A little work on the doors today

Didnt you also have to correct the beltline curvature of the doors?

Yes. They were both overcrowned and needed a fair bit of shrinking to achieve the near flat profile.

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I am in the process of building the inner door panels , I have all the tools equipment to do the job. Still will be quiet a challenge. If anyone has any measurements of the inner panels it would be a big help, as my door bottoms are only partly their. I will post photos as I go.

Kevin, if you’re talking about the upholstery panels, I’d suggest starting a new thread. This one has about died, nobody is popping in.

You might post a photo marked with the measurements you’re after just to make it clear.

Had this same repair to do also. I added a stiffener plate behind the panel to spread the load on the hinge areas. One entire panel top to bottom for extra strength and plug welded as well. From the outside you would never know the reinforcement panel was there.

I took a different route, I made a plate and applied it outside. It just takes the place of a shim at the hinges and upset a lot less of the inner structure.

I’ve just placed it for fitting. When the door comes off it’ll be riveted as the original surface was and bound in a few spots around the perimeter.

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Nice work, did you have any problems closing the skin (fold) and cracking? I did notice the corner looks a bit dodgy in one of the photos.

image

Could anyone messure their left door and supply me with the lower door bottom measurements.

Is this what you’re after?

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That is great thank you very much .

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is wray s still out there making making bits and kits? adviseplease as difficult memory.

I talked to Wray S a number of years back when he was out of the business of selling panels and dedicated to teaching the craft. He may be back at it. Don’t know.

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lots of expensive junk out there prefer to know what i am getting as been slightly sting shy :innocent: :broken_heart:

Wray Schelin advertises that he makes panels on his website:

He made the entire rear clip of my 52 FHC from the A post rearward. He also made the A posts, door hinges, floors, sills, and repaired the bottoms of the firewall. I had an NOS deck lid and NOS front fenders and doors to complete the body. Wray’s work is as good as it gets in my opinion. Give him a call if you need a panel.

Wray’s shop is about an hour drive from my house so it was very convenient.

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Here is a stiffener I made for the insides of the hinge panels. 1/8" plate.

I fitted it with Panelbond and after bolting it all up, the door can be leaned on for the next 65 years. I removed all the door rivets and used the panel bond in between prior to installing new rivets. Steve Turschmann took it one step further and made the parcel pockets from aluminum and stiffened the door even more.

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Very nice. That one hinge bolt needn’t be very long, huh?

I also plan on installing torque boxes inside. The PO had installed a few crude attempts at stiffening with corner straps in a few spots.

I’ve come to know that these doors are not the height of British engineering. Kind of an Erector-Set of bits pop riveted together. But they are astoundingly light.

thank you very much. john

The door inner panel come apart fairly easily and allow for the fitment. By doing it this way I did not lose the outside panel original fit.

Most doors on cars, irrespective of make, from the 30s to the early 60s, were pretty shoddy engineering.

The early Europas? You never DARED slam the doors! They would literally break off the fiberglass-to-fibreglass hinges.

:woozy_face:

The doors on my ‘rents’ Auburn, in addition to being 50 years old, wooden-framed, and as equally badly designed as the 120s, took me days to get an approximately decent fit.