Door Panel Repair Part II

Man, what a fast two weeks that was! Between work and all life’s other little things, it adds up to a lot in the long run. So what have I been up to on Old Biddy? I have been waiting for the big brown truck to come down my driveway with the parts I ordered. (“UPS Ground” is excruciatingly painful when a person is in a hurry!) I have also been progressing slowly on the door panels.

While waiting for the new door panel clips, I got some old ones from a friend so I could at least have one panel fitted. They needed to be hit with a wire brush to clean them.

 I fit them to the panel and lined them up with the door holes. Notice there is a new hole in the lower left corner. I got the tip from a fellow who is restoring a Cessna 150. “I always leave one corner hole for later so that I can make any necessary adjustments”. He was right!

Next came cleaning the panel skin and placing it on the Masonite to see if the backing needed any shaving. Looks good and smells good now, too!

A thankless job, pulling the old rusty staples out of the vinyl…all 105 staples per panel! That was quite a 22 minute job!

I fit the panel skin on the new Masonite and began re-stapling with ¼” staples and upholstering.

I think it looks pretty good.

I still have to put new padding on the inside of the panel...

...and figure out how to re-install this piece before I can put the restored panel on the door for good.

 Since there are no door clips for the passenger door yet, the waiting game continues. So one door panel down, one to go. Much more to come!

Thank you for visiting.

Toddy

Door panel repair Part I

    I finally had a couple hours to myself to work on the car. First, I have some business to take care of. Many people have e-mailed me and requested me to post a picture of my cellar workshop. They were curious to see what kind of mess I mentioned in my last post. I must warn you ahead of time that this picture is not for the faint of heart with weak stomachs. Yes, I am quite embarrassed for neglecting my inner sanctum for so long. I will definitely be spending some quality time down here this week.

*Notice that I have four doors for a two door sedan. Long story short, two are spares.

    On to the door panels…as you can see, the old particle board panels are in nasty condition. The one on the bottom was far from perfect but it was intact enough to be used as a template for the new ones.

    Since the panels need to be matched to the doors for fitting, I did not cut the holes for the window crank and the door opener handle until I had the exact positioning for them. Here are the new panels cut out of ¼” Masonite. They were just cut with a jigsaw and drilled with a 5/16th" wood bit.

    Before putting the vinyl back on to the Masonite, the panel had to be fitted with the clips to make sure that it fit the door correctly and all the holes were drilled in the right positions. This was a tedious job! Notice that the two holes are now cut for the crank and handle.

     More than half of the fasteners broke during disassembly because they were so rusty and fragile. I do not have enough to finish even one panel. I found a source for the fasteners and ordered more fasteners along with a few other parts.

    But now one panel is at least halfway complete. The vinyl skins are in very good condition. They just need a good cleaning. A couple spots need to be touched up with contact cement to re-adhere the the loose ends but other than that they are salvagable.

    All the handles have been cleaned and are ready for installation. At least I have all the original correct screws which are in reusable condition.

    Once the fasteners arrive I can finish the panels. Until then I have many other things to keep me occupied…like cleaning my workshop. Who knows? Hopefully I will find some more lost parts! Maybe now you can understand the color scheme for the blog...black (exterior), red (interior), and grey (accents). Yeah, I know...not that cleaver or original.

Thank you for visiting.

Toddy

The hood (bonnet) is on!

Being a teacher, by the looks of it until school gets out for the summer, I can only do a little bit of car work each week. But at least it is progress, and every part that is put on the car makes it just that little bit closer to being done. I will try to make my updates more frequent.
     Today I worked on getting the hood...er, I mean bonnet on. Since the engine and suspension get attached to the sub-frame first and then the entire assembly slides under the body to be bolted in place, I am hoping this will not be a problem later on.

There are probably easier methods to do this but this worked for me. As my wife stayed on the outside and eyed the gaps (and took pictures), I went into the engine bay and bolted it in place. It was quite cozy in there to say the least!!

She closed the hood on me and I set the bolts in place and wrenched them in. I realized that my eyeglasses prescription needs to be updated more frequently, too!

But at least now the hood is in its proper place, installed on its hinges on the car, where it should be.

Here is the support bar that still needs cleaning and a set of nuts and screws before I can install it.

It is supposed to be a rainy week here this coming week so I can finally work on some indoor stuff, like finishing the door panels and re-reorganizing my workshop. It will be a good feeling to not feel guilty about having to do other things outside such as getting our garden in or anything like that!
Thank you for visiting!
Toddy

The trunk (boot) lid is on!!

Again, it was a really busy week this week. With all the parts coming back from various places, I am losing valuable space to work in the cellar workshop. Some of the big things have to go on the car even though other stuff should go on first. I managed to get the trunk...er, I mean boot lid on the car this week. Since the car is now up on dollies, it makes it so much easier to pivot the car around to work on it.

I taped the body to protect the fresh paint.

And I learned something this week. See the wire holding the arm down...well it is there for a reason.  I was installing the bracket on the end of the driver's side arm. Because the wire was in the hole that holds a bracket bolt, I needed to cut it. The instant I cut the wire all the spring loaded tension was released directly into my chin! After the constellations stopped spinning around my head, I cursed then got on with life. 6 days later my chin is still sore.

Here is the bad boy that clocked me in the chin. Notice how the bracket is installed...we'll get back to that in a moment.

Here is the lid on my first attempt.

And here is the lid after I figured out that the brackets were installed upside down and on the opposite arms from where they were supposed to be. After I switched them my wife held the lid in place to keep the gap relatively even as I screwed the bolts in.

Next, I am hoping to get to finsh door panel repair and installation. Got to work on getting more big things moved before I can tinker with anything else. I would show you a picture of my cellar but I am too embarassed.
Thank you for visiting.
Toddy