My driver side door had primer on the door skin. I wanted to examine the condition of the metal and see if there was any body filler under the primer. The door is in terrific condition. No body filler, significant dents or damage. The lower flange is intact with only a few small stress cracks. I'll finish cleaning the interior of the door and window frame area soon.
After removing the door wood, I media blasted the door interior to remove as much rust as possible. I'm not quite done. I had to remove some sticky tar-like substance too. Things are cleaning up nicely. The passenger side rear body to frame bracket was too rusty to use again. I made a new bracket with 11 and 12 gauge steel. The driver side original bracket is in good shape and can be used again.
I dilled holes to weaken the door wood so I could break it apart and remove it. Termites would have been helpful. In the factory the door skins were crimped in place as a last step making many screws and nails inaccessible.
The rockers form the bottom of the door frame at the outside edge of the car floor. Mine are badly rusted at the top. I am going to try to fabricate new rocker pieces but the compound curves will make it a challenge. I media blasted the driver side rocker to preserve it just in case I need to patch and use it.
I need to make sure the doors fit and close properly BEFORE I stiffen the body with steel square tubing. Right now the body has a lot of flex. I temporarily fastened the front and rear door frame sheet metal to the car body with aluminum rivets, and then test fit the driver side door. So far, so good. The body lines match up pretty well and the rocker fits nicely. The door still rubs at the outer top corner so adjustments will need to be made.
Media blasting . . . DONE! Rustoleum Rust Reformer . . . DONE! Today was EPOXY PRIMER day! Big success . . . Epoxy primer . . . DONE! I wrapped the body with plastic to minimize overspray when applying the primer.
I'm finished media blasting the inside of the body (but not the doors yet)! The video shows how well it actually cleaned up. Currently it has a light coat of Rustoleum Rust Reformer primer. Soon I'll spray a coat of epoxy primer. I sanded the outside of the body to check for damage from media blasting. No warping! My methods are gentle enough that I have not damaged the sheet metal. The section below the black line will need a patch panel due to rust damage. |
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