Ivan's coupe: roof stuccowork

[Ivan141]

These are busy times, or at least I like to tell myself that, so progress is slow. Didn't have any pressing things to do yesterday so I went to the shed to get stuck in to the not so fun job of fixing up the doors.

Last time I replaced the inside bottom of the passenger door, this day it was time to do the outer bottom skin. Please note that nothing was really very wrong with it, except for pitted thin metal where it wrapped around the inside lip, and some damaged caused during storage and by the opening of said bottom lip.

First I decided where I would want my weld to be (under the bottom fold of the door), and cut it after carefully drawing a straight line.


Opened up it looked like this, please note I spent hours sandblasting that inner lip earlier before I decided to replace the metal, so it looks clean-ish.


Clean up edge of metal and inside of earlier welds:


Spent a good deal of time making a replacement panel, that meant:
-sawing a wooden block to the shape of the door corners so I had something to hammer the corners out on.
-lot of testfitting before finishing the 2nd corner (no way back once you cut).
-The long lower lip was bent on a bending brake at the metal supply store,
the corners where hammered out personally, the top edge was joggled to fit underneath the door skin (for easier welding).




Yes kids, that's blood in that last picture, a regularly applied liquid when you're an idiot fabricator.

Clamped and spot welded:

Note to self: when clamping nice flat sheet metal, put something between the clamp and the outside skin to prevent denting it next time around.

Fold lip over inner door skin using hammer and dolly in a gradual fashion.



Needed some straightening out after I was done, but luckily I was able to get the edge straight enough using hammer and dolly.


Here's where things went south: welded it without a perfect fit between old and new door skin. Used too much heat welding up the slight gaps.


Added a lick of zinc spray, then some black paint to keep it safe before it goes off for sandblasting.


Looks reasonably good right? Wrong.. I cannot hide my shame, here's what it really looks like:


I can only take this as a lesson in how not to do the welding next time. To be honest, I think I'll just take my chances with the pitted metal on the other door if it's not too bad, just need to make sure I dont bend the skin when opening the lip up.

Lucky for me the heat caused the weld to bend the panel slightly inward, so it should be possible to use a not too exorbitant amount of bondo to get this door straight enough for paint.