Doors were one of the most frustrating parts of the project for us. A lot of time and effort was wasted on them and they still were not right. Finally got an expert in for a second opinion and he said "buy new doors". That kick-started the project. There were issues with the repros, but we got there.
While it looks like the area would be easy to patch, the outer door skin wraps around that rusty inner door skin, trapping water/rust. To repair that area properly, you need to pry the folded over outer skin and remove about 2 inches of the inner skin. Once you get done with that, you will be able to witness the condition of the outer skin in that area.
1952 5-window - return to "as built" condition | 1950 3100 with a 235 and a T-5 transmission
While it looks like the area would be easy to patch, the outer door skin wraps around that rusty inner door skin, trapping water/rust. To repair that area properly, you need to pry the folded over outer skin and remove about 2 inches of the inner skin. Once you get done with that, you will be able to witness the condition of the outer skin in that area.
Any tricks for getting that seam unfolded without making a complete mess of it?
I use an assortment of screwdrivers to gradually open up the fold without creating a bunch of bent metal. You don't need to open it very much to make room to get the rusted out inner skin section out. You do need to open it up some in order to get all of the rust out after you remove the rusted out inner skin. I do not think that there are any welds to deal with.
1952 5-window - return to "as built" condition | 1950 3100 with a 235 and a T-5 transmission
Montana Have you made any progress on your doors yet? I'm about ready to tackle that project. Mine are in slightly worse shape than yours. The issue there is that the weatherstrip holder sits in water that collects there. On mine there was about 2" total of the the metal weatherstrip holder left on both doors. The inner door panel is about like swiss cheese for much of the length as well. I see that Jim Carter sells patch panels that look like they got up to the first bend in the inner panel (although currently on backorder), and there are others that go up to the hinge access panel, so there are choices there. I may go for the JC patches instead of trying to bend up my own, although that wouldn't be that hard. If you're handy at welding, you could cut the seam off (a lot of mine is already gone), and weld along the edge of the outer and inner panels and grind it smooth, or even plug weld the inner patch to the outer skin. I'm contemplating cutting the rust away so the sandblaster can get to the inside of the outer panel to rid that of rust.
Kevin 1951 Chevy 3100 work truck Follow this saga in Project Journal Photos 1929 Ford pickup restored from the ground up. | 1929 Ford Special Coupe (First car) Busting rust since the mid-60's If you're smart enough to take it apart, you darn well better be smart enough to put it back together.
