33-34 ford door rebuild

Hello,
I have a ford truck cab with seriously degraded doors. No money and a small amount of skills / tools. I am thinking of rebuilding the supports where the hinges hang by using a heavy angle iron followed by another support structure.
I am also considering making the doors sit flush with the outer body.

My questions: how do I de-skin the door in the best way so as to re-use the skin? What sort of internal structure/battles am I looking at? I would also appreciate ideas for window channels that are simple.

Any advice appreciated.

Thanks

 

Well my good man, that's a loaded question. First of all, you should have some basic metal working tools, such as a cutting wheels, grinder & welder. I'm not a good welder & I rebuilt two doors. But, I'm a helluva grinder. (They don't look half bad, if I must say so myself.) First of all, I'd ditch the flush with the body idea. With the overlap, you'll have a little leeway. Besides, it'd probably look like ****. Why don't you start by cutting off the existing skin about a couple of inches below the belt line so you can see what the innards look like. Hopefully, all of the channels, etc. will still be there (rusty or not). Are the window winders & latches still there? If so, I'd try to use them. They can be rebuilt or replaced with good used stock. I'd leave everything as stock as possible. It's a step by step process & will take some time. But, as you go from one phase to another (and read all you can here by using the search ****on), you'll find that the work will be manageable. They do make all of the necessary patches for these doors, including the bottoms, and full & partial skins. They reproduce the gl***. I did it without any gl***, window winders or latches & I am not what you'd call a skilled metal worker. I'll try to post some before & after pics for you. It can be done.

 

Here ya go.

 

geesh fleetside66 did you rebuild that crustacean remnant back into a door ? that first picture shows me there really are much worse doors out there than whats on my 34 ,

 

Man, fleetside,I thought I started with junk on my 34,but man you did a great job!I wouldn't even call that first photo a door,its just an idea. I am gonna quit whinning about my rusty carc*** from now on.

 

here,s my 2 cents, aramwest ,send yer doors to fleetside,,,,,,,next ?

 

That's worth a golf clap.......nicely done.

 

Nice repair on an "almost" wasted door. If your metal working skills are anywhere near what you describe it's a testimony to what can be accomplished by taking it slow and easy.

Frank

 

Thanks for the kind words, guys. I hope this'll give "aramwest" some encouragement. By the way, they do make this stuff called Bondo (for a skim coat, of course...cough...cough).

 

fleetside66 take a huge bow dude as thats beyond impressive thats down right amazing!

 

If the door skin is good or at least usable, I'd suggest removing the inner door panel. This will keep you from having to do any more welding on the door exterior skin, other than what is absolutely necessary. The inner door panel (or inner door liner, as some people call it) is usually only fastened to the door frame by spot welds. Removing this inner structure will give you access to the door exterior skin as well as the door frame. Just my two cents worth.