The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Outer Cowl Panel Damage Cause?

Yeah, yeah, I know, the door came open when they ran into a tree, or the door was open
when they backed it out of the barn or it got caught on a fence post. This seems to be a
pretty common ailment for the AD. This is mine new patient, a ‘54, 3604, but the door
doesn’t seem to be damaged at all. When its closed it fit’s the opening fine and latches as
it should:
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/129182914/large
I say common because I’ve now seen several and just this week I was talking with a
friend who has the same damage on his ‘53 GMC. It seems to me that for the door to do
this much damage the hinges or A-pillar or door itself would have to suffer some damage
also but in actuality the doors seem to escape un-damaged.

Andy ideas about how they accomplish this feat?
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Mine was the same way.. Door was not damged.. I'm still wanting to learn the story on how it happened.

easy, done it myself back in the day, backing up with door part open and it hit a hedge while I was looking to the other side .... that sheet metal panel at the cowl has little backing to resist the door edge and the hinges are pretty tough if the pillar is sound - happens pretty easy at slow speeds, takes faster with much more force to tweak the front flange of the door, but I've seen that happen too

Bill

Boy that 'A' pillar, hinges and door frame must have an orfull
lot of comeback Bill. I can give a real good tug on the door
and the front edge doesn't seem to come close to the cowel.
Ya haven't made a believer out of me, but I'll take your word
for it for now. Don't think I want to try it out on the other
side to see if it works though.

Tks for the comments,

Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

a 'real good tug' doesn't exert much force, that's why body shops use hydraulics like Porta-Powers to rearrange things, kinda like 100hp pushing a ton of truck would do .... if you 'fling' the door open you might see where the flex and twist will happen in the pillar and door, the pillar doesn't have to get permanently deformed to twist a long way

Bill

The door catch will most likely have to fail for the door edge to contact the cowl. Those are easily replaced. I suspect sometime in the past the door catch failed and was replaced.

My "theory" the driver would be so PO'd after doing the damage, get out and slam the door shut, sort of un-doing the damage? I know from working in a bodyshop that they had special tools for "springing" the door/hinges back into alignment. I used a socket, placed inside the hinge, then force the door closed. This all happened back in the day when they were made in the USA!

I also found evidence of this type of damage on mine,but put it down to a front left fender impact,the fender below the headlamp was badly damaged and I assumed the cowl was a knock on effect,but now you've got me thinking.....

Mine was repaired with lead,so I assume it happened quite a while ago.
AFAIK the door is original and fits pretty well but shows no damage related to hyperextension of the hinges.