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Matty wrote:To bo honest its better than the old shell! That was completely shot!

I took on the project to learn how to carry out a restoration as ive never done anything like this before. Im glad its turned out this way, as im confident I could restore pretty much any shell now after tackling this one. Before this project I had no confidence what so ever in my panel work skills.

well you blimmen well should do now ! even better at this than blocking oil drain holes in fiat 16v heads !

Here's the boot lid. It looks worse than it is, strangely the skin is solid just with a bit it of surface rust and the frame is shot to pieces?



Scuttle is now removed, and has given a lot more access to cleaning the bulkdhead up.



The back end is now all finished and etch primed up.

I came home from work yesterday to 4 boxes of panels...hoping to make some big progress over xmas.

This is the list of things I need to do..

Reskin door
fit new A panel/post combo
fit inner a panel
fit A panel boxing panels

What order should I do them in, im really struggling to get my head around this one?

Im thinking reskin door first, then fit the A panel/post but im not sure if I should cut the boxing panel out first or keep that in place to line up the inner wing?

matt


i would reskin the door first as this will decide the length of the door hole, then fit the inner wing and bolt it through the shocker mount points to hold it. the only datum thats important is the wing edge at the top - the back edge doesnt affect the a panels to a huge amount. you can tack it once it looks right

then bolt the hinges through the a panels and attach the door to the hinges. (so you have a a panel, hinge, door combo)

you will then be able to set the door gap betwen the door and the panel and tack the a panel in place.

once the a panel is ok you can remove the door and get the rest of the inner post in place.

theres a fair amount of room for error - the biggest thing to watch is making the door gaps equal, and making sure that the back lower corner of the door doesnt do a 'sailors leg' and kick out - it should be level with the rear qtr

ive got all this to do to the 850 tc.......

Cheers for that. So what causes the back corner to kick out? Is it best to have the door catch in place and use that to help line it up or not bother?

So im guessing that I'll need to trial fit the wing aswell, when fitting the inner wing. Is this possible without the front panel (as that hasn't arrived yet)? Which would also mean the scuttle when need to be in place too?

Matty wrote:Cheers for that. So what causes the back corner to kick out? Is it best to have the door catch in place and use that to help line it up or not bother?

So im guessing that I'll need to trial fit the wing aswell, when fitting the inner wing. Is this possible without the front panel (as that hasn't arrived yet)? Which would also mean the scuttle when need to be in place too?

it kicks out for two reasons,

1) if the a panel is welded wrong at the front, i guess people line the top with the top, and the bottom with the sill edge and fry it on, but dont think about the door edge until its too late.

2) when door skins are fitted the door can 'spring' a little - the trick is to let the back edge of the door pocket 'float' until everything else is done, then reweld it back onto the door - it can pull the back edge of the door in by a lot.

the door catch will help hold the door in place and set the rear height of the 'crease'

i wouldnt fit the inner wing until the frame is bolted in and the front panel is bolted to that - they set the level of the front panel and the bonnet, which in turn sets where the inner wings need to be.

its a bit of a belly rubbing head patting sequence!

Brill thread Matty. Love the fact that you haven't done this before. I have a smooth roof van to tackle in Spring and this has given me loads of tips and extra confidence.
One thing I think you might want to do is to fit your door rubbers (the ones you plan to use on the car when road worthy) when trial fitting your doors. If you don't take these in to account at this stage the door rarely closes properly as the door rubbers offer too much resistance and it is unlikely there will be enough movement/adjustment in the door catch assembly. My doors close nicely but to my regret I had to bash over my nicely painted door aperture at the B post and sill/door step as I missed this crucial part out when aligning my doors. Good luck and keep the pics coming. Cheers. Mark.

Thanks for the tips, I'll keep that in mind when I fit the doors.

I managed to get a few hours in the garage today...

A very nervous moment removing all this at once!



This was the door I was going to scrap, but ive now decided to rebuild it as it could take months to find a good one.



A nice repair by the previous owner ...



After the bottom frame had been removed. Im not sure what to do with the drain pipes, as they don't look like they can be removed?



Custom panel made by M machine that im very pleased with!

Ouch. That door needs a bit of work.
I can see that you've got the top channel repairs to do as well.
I repaired a door recently using those repair panels and it was a fairly complicated job, seeing as it was the first time I'd done it.
I took some pics of the build and I've got some spare old hydro pipe to fix in the channel for drainage if you need it.

Yeah that top channel section looks like it will be fun!

I don't think i'll get my spot welder in there, so it'll have to be drilling and plug welding. If you've got some pics of how you did yours that would be great!

Did you manage to build the channel assy up complete, then weld it all in together?

I may well need some hydro pipe, one of mine seems ok, but I have a spare door aswell.

I did indeed build it as 1 piece before fitting.
Fitting is very awkward because you have to slide the built channel down the front window channel until every thing lines up. Must have removed and re-fitted the darn thing 20 times at least.
And yes, you will have to drill and plug weld the channel on one side.
At least I could use the spot welder to attach the Channel to the support bracket and the whole repair section to the door frame.

PM sent.

matt

ive been poking at what remains of the door posts on the 'tc' (answer - not a lot )

the way the factory built that cars is that the inner wing is spot welded to the a post (the part that would have the light switch in), the inner boxing plate is then welded in last to the a post and the inner wing (and has no real reference point - if it touches, then it fits - it just stopes the a panel and a post from twisting round)

the a panel was part of the a post from the factory, so there was no 'jiggleing' to get the door gap - obviously with replacement parts the a panel is a seperate item, so with this in mind i think the better way than my previous method is as follows.

know roughly what the door gap is and tack the a post in place and check with the outer a panel and door, once your happy weld the a post to the inner wing and re check the door. then fit the inner boxing post and recheck the door gap.

once your happy with the door gap fit the outer a panel and try the door one last time.

once your happy fit the inner a panel - the inner a panel doesnt affect any fitment of anything else - so can be the last one to be welded - doing it this way allows the a post to be welded correctly to the inner wing and will stop the inner a panel rying to force the outer o bend outwards if you fit it all as a combo withthe door.

this method will only work if the scuttle is off as i dont think you will be able to juggle the inner around with it in place.


ive spent hours looking at the remains of the posts on the 'tc' car and the posts on the blue mk2 (which are unmolested and perfect)

ive taken some snaps as well

will this method work?


well, its how im going to do the a panels on the tc, so we shall see!!!

One small point i will say, when you get to fitting the inner A panel, try to get the inner tight up to the back of the outer panel before you start welding.

Put a nut and bolt through the hinge holes to pull them together.

If you have any gap between the panels at the hinge mounting area, it will pull in the outer, A panel and dent it when you fit the door.

Hmmm im getting a little confused in the order still?

These are the panels I am using if it makes things any dfferent. Do I attched the strengthener panel to this first?

matt

i think ive just had a moment - those a panels are just what i need for the 'tc'!!! - i had forgotton how much they went along the door step.

the inner wing spot welds to the middle of the three steps (first been outer a panel, third been the one the door seals pushes on to. i doubt you would be able to do it with a normal spot welder - you wold probably have to drill it and plug it

ian makes a good point about bolting the inner a panel through to pull it up to the outer before you weld it, on my mk2 it was amazing how much the factory bent the outer a panels when they bolted the hinges on!

ive left my camera cord at work, but took a picture to show the line of spot welds where the inner wing joins the a post

Guru means this line.
The yellow line should reach nearly to the bottom of the crease.
It is possible to spot weld, but only if the inner lower A post panel is not yet fitted. You would then have to drill and plug weld the inner wing to the lower A post inner panel.
Swings and rounabouts really.
(Apologies for jumping in Guru)

Thanks for all the replies, I think I understand now!

Well I can understand why everyone hates reskinning doors!!

8 Hours worth of work and its still not done. It isn't difficult just time consuming cleaning bits up, and assembling all the fiddley bits together. I wasn't too impressed with the fitment of the heritage lower frame repair section, it took some chopping to get it looking somewhere near right.

All the parts of the door that will be boxed in have been primed and painted to help stop the rust.

Just the drain pipes and top channel to weld in now, then the skin can go on (probably the quickest part of the whole job).

Excellent practice!

Ive got some minus doors here that ill drop round for you to make beautiful whilst you are at it.....

Haha, I can see why you have put that job off for nearly a year now!

Ah yeah, I think Im going to try and attempt to paint this myself now. After all im building it to learn new skills!

I'll have to try and get another crash course in painting when the time comes. Do you think it would be better to paint a small panel first like the boot or bonnet to see how that goes first, or just go for it and paint the floor?

Just go for it!!

I started with my bulkhead, then the boot, floor and insides.....just do the outside last!!!!!!