it was dishing inward nothing a little bondo wouldn't fix but i also noticed i had an edge contour issue which i couldn't fix by subtle bending, i tried to reopen the fold but in doing so i pretty much messed up the edge enough that i'm gonna go ahead and start over. learn from experience right? I happen to have a spare LH skin in my stash that was given to me by another local board member.

I turned up the heat and feed on my welder and i can get a good penetration on the angle itself, i just need to figure out how not to burn the skin away in the process.

[swamp rat]

Please stand by for an important news bulletin...

The Welding department regrets to inform you that you were stupid..

After i messed up the skin i went ahead and cut my spot welds off and removed it, tried to straighten it a little but decided to go ahead and prep for the second skin. i looked over the angle and tried a test weld on the back side... then i increased the amps and feedrate... Humm .... Duh...

Anyway, the angle is welded in place now and i have got the second 3/4 skin rough cut down and started folding the lower lip, have to stop for the day.

Learn by doing, its going a lot faster this time around..

Now if i could learn how to grind off spot welds and not hit the surrounding skin

[DWilbur]

Don't worry about grinding the sheet metal around the spot welds. that's why God gave us Bondo.

[swamp rat]

Originally Posted by DWilbur

Don't worry about grinding the sheet metal around the spot welds. that's why God gave us Bondo.

yea i know, thankfully i have seen worse.

Only had about an hour today, got 2 edges rolled over and almost have the length fitted.

Now its starting to get hot (relative term) outside and i got to go to work where its always 10 degrees hotter in the shop on days like today, sure glad i don't live in AZ or S. Ca, but when i was in Eastern Wa i liked the heat because it was dry, over here its muggy.

[DWilbur]

I know what you mean about muggy. My dad is from Boston. I remember visiting I felt like a old glazed donut when the frosting starts to melt.

[swamp rat]

Another day, another late start, another hour of work.

Rolled the 3rd edge over and made a small radiused dolley to roll the lower rear rounded corner, then got the length trimmed to 1/16' longer than the original skin. ready to tack in place.

Now i just thought about how to spot weld the inner rolled edges, gonna have to drill some holes and not mess up the skin face..... guess i'll look at a spare door to figure out how many holes i need.

[7dee2]

Looks good!

[DWilbur]

Have you seen the spot welder at HF. it might be the way to go

[litew8]

Skimmed through the last few pages. Nice choice in compressor. Working on them doors, you braver than I. Seeing your last project, looking forward to seeing this one complete. Couple hours a day adds up. Keep at it