Projects new member. watch me section my Desoto.

It's just metal don't even need a lazer

 

Great party....

 

Nice work.

 

Looking good from down here....

 

Man! I've been welding some sheet metal, and every night, when I shut my eyes, I see pin holes! You must have absolute nightmares!
Looking good! I like your bandoleer of clecos on your firewall. Looks like your going to war with sheet metal!

 

Thank you!☺

 

Every single night I go to bed thinking about ways I can change the car! Ugh it never stops! Thank you, I didn't want clecos all over the garage, or lost. So I used an aluminum strip and driled holes for one size cleco, and on the other side I drilled another size cleco. So one strip, 2 different size clecos.

 

So today I tacked, ground, and hammered on the door all day. I tacked and cooled, and tacked and cooled for hours. I got a couple warps in the metal still, even after cooling every tack. So I reached as far as I could into the door, (without cutting my arm) to try and hammer and dolly it. I got some of it out but I cant reach most of it because of the inner door. Do I have to cut it out? After being upset about that for while, I ground, tacked and cooled for a couple more hours. Then tried to hammer and dolly it, then got upset again. My problem is I want everything I do to be absolutely perfect, but I just have to face the fact that im not perfect. I'm brand new and doing something really hard, alone. So i I decided to call it a day and sit back and look at it. While I was looking at it I thought to myself, for knowing nothing, cutting 4 inches out of the middle of a car and putting it back together... It doesn't look that bad. And no matter what, it's gonna be covered in body filler one day. While I was sitting there, forcing positive thoughts... I had an idea. Why not just draw on one of the modifications I wanted to do? So I drew on rounded corners, and got excited all over again!!

 

Great attitude! Good job too, what you are doing right there would be hard for most of us. Next time try a radius corner patch and the warping should be less. Those 90 degree corners are a bitch! To weld into the corner means double the heat in the corner.

 

I have been forming metal for about 30-years. I still have warping issues that cannot be fixed, on occasion.

Sometimes it is better to jut cut it out, and replace the section.

There are two kinds of custom cars, ones with body filler, and ones with owners who lie.

 

There is no reason why you can't cut a bigger hole on the inside of the door to allow you to hammer and dolly the outer panel as I'm sure you will be having upholstery covering the doors inside. One can always weld back into a inside of the door easier as the finish doesn't have to be 150 percent perfect as for the above reason of coverage from the interior trim. Been many a time to complete a hammer and file job on car door, I've had to remove the inner skin to gain access.

 

3 good posts above. When you heat metal over a certain point the molecules rearrange. This rearranging allows the smaller molecules to slip between larger molecules. All a long way of saying ever time you weld you have created a shrink. No amount of cooling and waiting and hrs of small tacks can avoid this simple fact.

All the damage/shrink is concentrated in the heat affected zone or HAZ. To undo the damage reverse the process or stretch the HAZ.

5 immediate things I would have done differently are and some have already been mentioned.

1. Rounded the bottom corner 1st. This would have minimized welding the corner. Where there is little to no access.

2. Made the patch larger so it went all the way to the bottom of the door and included the radiused corner. This again would have minimized the amount of welding by hemming the edge over the inner structure.

3. Rounded the top left corner of the patch. This allows one to go around the corner when welding. It also spreads out the stresses caused by the welding process and helps to minimize warping. You are also not heating the panel 2x in the corners or double the shrink.

4. I am assuming that you are using a MIG. When you mig you will leave a fairly thick weld compared to the surrounding material. Try .023 wire and short hot bursts. Then get a die grinder and use a thick 3" grinding wheel. ( I have some that are about 1/4" thick. Places like Tractor supply have ones that are 1/8 " thick). This will allow you to grind just the weld. In order to truly metal finish you will need to have all the material one thickness. (I would choose tig or a small gas torch with a 0 or 00 tip and fusion weld if available over MIG).

5. Cut the back to allow access for hammer and dolly work of needed.

As a tip, buy yourself a 3 foot ruler or 1/8 x 1.5" piece od aluminum. You can lay this on the panel flat and pin it with your fingers which should give you a good indication of what is needed to get the flow right. The guage will hit high spots and traverse low spots.

2 approaches to welding once the panel is tacked and flows are.
1. Weld an inch or so and metal finish. The draw back being over lap of your working area or 25% or so extra work. The benefit is you can control the shrink as you go.

2. weld the whole thing and metal finish. I will usually tack every inch by fusion welding with the Tig. Hammer my welds to bring the surface level, then fusion weld the entire seam. Then bump down the high spots and bump up the low sopts then start refinement from there. Benefits are speed and minimizing warping. Drawbacks are it can look ugly and the amount of stretch needed can make you second guess the process. Especially on a low crown panel like a door. If you do more and become more comfortable with the process you will probably gravitate to this method as your welds become longer.

I am not quite sure why you are being so timmid on this panel. The whole project seems quite daunting and asside from an occasional hickup you seem to be handling it very well while jumping in with both feet. It is one of the few builds I follow. You take a very traditional approach to how you are doing the work and I enjoy watching the progress. Keep up the good work.


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For the last year I've been pretty much burnt out, had no real desire to work on my projects. After spending all morning binge reading all 40 pages of your build i am now more motivated than I've been in a very long time. Your killin it. Keep up the good work. I'll be following

 

Yeah, nothing like watching somebody who belittles their own skill at times to get the juices flowing again and watching this project has certainly helped me immensely to find that spark again. Thank you both Sinister Sleds and ratrod 40428 for both the excellent advice and the comment on motivation as that helps so much too to realize I'm not the only one that suffers from " Can't be bothered " and Sled, the reminder on technique in patch welding.

 

I took a break from the door today, to work on the door. I didn't get to finish, but I'm starting to like the door again. (Patch piece is bigger because I found rust under old body work, of course.)

 

Thank you very much. I read that a few times, learning something each time.

 

WOW!! That's a huge compliment!! I'm glad I motivated you!! I'd love to see what you're working on! Can you send send me some photos? Now get back to work! ☺

 

Un. Be. LIEVEABLE. Keep it going brother. The talent is strong in this one.

 

In addition to all of the obvious talent shown here, there is one specific thing that stands out above all else.

This is something that is common in successful artists, of all stripes, especially those who work in difficult and tedious mediums.

That is patience.

If you don't have that, learn it, first. That will unlock many doors.

 

Bitchin' thread and build.

 

Joined the party late.

Someone just said they binge read all 40 pages? That must be on the computer. I got him beat…I read all 119 pages on my phone in 4 days [emoji21](between fam & work). I was hooked, couldn't stop reading & watching in AWE.

I am subscribed. I am hooked. Can't wait to see where this goes next. Keep it going rytang. We aren't just watching someone build a car…we are learning some good life lessons too…


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It doesn't look like much... But this is what I got done today. Got the door fit perfect! Perfect in the front, perfect in the rear. That was so much work! Taking the door on and off all day haha. But it fits! Now to take it back off and get back to work.

 

How can you say it fits perfect at the front if the fender is still missing ? I still stand by what I wrote before, don't get too carried away on the finish until you have the front fender on also.

 

Awesome build. Reading that you don't do this for a living blew me away. Admire your work man.


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I mean perfect to me. The top of the door on the hinge side hit the windshield post, now it doesn't. I spaced it out to match the cowl portion of the body. I'm not too worried about the fenders. I've got plans for those too.

 

Good job on that door corner.

 

After what you have done so far I'm sure the frontend will be bad ass too! Looking forward to it.
Are you planning this all in your head or did you make some sketches?

 

Great job on the door! Doors are a pain in the ass, we had a 34 ford four door sedan come into the shop that was "ready for paint" during test fit we found not one of the doors fit the opening. I spent weeks reworking the doors to make them fit. Keep up the good work


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Yes, I certainly realize that you will be reworking the fenders as you have the rest of the car, I just didn't want you to spend to much time " perfecting " the doors then discover you had to redo all that work. I now understand what you meant if you had issues with the hinges so will apologize for getting ahead of myself and where you are up to. I admire what you are doing and your skill level is amazing to watch so, carry on young man, said the drill sergeant.

 

Progress?


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