Tutorial: Door Skin Removal for Dummies.

[Scoota G]

"Guzzoline, pumps runnin day and night Ka Juunk, KaJuunK, KaJuunk, thousands of gallons. I couldnt get in there, Nooooo, but a man with your ingenuity"

 

Gee are we off thread topic or what... i'm gonna start a new one.

[nizm0zed]

well, excellent writeup.

 

I just finished doing my drivers door skin.

Next time im out at the shops i'll grab some seam sealer and cavity wax and finish the job....

 

In case it wasnt answered before, Yes, the rare spares skins DO come with the reinforcing frame at the top of the panel.

They also appear to be heavier than the factory skins.

It wouldnt be much, but holding one in each hand you can feel the weight difference.

 

When i spoke to the bloke at rares, he made a bit of a deal about there being hardly any stock left.

It may just be an excuse as to why he took 2 weeks to order it thought....

[gav240z]

I was going to start a topic on the subject or re-skinning a Z door, then discovered Lurcho's already had 1. So I figured rather than create a duplicate thread I'll add my 2 cents here also. Since many people are wondering about the rare spares skins - you can rest assured I'll be using 1 for my car. So while I'm at it, if anyone has a spare they aren't using let me know? As I'll be buying 1 shortly!

 

Anyway I started by taking some reference photos of my drivers door alignment and the kind of panel gaps I have. Since I'll be working on this panel off the car and at my Tafe course I won't have the car handy to check how everything is aligned at all times.

 

Note: My front fender is not quite aligned (it's just sitting in place and needs a bit more fettling / grinding around 1 edge) to fit properly - after doing rust repairs I have a bit of metal on it that is higher than previously).

 

I suspect the door has been removed at some stage in it's life because it's pretty average in terms of alignment at the rear.

 

This is completely shut. The photo makes it look further out than in reality it is, but it's a good indication that it's not perfect to begin with. So anything better than this is a win!

 

The reason I'm re-skinning...

 

The other reason I believe the door was removed and re-aligned (poorly) at some stage is that it slightly rubs on the chrome door trim at the front here (like it's sitting too far forward).

 

 

I suspect it was removed when the car was repainted in Safari Gold (at some stage), originally I thought the door wasn't original, but as you'll see in the following photos I'm fairly sure it's the original. It's worth noting that the passenger side door alignment is far better than this!

 

 

Before I strip the door down, I decided to take some reference photos of all the various bolts / screws and their positioning etc.. Hopefully it helps when it comes time to put this thing back together. God knows I'll need help figuring out the window winder set up!

 

Early Window Winder perhaps? Looks different to later ones.

 

Door Handle

 

Winder Assembly

 

Rear Door Dove-Tail and Lock / Catch Mechanism

 

Note: Lower hole for stainless trim securing point. Doesn't look factory anymore. Will probably need to patch that and re-drill it.

 

Oh and I found this repair job on the door card.

Yes that's a magical flexible substance known as cardboard with sticky tape. What a fix!

 

The door handle also didn't open anymore from the outside because of this.

Which is quite common actually (see the crack?).

 

FYI: I had previously thought that the screws at the bottom of the door trims were something found on early S30Z's. After stripping the door cards off, I don't believe this is the case. Rather it seems more than 1 owner found a fix for warped door cards and that was a regular screw drilled into the door to make them go flush again.

 

More screws and fasteners

 

You might be wondering why I'm sharing all these photos of misc fasteners - well my 72 240z window is a pain in the butt to wind up. Turns out that a lot of the fasteners used don't look anything like the above. So I'm guessing the previous owner just used what he found worked. (Don't get me started on previous owners!). So I figure this might be useful for others who are wondering what screws go where at re-assembly time! Although I wouldn't be surprised if not all of mine are OEM. I also found a couple of rusty fasteners in the door shell itself, probably fell in there never to see day light again (well until now!).

 

Remove stainless trim at top of door.

and I don't think many Zeds still have this window roller in place? Probably the source of many a window rattle haha.

 

Although it's hard to see in the photos, it appears that the rust in the doors is mostly confined to the skins (and not the shell!).

 

I really expected to find chicken wire, bog, cement, wood, newspaper etc.. inside the door shell but to my amazement the only botch was bog!

 

Stripping all the door trim pieces, like the handle, door lock, window winder assembly is pretty straight forward just undo the bolts and then remove through the holes in the door shell as required. I had about 3 separate zip tie bags to put different bolts / fasteners into.

 

Time to ditch the Falcodore Mirror!

 

Once the door was 'undressed' and all I had was a naked shell left I undid the bolts on the hinge assembly.

 

Now you might be wondering why not just replace the bottom half of the door skin? Well actually I checked the top of the door skin and it only had minor rust.

 

But... whilst that might still be an option I think far less work will be to reskin the whole thing and probably a better finish also. Also this book I have called How to Restore Classic Car Bodywork by Martin Thaddeus

http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Restore-Classic-Car-Bodywork/dp/1845844114/

recommends doing the whole thing - rather than just a section repair.

 

Here are some good videos on the topic of door skin repair I found also.

 

I'll update this thread as I go.

 

*Edit I forgot to mention, the reason I think the door is original is that it's been painted in 920 gold on the inside / door shell - under the door card etc.. I doubt in the case of a repaint / replacement door someone would have gone to that effort in painting it.

 

What I did find interesting is that the door has a side intrusion bar in it. I was told that early 240z's in Australia didn't have this, but if this door is original perhaps that's just another myth that's been repeated over by people over the years?

 

 

[gav240z]

So I continued with my door skin removal / replacement at the Tafe Course.

 

At the Tafe course they encourage you to learn and give it a go yourself, so when I proposed a new door skin the initial reaction was, but why don't you fabricate 1?

 

Well I explained that you can get them new for about $200 odd yoyo's and I said I'm not sure the rest of the skin is worth saving (apart from the obvious holes at the bottom of the door) I suspected quite a bit of filler in other areas. Unfortunately the sand-blaster was occupied and was going to be for a couple of hours, so I couldn't use that.

 

Instead I decided to get the stripping wheel out and see what's hidden under those suspect zones.

 

 

Hmmm bog, and quite thick too! Yet I can't see any reason why, there was no rust in those spots, but I made a snap decision and decided I'd rip the entire skin off.

 

Now before you attempt my method, you should consider the custom screw driver that Lurch showed earlier in this thread, I suspect if you want to save your old skin but remove it to treat the door frame or fix rust in other areas of the skin then save the skin you'll want to look at that method.

 

My method means the skin is probably not able to be used again without a lot of work.

 

I used an air sander here (don't know the grit) - but you could also use a grinder with grinding disc.

However if you opt for the grinder be very light, as I imagine you'll chew threw the edges in no time. I used a sander because I could control it more (at least that's my theory).

If you don't have air tools don't worry you could also use a flap disc on a grinder, this was my plan originally but I'm just using what's available to me and is convenient. There is more than 1 way to skin a cat.

 

 

The idea here is to grind the edges of the door skin, do this until you can start to see separation between the metal, if you look closely at the image above you'll see a faint line forming. That is all you need to do, don't go any further.

 

Once you see that line, stick a chisel (sharp) up against the line and use a hammer. You should be able to wedge it in between the frame and the skin and start to separate them like so.

 

Repeat all the way around the door, you would find a couple of spots where the factory welded the skin and door shell together. You won't be able to grind the edge here. What you'll need to do is use a grinder and cutting disc to undo the weld. Be careful using the grinder and go slow to prevent 'over-cutting' and cutting into the door frame. Sorry no photos of this step, but it's not rocket science.

 

Once done you should have something that looks like this:

 

Door skin inside

 

What looks like previous welds / repairs to the skin?

 

Someone was here before? Looks like an extra nut was welded in here. - Not a clean weld is it?

Other side.

What is interesting is that I only pulled out 2 bolts from the bottom door hinge - yet there is 3 holes. This got me thinking again, is this the original door? If not why is it Safari Gold on the inside under the door trim?

 

If anyone can take photos of their door shell on a 240z for comparison I'd appreciate it. This side and the other side (See photo above of the separation between door shell and skin), where I have that odd custom cut hole.

 

Also notice how the door skin has that bracket at the top? Well I won't be throwing this skin out until I have seen the rare spares replacement item and compared the 2 (new vs old) and then fitting the new skin in place. I might just need to borrow some stuff off the old skin yet.

 

Thankfully it seems the door frame is pretty clean from rust - mostly just surface crap. I'll be sand blasting and etch priming it next. Any rust proofing tips? POR-15 perhaps?

 

[gav240z]

So I ordered the rare spares skin.

As you can see it comes with the upper bracket - so no need to chop it off the old skin and spot weld. Which will save me time. I did however notice it felt significantly heavier than the original skin. I haven't weighed them to compare but it is noticeable.

 

I spent about 3 hours in the sandblasting cabinet yesterday.

 

Who knew under all that surface rust was actual metal?

 

I wouldn't say I enjoyed the experience if I'm honest. Actually if I'm honest I'd probably outsource sand-blasting. It's not a glamorous job. Although the cabinet at Tafe has been a bit neglected so needs a bit of tidy up - kept getting sand in amongst my granite so had to constantly keep changing it / cleaning it. The glass on the cabinet has also had some abuse - which they are replacing so it's hard to see what you're doing.

 

It's generally ok for most surface rust, but the pitted areas like the bottom of the door took a lot longer to bring up.

 

Bottom line is, if you don't have access to 1 at home. It's probably worth sending it to a sandblaster and paying the piper. Unless you enjoy tasks like this? Hey I'm not judging...

 

Anyway I might use paint stripper on the outside of the shell to save some time in the next class. I plan to rust proof the inside of the door skin and hit it with etch primer etc..

 

The good news is I only really saw 1 tiny rust hole in the door shell at the bottom, so looks like I got out of that easily. I've sort of placed the rare spares door skin over the shell to see how it sits, it might need a little work on the upper right hand edge where the panel gap between the upper door and fender are, but I haven't tried to mock it up properly yet.

[gav240z]

Ok so after getting the door stripped down I noticed a few spots where there were tiny pinholes from the rust. I gave the oxy/acetylene welder a shot to repair these areas and unfortunately I made a bit of a mess. Apparently the flame was too 'oxidized' and combined with relatively thin metal around the pitted and rusted areas I managed to blow a couple of holes in the door frame.

 

Slightly oxidized weld.

 

Not to worry though, as I made up some new sheet metal to fill the gaps and then had some help with the tafe teacher in repairing them again.

 

This is the hole in the rear of the door where someone had previously 'reamed' it out to enlarge it. Probably in a fit of frustration trying to get the door to line up along with the chrome trim frame.

 

We welded a patch in, then I drilled a new hole.

 

Here is the bottom of the door where I just blew right through it like a "blowtorch through butter".

 

If you recall the dodgy looking weld around 1 of the bolt hole / captive nuts on the inner door from earlier?

Well.. I took a template from the door hinge and then used that to better align the 3 holes. Once in place I put a bolt into the thread to tighten it down.

 

1 of the other captive nuts was sitting a bit proud also. So again threaded the bolt in to make it sit flush against the frame.

 

Then I hit both of them with a mig welder (no help from the teacher!), I've got my MIG at home set up and was practicing with it during the week.

 

 

Having used both Oxy/Acetylene and MIG now I have a good reference point to compare. The Oxy needs a lot more skill, but is also more flexible in terms of being able to re-shape the area you're working with a hammer etc.. The MIG is generally easier to use but produces a harder weld and can leave a lot of excess material (which when you're a beginner is obviously more exacerbated than a pro would leave no doubt).

 

I've also tidied up a couple of other minor holes (like those put in the door for the door trim at the bottom) and we have been beating the door shell back into shape. It seems it's sustained a minor knock at some point in it's life which probably threw everything out of alignment and now we are trying to put it back as it should be.

 

The replacement skin seems to fit quite well, but I won't know how good it looks till I've fixed it to the frame and tried to mount it back on the car and align it.

 

I guess it doesn't look like much has happened, but it's been lots of fiddly little bits. I know this is a tutorial, but I think it's good to show what can and will need attention on our cars, since not every car is going to be a straight forward pop the old skin off and the new 1 on kind of deal. These are 40+ year old cars with 40 year old problems. So I figure this might help others to know what to expect and how to go about fixing it.

 

Oh and I finally think I've worked out what happened with this door, I think it had a minor nudge, someone went to fix the alignment, didn't bother to remove the door trim properly tried to pull the door card out of the way, cracked the underlying masonite and probably did that dodgy weld on the captive nut. Sounds plausible to me so I'm sticking with it.

 

I've also got to sort out these previous repair area (looks like brazing). Since it is near the hinge area there is another piece of steel on the inside of the door that would need to be unpicked before I could get to the other side of it. Since it isn't rusty I am thinking of lead filling the area and smoothing it over, so that will need to be taken care of also.

 

Hopefully it won't be too much longer till I can put the door skin on. But first, rust proofing. If anyone has some advice on how I should go about this let me know?

[Retro Z]

I painted the inside of the  door frame and skin using the KBS 3-step system. Then a few hours after hit it with primer so that it could be overcoated without the need to scuff back in the future.

[gav240z]

Thanks for the suggestion on KBS I looked into a local supplier and had a chat with them the other day.

 

So I worked further on the door shell last night.

 

A few things happened, although again it doesn't look like much progress. I guess this just shows why it's easy to under-estimate how long it takes to restore a car properly and many get tempted to rush through it...any I digress back on topic...

 

So if you recall last time I welded 2 of the captive nuts down with the mig-welder as they were mis-aligned. Well after examining the door we realised that the lower part where the hinge attached to was sitting a bit proud from a previous knock the door had sustained at some point. This was obviously contributing to it's mis-alignment as seen in earlier photos. Anyway when smacking this area flat again the 3rd captive nut decided to fall off. There is a lesson in there somewhere I'm sure... something along the lines of while you're at it perhaps? So anyway I re-tacked that captive nut also.

 

Next I focused on the area of damage, there was still some bog in the door that the sandblaster hadn't removed in this area. So using a metal scribe I tried to pick it out only to discover some pin-holes around the area. So out came the Mig welder and I patched up these holes.

 

I then hit the area with a linisher. Which looks like this.

 

It gave the area a good polished steel look. Which is important for the lead wiping - I'll get to it in a minute.

 

While waiting for help on the lead wiping I decided to smooth off the other welded up patches.

 

Because I've never done lead wiping before the teacher offered to show me on the door how it's done. I recorded it, and despite him saying in the video he didn't want me to put it on Youtube, he later said it was ok . Excuse the waffle talk and poor camera work, I was watching in person more than worried about filming.

 

I can imagine I'll be using lead wiping on the damaged bonnet skin and possibly the rear hatch that has had a knock at some stage also and probably the most common spot others would use this on an S30z is the rear 1/4 roof join / lap section.

 

 

After that this is how the door looked, this is before filing it down. I have done some filing on it to tidy and structure it up better but I didn't take photos of that yet. Will do that next time.

 

[gav240z]

So in terms of lead wiping, here is how I progressed after the door was filled.

 

Starting with a hand file, I used a combination of straight file, what's called a banana file (due to it's shape). I couldn't find an image on Google Search - I guess it's the kind of old skool hand tool that has become extinct these days. But I used the banana file to help dig out the inner section and give it that concave shape.

 

Slowly taking shape...

 

Looking the part now...

 

To get the beveled edges as oppose to straight edges, I finished by hand with sand-paper.

 

I wore a dust mask - since it was lead filings etc.. but it wasn't all that dusty in all honesty...

 

Here is the finished product.

 

As you can see it is a pretty seamless repair, considering what it looked like before. You'd never be able to tell it was touched up in this area and being that it's lead filled and in a high stress area (near door hinge) it shouldn't crack.

 

Since (if you watched the video above) you'll note I didn't do the lead filing part for this section (just the filing down) I decided to give it a go on the underside of the door where we patched it up. After sanding down I was left with a rough edge around the repair. You would see this area of the door when you open the driver door (as it sits at the lower rear of the door) and whilst plastic filler was an option - since it would be very thin. I decided I wanted to try the lead fill and give it a go.

 

 

Both the above photos show it's not finished yet, but almost there. I had to do most by hand due to the shape and complexity of this section. But lead wiping was surprising not that difficult provided you follow the instructions in the video above and don't get it too hot (when it gets too hot it melts to liquid), you want it just hot enough to turn it to chocolate / butter like and then use the 'bat' to smooth it out and spread it like butter around.

 

It is more time consuming I'm guessing due to the sanding and shaping involved (probably the same with filler). But the overall result it gives it pretty much seamless and very difficult to detect repair in that area. As you can see in this Toyota 2000GT restoration, you can make old new again.

http://www.studiotimecapsule.com/restoration_of_twiggys_toyota_2000gt

 

I'm sure I'll be using lead wiping again in more areas like the bonnet I'll be doing in future. See thread:

http://www.viczcar.com/forum/index.php/topic,14677.0.html

and yes I'll be finishing that thread also detailing how I repaired the bonnet.

 

 

 

[gav240z]

Sadly last night was the last night of my tafe class for this semester, my goal was to get the door skin on before the end, but alas as you can see below I didn't quite get there. That's ok though as I didn't want to rush the job to completion and I am almost ready to put the door skin on.

 

So after sandblasting the door again (to get rid of built up surface rust) I actually managed to put another rust pin hole at the bottom of the door due to the pitted metal in the bottom corner of the door.

 

To repair it I attempted to use a mig-welder to patch it up, but because the metal is so thin in this area already due to pitting etc.. I actually blew holes through it and it took a bit of persistence to try and patch it up again. In many ways doing this is like chasing your tail and I very nearly decided to just lob off this section and fabricate a new lower piece of the door frame.

 

As you can see it's a bit messy looking, and whilst it won't be an area that's highly visible I'm still on the fence as to weather or not I'll use a bit of filler to smooth it out, or weld on a new section here.

 

You'll also notice that it's now in epoxy primer - this was done in the paint booth at Tafe.

 

There is still some surface areas with imperfections that will need a bit of filler to smooth out, but I decided to put it in epoxy first to prevent having to blast surface rust off each time.

 

As you can see the door shell turned out quite good. Considering how it started earlier in this thread .

 

The next step is to apply some seam sealer around the door hinge area (where that extra bit of metal is that the captive nuts sit on) and then use some Anti Flutter Foam on the side intrusion bar. Both of which were removed during media blasting.

 

I may also use some KBS rust proofing paints (rust seal) on the inside of the door to help seal her up for good and prevent the rust bug from returning - that bastard!.

http://www.kbs-coatings.com.au/product/rust-seal/

 

Will keep you updated when time comes to put the door skin on. But I feel like the majority of the work here is behind me now. Thankfully! Hopefully you're also getting an appreciation of how much work is involved in fixing these areas also.

[PB260Z]

Great work, I am really enjoying following your progress.

When it is all finished you will have a great car and the pride of knowing that you did it yourself.

 

Cheers

PB

[gav240z]

So a minor update on this door.

 

The bottom corner had been bothering me since I patched it up with the MIG because the metal in that area was still so thin, I was worried it would rust out again. As a result I spent last week fabricating a new section.

 

 

I was going to lob off that section and weld this 1 on. However after talking to the tafe teacher he said we could use the oxy to build up that area again.

 

Here is how it looks after a bit of work with the oxy welder.

 

Inside I'm not too concerned with how pretty it is, outside however looks a lot better than before.

 

I realise some may find this a bit pedantic but in my mind I would hate to have the door start to rot out within a couple of years of a new paint job and have to revisit the area again. This way I'm pretty confident there is enough metal there to ensure it will be solid for years to come. Once it's painted it should be hard to detect and it won't be in an obvious place anyway. However every time I would open the door I'd be reminded of that area if it wasn't done right so that's why I spent a bit of time to get it right.

 

Once it's painted and primed etc.. it should be time for putting the skin on - FINALLY!

[gav240z]

So after fixing up the bottom corner of the door, I found that trying to tidy up the area resulted in pin-holes being visible. Finally though we got it to a point where it was solid enough to paint with etch primer.

 

Next step was to apply some seam sealer inside the door.

Pretty straight forward it comes in a tube and you use the gun to spread it along the inside between the 2 pieces of metal sandwiched together.

 

Now was the step of putting the skin over the door frame.

 

You can see the door was on a trestle and the skin is held in place using several vise type grips.

 

With the dolly flat on the underside (up flush against the skin itself) tap on the edge to fold the lip over. The idea is to gradually bend the lip over (not whack it over in 1 go). You gradually fold as you move along, letting the weight of the hammer bend the lip. Don't be tempted to hit it too hard or you could dent the skin on the other side. We tried to use a special air tool for this job, but as the rare spares skin was quite thick I was told it would probably do more damage than good and it was best to do it manually.

 

Basically follow the tips restolad on Youtube here gives.

 

If you don't have a trestle to work on (I didn't at home) I lay the door on the grass and propped it up with some rags underneath. A nice soft surface to prevent any damage to the skin.

 

 

This is with the lip folded about 90% home. I haven't done the top edge where it meets the front fender because I've been told there can be a large panel gap here from others experience. So first I'm going to see how the door aligns and take some photos and then decide on if I should fold it all the way home or not.

 

Another important note to mention is that I did get the LORD FUSOR - Anti Flutter Foam. However that in itself was a bit of an ordeal because it has a rather limited shelf life (24 months) http://www.autolac.com.au/ didn't have it in stock when I first went there. So call in advance and ask if they stock it before driving to go get it, or order online if you prefer? I was working to a deadline so couldn't wait 3 - 4 days for it to be shipped to me and sadly AutoLac wasn't open on weekends.

 

In the end however I didn't put this on the intrusion bar before putting the skin on and here is why:

1. When it sets you can no longer adjust the door skin and fettle it about left to right etc.. We wanted to have some adjustment when I trial fitted it to the car.

2. The intrusion bar can be unscrewed from 1 end so I'll undo it and move it to apply the stuff once I'm happy with the doors position and then place it in place with the screws again and let it set once done.

 

Next step is to see how the door aligns on the car, for that I need to bolt it into place and then once happy with it I can tack the skin / door frame together using a MIG welder.

 

Here is how it looks after a quick mock up.

The dog can't help himself, if we are busy doing something he has to sit right in the middle of it.

The area where people have advised that the rare spares skins can be a little short in terms of panel gap. So far though I don't think it will be a problem but maybe I'm talking too soon!

[Retro Z]

Maybe rare spares have reworked the skins? Because i just installed a door skin last week from one i ordered a couple of years ago and the gaps were nowhere near as good as what yours is..even in the other few i had installed awhile back.

[gav240z]

Maybe rare spares have reworked the skins? Because i just installed a door skin last week from one i ordered a couple of years ago and the gaps were nowhere near as good as what yours is..even in the other few i had installed awhile back.

 

Yeah I was wondering the same and I hope so! The skin was quite a bit thicker (+ heavier so there goes the 432-R replica haha) than the original also. The guys and teacher at the Tafe class I go to were surprised with the quality. They seemed to think it was quite good. Keep in mind I haven't fully adjusted it on the door hinge yet and I haven't folded it over on that top edge because of the issue you described. This might increase the gap more than what it looks like at the moment.

 

I may also have to get access to the rear side of the hinge bolts to adjust that way because the door seems to still have the same alignment issues it had when I removed it. Rubbing on the leading edge of the drip rail and a gap at the rear, but it does seem a little better. Just need some proper mounting bolts. It will definitely need some fettling about, but it's worth doing right now rather than trying to fix it after painted (GAWD that would do my head in!).

[gav240z]

Because this is a tutorial it's worth posting these photos.

 

Anyway thanks to: zeds4ever (Alan)

http://www.viczcar.com/forum/index.php/topic,15041.0.html

for dropping some door hinge bolts in my letter box. I was able to start messing about with the door alignment.

 

Door panel gap.

 

This photo was taken before I tightened down the door hinges etc..

 

 

Since I hadn't folded the top lip over yet, you can see there was some interference with the front of the door on the A-pillar

 

 

Notice how the swage line isn't quite sharp at the rear of the door? I hadn't completely folded the skin over the door frame in this section.

 

You could also see that the skin needed some adjustment about 3-4 mm upward... to line up with the rear 1/4 panel - this is where the chrome trim at the bottom of the window sits.

 

 

Door alignment is a lot better than before I removed the door (refer to pics earlier in the thread), but even so you could see this line was a little funny still. A bit of work with a hammer and dolly to make this edge less prominent was needed.

 

Another angle to give you an idea of how it will look.

 

Over the next couple of days I'll mount it back on the car again and get it sitting nicely, then I'll finish up the front edge where there is rubbing of the door on the A-pillar. The rare spares skin has excess steel in this area I presume to give you some tolerance to work with. It will need to be chopped / spot welded and same on the rear of the door.

 

Then the door will be done and it's onto the next panel.

 

Just a little bit of advice, I didn't quite fold the lip correctly on the lower part of the door so it cause the fold along the bottom to be a little wave like, thankfully it's at the bottom of a door where nobody will look, but also it can be fixed with a file etc.. It was caused by not striking the folded lip with the hammer dead flat (slightly angled, causing some high spots). Quite minor but worth pointing out so you can avoid making this mistake.

 

Watch the video I posted earlier on how to re-skin a door for tips.

[Brabham]

Good write up Gav. Does anyone know if replacement skins are available for 260 2+2 models?

[gav240z]

Good write up Gav. Does anyone know if replacement skins are available for 260 2+2 models?

 

I'm afraid I've not seen anyone offer them. Perhaps call Rare Spares and push them to make some? I'm sure if there is a market for it they would do it. There is after all many more 2+2's around that need love. I feel it's kind of a chicken egg scenario, in that more 2+2's would be restored if there was replacement body panels / sections available like there is for the 2 seater and as a result more suppliers would make parts for them if more were being restored and there was more demand. If ya get my drift?

 

Just a minor update in terms of door progress.

 

See the way the door skin meets the door shell at the top left hand corner? Well here is the passenger side for comparison.

 

You need to trim the door skin a little, then weld it to the shell in the top corner here.

 

Problem was when I cut this section it didn't quite look right (no photos sorry). But the skin was a little short and so I needed to use a MIG welder to gently tack on welds to build up the area and used a finger sander / file etc.. to knock down and shape the area.

 

How it looks on the car.

 

The next challenge is the front right of the door skin where it meets the A-pillar.

 

How it looked.

 

Passenger side for reference.

 

You can see the upper stainless door trim is shaped in a way that helps you determine how the door skin under it should be shaped.

 

But someone cut or modified my door trim at some point on the driver side.

 

I actually think the trim on the driver side was off a 2+2 because the rubber trim that runs along the window is longer than the upper stainless door trim (which isn't the case on the passenger side).

 

I've so far welded it up in this area.

 

I've filed it down a bit and it just clears the a-pillar.

 

But before I can modify it further I really need the upper stainless trim, hence my wanted thread.

http://www.viczcar.com/forum/index.php/topic,15083.0.html

 

Once I have that as a template I'll be able to determine exactly how much to modify this part of the door skin and that may allow me to adjust the door a little bit more to improve the panel gaps by a couple of mm which should put it spot on. I'll also be putting the latch mechanism on and door handle etc.. so that I can open and close the door and see how it sits etc.. Once that is sorted we can file finish the door skin edges which will sharpen it up and finish off the door.

 

This is what the panel gap looks like at the front. But I think I can improve it ever so slightly.

 

So what's a rust free door worth to you? Now that you know how much work is involved in restoring a rusty 1?

[gav240z]

So to continue this tutorial and sort of cover the alignment aspect of the door I've got a bit more to add to this thread.

 

I was anxious to fit the door handle and catch to see how the door would close in it's new aligned position. However when I went to fit the door handle I couldn't quite get the handle to fit into the holes in the door skin, it was a pinch too wide.

 

Thankfully I kept the old door skin (even though I almost threw it out a few times it's become useful again), there's a lesson in that somewhere I'm sure. The lesson of course is don't throw anything away unless you really really have to.

 

Using the old skin as a template I put it up against the new door skin.

 

Then I traced out the difference in the size of these holes. Using a scribe I marked this out..

 

The main benefit of doing this now is I'll be less likely to chip nice and new paint later.

 

Door handle fitted.

 

The door remarkably shut first go, without adjusting the catch or striker etc..

 

As you can see the door alignment is pretty good, there is an ever so small gap at the bottom I'd like to fix but haven't quite worked it out yet. Excuse the dog tail, he wanted to be involved.

 

Next I turn my attention to the top portion of the door, where the stainless trim sits below the window.

 

The rare spares skin is actually quite a bit taller than the stock skin, presumably to allow for some adjustment. This is a problem for me though as it's causing the door to catch on the a-pillar with the stainless trim installed.

 

Using the original skin again (see why I'm glad I didn't turf it!)

I measure up a few different points along the door, it varies between 9mm and 12mm at it's longest as you run along the door toward the a-pillar. It actually has a concave like bend from the rear that straightens out.

 

Where as the rare spares skin varies from 14mm all the way to nearly 25mm

 

using the original as my template I scribe a line along the top edge of the door skin.

 

If you can see the dimples above, that's where the spot welds are for the bracket behind the skin that gives it a more sturdy structure. The line for the most part sits above the spot welds. Thankfully.

 

No photos of the next part but I used the angle grinder with a flap disc to slowly grind down the top edge of the skin, I was going to use a grinding disc but that would have been too fast and I'm glad I didn't because the flap disc too a lot of material off relatively quickly anyway. I haven't quite finished with it because I wanted to get close to the line and check how the stainless trim would sit, it's always easy to take more off, rather than add more metal later.

 

After a bit of fettling about here is how it looks.

and it comes really close to the a-pillar but ever so slighty (like a bee's phallic object) from touching.

 

I checked the passenger side and it comes ever so slightly close to touching also, but there is a couple of mm more clearance, so I'll see if grinding down the to the line on the door skin helps with this and may make some minor adjustments.

 

For some reason the lower door gap seems just a little bit better also, perhaps because the door can close just a tiny bit more than before.

[gav240z]

I'm just gonna put this link here for my own benefit and because it will likely help others.

http://www.classiczcars.com/topic/11102-adjusting-doors/

 

I managed to get a template of the door hinge shims on paper thanks to a fellow member, which will help pull the door's top swage line out inline with the fender and possibly turn in the bottom edge of the door also. Hopefully between the info in that thread and the photos I'll include here it will help others.

[gav240z]

Ok so a bit of progress on door alignment.

 

I mentioned that I got the shim template from another member the other day.

 

Using tin snips I cut out a shim (but it's about 1mm thick) and I think the standard ones are probably about half that, very thin. That's ok because sometimes you see multiple shims used on S30z doors. In this case I'll experiment till I get the door where I want it exactly.

 

 

You can see it will need a bit more work with a file, but once I've done 1 the others should be easier to make a copy.

 

FYI: I've not been able to find these on eBay, so if anyone has any spares let me know? Can't hurt to have different thickness shims.

 

Now to change the alignment of the door relative to the rear 1/4 panel you can adjust the catch.

 

If you undo the bolts here, you can shift it in a N/S/E/W direction. I moved mine EAST to get the door to sit more flush.

 

As a side note you can see at the bottom of the catch it's a little bent, someone obviously was frustrated at some point and decided to beat it into submission. Here is the passenger side for comparison.

 

Adjusting the catch will take some time, and a few attempts. Here is how I started.

 

and how things ended up after a few adjustments.

 

As you can see it's just about perfect in the bottom corner where the door meets the rear dog/leg sill area.

 

Since it was relatively easy to adjust the door here, I decided to try the passenger side also.

Before.

After.

 

Although the door doesn't sit nice and firmly in that spot, I suspect because the door seal rubber has perished so badly it no longer holds the door firmly in place.

 

Pretty happy with those results all the same. I'm going to try adding the shims on the upper door hinge to bring the door further out and inline with the front fender swage line, the door sits a little lower in this section than the fender does. I'm sure the shims will rectify that and perhaps tuck the lower rear part of the door in just a tad more also.

[JAYZEE]

Great write up Gav, thanks for sharing. I have this job ahead of me (x both doors), so your insight is priceless!

[gav240z]

No problem, if you have any questions please put them here in this thread.

 

How bad are your door skins at the moment? I would first and foremost try and salvage the originals if at all possible as fitment will be better and less work later.

 

However if you need entirely new skins might not be much you can do.