Bolt-On Body Parts: Doors

The insides of both doors were "insulated" with asphalt roof shingles (yes, asphalt roof shingles) and a heavy application of undercoating. I cleaned up as much of the undercoating as I could and then had the doors sand blasted. When I got them back from blasting, I could see that the doors were in fairly decent shape except the bottoms of both had rotted out and the rot had been hidden with fiberglass. Before starting the repairs I primed both doors and the repair parts with DP 40.

In order to replace the bottom of the doorframe, the bottom edge of the door skin has to be removed from the frame. I drilled out the spot welds used to attach the skin to the frame and then used a prying tool to lift the skin from the frame. Prior repairs to this door included a patch to the door skin and some sort of bottom brace that had to be removed along with the portion of the frame I wanted to replace. Once the frame had been cut away, I cleaned the remaining part of the frame with DX 579.

One of the things I dislike about 40's is the gap between the bottom of the door and the running board. Evidently, Ford used the same doors from 1937 through 1940 and they were shaped to clear the hump at the rear of the '37 front fender. On a 40, this shape creates a gap that looks like hell. To fill the gap, I'll extend the door bottoms after the car is assembled with running boards and fenders.

EMS: http://www.emsautomotive.com

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