Door skin replace

hi there i'm having to replace the whole door skin on my 49 chevy rear door. I'm thinking to join the top of the skin to the underside of the belt line to keep the lines . What would be better tack weld and then maybe filler or lead work .cheers trev

 

You need to fully weld it.**** weld that is.

 

Hey,

Do you have a replacement door skin, now and is it a full skin?

If the damage is all below the body/swage line, I'd go with your cut/seam dead through the middle of that swage line. This high crowned metal is stronger than the low crowned areas below the swageline, and thus will resist distortion from the welding better than the low crowned areas below the line.

good luck,

" Humpty Dumpty was pushed ! "

 

Yes it is a full skin the only difference is the slotted hole's in the new skin on the beltline for the trim are slightly larger than original. Cheers trev

 

Hey trev,

Since you've a full skin, why not simply just cut the old skin off at the base of the window frames, remove the skin completly below the cut off portion, trim the new skin to fit the door shell, and reweld through the gl*** channel at the top, and the two small areas at the base of the window frames, fore and aft? Tack weld around the edges of the door shell, where it is flanged with a dolly, once the door is test fitted to its' opening. Very little welding required with this method, and no problems with heat distortion in semi or no crowned areas of the panel.

' Meanwhyle, back aboard The Tainted Pork"

 

This man has put on a few door skins.

I've put on several myself...LOL


I use a heavy rubber dolly to support the door skin as I flange it and very seldom do I need to add any filler along the edge.
I've also had good luck with a 6" piece of 2x4 hardwood instead of the rubber dolly, but prefer the dolly.
Tip the flange in multiple p***es and be gentle in all of them.

After checking the outer skin for distortion with a bodyfile where the flange was tipped and making any required corrections with some off dolly work you can use a locked DA to take out the minor blemishes along the outside of the panel and the inner tipped edge and then prep for priming.

I would never cut a full replacement panel for a door skin at the center. Replacement up to the window or even the full panel is just too easy.

 

Thanx guys for that priceless info much appreciated. Cheers trev