DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

Almost there

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Not a huge amount of progress, but a little update. The paint shop gave me the opportunity to assess the doors, once stripped, and we decided to eliminate any risk of rust spreading from the seams.

The skins themselves are in great shape, a little surfsce rust inside, and, the frame is a little more corroded at the bottom. Since I've gapped the doors already, and on the advice of ddkers who had to fettle bought door skins, I took the time consuming route of separating all the welds so as to preserve the original skin.

I thought the grinding was all done with for now, so engine work has had to pause and everything sealed up until the doors are completed.




I'm not sure why so many welds were thought necessary.






One down, one to go.





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I had to make a special tool to lift the seams of the door skins.



There was some brazing from a previous repair that I cut out.





Sadly there was a bit of a wait for envirostrip to strip the separated halves of the doors.



A little frustrating they came back with a couple of new dents but I soon had those straightened out.



I used masking tape to template a little repair piece where the metal was thin.



Pinned in place



Welded and tidied up.



Zinc spray round the seams.





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Stripping the doors revealed two long scrapes down one skin. Which had been drilled for repair with a puller. Apparently it is common practice in the USA to not fill the drill holes.



I welded them up and it needed a but of heat shrinking to eliminate some oil canning.





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The first door, I used the original weld cut-outs to line up the two halves to go back together. This resulted in some very difficult welding, which will look fine cosmetically but will have some unevenness on the back side if the door, hidden by the hinge.



I know the gold standard is to remove the seam altogether, tig a new one in place. Then spot weld the door together. However having gapped the doors to the car already I wanted to use the cutouts to position the skin precisely.

It was so much work i may do the second door the other way.

I spot welded the seams down with a small electrode on the folded edge and a large electrode on the cosmetic surface of the door skin. This ensures a small, tidy spot weld on the seam without melting the outside face.

Please ignore the temporary tacks with the mig to keep everything perfectly positioned. While I bent the seams back down and spot welded in place.





And a bit of heat shrinking to remove any last distortion in the skin.



One door down. Let it not be said that skinning a door is a quick job. Took me two full weekends.

The crosshatching is the remnants of sharpie used to identify any high spots when smoothing out the skin.

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One of the hinges was a bit stiff and I deduced the two knuckles of one leaf had become splayed apart. The pins are remarkably hard to move inside the hinge, so I made a tool out of a never-used chasing chisel for the sds impact drill.



Once the knuckles were driven back together, with the pin moving in one of them and not the other, the hinge works perfectly.

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One more door to reassemble, before painting the insides and sealing the bottoms. Then fingers crossed I can give them back to the paint shop and get back to assembling the engine I'm working on.

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Although I left some of the original welds in place to position the skin, I did actually cut away most of the old edge on the second door.





And a repair piece in place.



And after tigging that in place, spot welded the skin back on.



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When I skinned both doors 30 years ago (memory could be faded) it was quite simple with terribly shaped Dansk skins.

Once positioned on the skin-less door the new skin was tack brazed by the top hinge and the door latch. The skin edge was take over by simple hand hammering and clinched over tight.
The front bottom corner was brazed once the fit was right (door twisting require with wood block jammed in open door and pushed until the right shape.
Bit more brazing and when right spot weld the leading edge.

A pain certainly and certainly hours and hours to do.

Far easier on the 2 x MGB's I had done years before.

I still had to weld 1/8" welding wire to the leading edge to get a reasonable gap.
Today, the gap is embarrassingly BIG.

Great work Rob

Lovely work and great thread. I do love the home builds

Great skills!

Agreed, top work, really enjoying this thread