brianpgriset

I always like seeing others' picture posts of their fixes so here's mine!

When I bought this truck I knew it had a few issues, being a WV truck. Now it's in Texas, and I'm planning on fixing all the issues the right way and never have to worry about rust again. The worst place was, of course, at the door seam on the bottom of the drivers door. This was the only place on the truck that needs new steel. Anyways the pics are below.

These first three are the damage after I knocked the paint/rust down. It's pretty rough. The part of the outside panel that folds over the inner panel is gone or severely corroded for a good portion of its span. Also the inner panel section has corrosion a good ways up.

PS excuse the poor pics I ain't a photographer.

brianpgriset

Next, I chopped out all areas with corrosion or that were missing all together, until I got some steel I could work with. Lucky for me all of this is taking place on the bottom of the door, so I won't have to paint match anything to an outside surface

Also, you can see the quick fix I did on the outer door skin lip on the last pic. BTW the bondo there is only about 1/16" thick, very thin skim coat, otherwise I wouldn't be going to all this trouble!

brianpgriset

Next I made up a small patch from 20 ga. steel, I bent it over my workbench and eased it into shape with a hammer and dolly.

Then it was tacked in, fully welded, and ground flush. Now after this it was very warped on the bottom from the heat. No worries, get out the hammer and dolly and planish the metal back into shape. Took a good hour of hammer work but now can run a ruler across the bottom and not see any gaps the whole way. Besides with the door panel off It was a great time to replace the speakers, plus ill coat the inside with some oil to prevent rust before the panel goes on.

brianpgriset

And now to where I'm at now. All the steel left needed to weld in is a LONG strip to replace the outer door skin lip that fold around the inner skin on the bottom. This was a little tricky because I didn't want to lift the paint on the outside of the door from the heat. This way when i paint the only place you'll be able to see it is when you open the door, and itll be no more than a line where it goes from new paint to old paint. To do this I held a wet rag on the outside of the door directly behind where I was welding, and took my good ol time with the welds. No paint lifted, so looks like I'm good to go.

All that's left is a few more passes of welds, grind them down, dolly work, skim coat of bondo, and paint.

I'll get more pics up when the results are in.

Truck Girl

So how long did all this take? I'm guessing the better part of a few days???

Why not just buy a rust free door at the bone yard? Most complete doors are going for about $300. That's with the lock actuators, window motor, speaker, and wiring harnesses. They take less than a half hour to swap and align and it's a good excuse to install new hinge pins too.

duner

sometimes you just gotta fix something.

impmouse

i can see your point on getting a used door ,, but he's not wanting to paint the out side of the truck... you have to take the door apart to jamb it out and hang it and paint the out side and blend the fender and the space cab and two tone on top of that... what he's done will will serve him well just make sure you wax oil the inside of the door

johnh

why the bondo at this point?

brianpgriset

impmouse pretty much sums up why I didn't just get a junkyard door. Number 1, I have little painting experience an would have a hard time matching the new door to existing paint. 2, I have the time and materials to do this repair. All in all I will probably spend $40 to do this job, and you wont be able to tell its been done except for a paint line on the very bottom and inside of the door.

And the last thing is, I don't really care to have a "perfect" shape truck. I mean the thing is meant to be dinged and bumped and used every once in awhile so I'm ok with this repair. Besides, is all solid steel going back in, not some crappy fiberglass job.

That being said, I probably will make an occasional trip to the junk yard, and if there happens to be a door with the same paint and quad cab, I'll be pickin it up. Chances aren't very good though.

Time wise, I have about 10 hours in right now... I estimate another 3 to 4 to finish.

And yes, you bet I am going to wax oil this, along with all the other panels. I am basically going to go one-by-one on each panel, fix any/all rust issues, wax oil/coat them, and never worry about it ever again.

brianpgriset

There were a few small areas where the radius of the patch and the exisitng door there wern't exactly the same. The skin coat is to get those two parts (the part I patch and what was already there) to look the same. Also, welding in a corner, like I did for tha one small patch, is bad. You should never try to weld a patch at a corner unless its a LARGE radius, mainly because it's difficult to grind and smooth inside a corner.

If you make a patch joint on a flat, its easier to blend the old and new together, since you get your tools, IE die grinder with scotchbrite disk, to the area.

Red3quarter

Looks good! I might have to try that fix on my drivers door and my tailgate when I have time. My door is just starting to get a little rust bubble on the seam. the tailgate has a couple litlte ones on the seam that could be fixed easily.

01RAMer

May I ask what your using for a welder? What heat range?

brianpgriset

Sure, I've got a Lincoln Pro-MIG 175, set at voltage tap "B" and wire feed to ~3, which equates to 21.5VDC and ~150 IPM.

Hope this helps

01RAMer

Sure does. Ever time I tried to weld sheet, I'd burn through. Finally gave up. You did a nice job! Thanks for sharing the info.

Diesel Dave2

Very good job Brian...