Been kept busy by lots of non-Mustang related things lately, but it's not like I've been inactive!
Here's a little update on what I did on my misery door....
Because I need to weld the corner onto the door, I need first healthy metal and as there was not loads of that,
I've replaced strips of sick metal. This region on the front for instance was a must, because not only it connects to the corner,
but it also plays an important role for the final assembly, as it holds the entire front side of the inner skin to the frame of the door via a series of spot welds, it needed be strong...
As I need also to weld on both sides, once I had punched all the future holes for the spot welds and made sure the skin could be placed exactly back on its original place.
I've brought that side as well to bare metal and sprayed a temporary zinc layer, waiting for the better dry/warm days.
That being done I could move on to the next step: the rounded corner.
I made my neighbours happy with loads of hammering, welding, filing & grinding for that one! But eventually ended up with a solid corner. Woohoo!
It's been quite challenging to make that one, not just the corner itself, but welding it. Even if I've had removed and changed lots of sick metal, what was left was still real thin and when you try to add 20 gauge/ 1 mm to that you end up making holes, even with good cooling and short burst.
But eventually, I got it in!
I'll work on all the surface finish later on once all is back together.
One detail, that took me quite some time to reproduce was the rubber seal channel. I've tried to save the old one, but it was simply too far gone.
So bought a squared tubing of the same width, on which I've first drilled the future spot welds locations, then as it is not symmetrical, disc cut one side very near of the edge and the other side keeping 8 mm.
Then shaped the waves with a disc, and finally, as he original "waves" are folded inwards to retain the rubber, hammered all the highs.
At first sight before I started I thought that part would be easy to be made, well, it wasn't super hard, but it was surely much more of a challenge than I thought!!
After a filing session, a zinc coating I've welded it to the inner skin and ended up with a channel that should keep my rubber in place for a few decades without any problems!
At this point, the inner skin being more or less done, the idea was to move on to the outter one.
It's gone, and I'd be busy patching it till xmas to end up with a poor results after tons of work.
It's hard to see the volumes on the pictures, but basically there are massive lows, which were filled up with bondo and some more ancient with tin.
On one the repair guy even spot welded the deepest part onto the reinforcement inside, making it impossible to lift it again without damage. Probably to prevent the bondo to popup...
Not to mention the metal is gone next to it, the entire low part is gone or real bad... In short, I can't keep that poor thing.
ok, no choice here, I'll have to shape an entire door skin from bottom up to the body line (just under the handle height)! :O
but there are few problems with that before even starting..
- first the weather:
sh... for weeks now, and expected to remain that way for at least another month before I can spray.
The thing is, I need to cut the current sick skin, de-rust the frame, and right away spray a good layer of epoxy once everything is accessible.
Being too cold and raining 8 days out of 7 lately, no way I can do that.
- Metal breaker
The door is freaking long, and to reproduce the skin, add the folds, and keep some extra around to work properly, I need a length of +-1.5 meter.
You don't think about it, but even my friend's professional metal breaker is too small to add the 2 folds I need. Not to mention, folding the lower part at 1mm thickness requires some muscle too.
So spent time to find a place here in my town where I could fold it. Luckily found a metal assembly company here with one of 3 meters, and they kindly agree to help me fold that sheet for me.
So that is fixed
- Zincor
The metal I want is so called zincor, basically great metal quality with a layer of electro zinc, same as what I've used so far, except, I need 1.5 meters. And for some reasons the dutch delivery stop at 1 meter length.
So I need to go get some myself and the nearest metal shop having 1.5 meter Zincor of 1 mm is 150 miles away. So need find time to go get that...
- Mushrooms
Not of importance for the skin repair on itself, I need find a way to replace the 5 mushrooms rivets that keep the trim in place.
I will likely use screws that I'll shape and weld from behind.. if any one has ideas/experience with that, please let me know how you did it!
While the skin job is now postponed, it's not like I'm stuck!
The door hosts plenty parts and most of them need attention!
The hinges that I thought were with no play had some, so I have pins under way, and they were rusty. Same for the plates holding them inside the door or inside the A-pilar. And others..
So back to misery
- cleanup
- put them apart
Once done, the next step was to remove the ancient paint, give them an acid bath and after that...
After that they all went under an electrons massage and ended up last Sunday under a protective zinc plating that should keep them rust free for a long while
and surely enough till I can paint all that properly soon...
So far it looks like I might be able to bring that door back to a healthy state. But It's only once I'll have that outer skin back on that I'll be sure! Till then, I'll plate and restore more inside parts
To be continued....