So, I have both new QP ‘s right and left on the car. Right fender is approaching point where it will be ready to go back on the car. The door hinges definitely need new bushings, as I can see gaps around the outside of the bushings. I am headed to total repaint of the car. It will stay red, but will be a darker shade of Tri color with some pearl in it. So I want to do it, my version of Right, and get the door jambs, hinges, interior door painted surfaces converted to the new color. Matador Red is pretty darn good, but I have something different in mind. So off come the doors, hinges will be blasted, primed, and rebushed, jambs and door color areas inside of door will be converted to new red color. Beltline SS trim will be removed, permanently, and holes welded shut. Don’t want that anymore. What I am trying to do, is deliver the car to a really good painter that has about 95% of the prep work done, and all he needs to do is tune it a little and squirt it.

So, this adventure begins.


I am a carpenter, so jigs and fixtures, I understand. Held a piece of 3/4” plywood on end of door, traced around it, jig sawed it out, adjusted it a little and came up with this.



Drilled and tapped the jack base and mounted the fixture to it.



I now have a device that will adjust to door height, and allow a small old guy to remove the door myself. At this point, I anticipate leaving the glass in the door. I have already cleaned up, lubed, adjusted this glass operator mechanism, so don’t want to revisit that, but at some point, I may have too?



It may be hard to see in this photo, but the 53 year old bushings Need to be replaced.



It is so much easier to do this work with the fender off the car. Next week, I’ll start the door removal

 

Nice work on the jigs! I have no carpenter skills so I'd not thought about building something to hold the door. As you said, that will make the mounting and adjustments much easier! John

 

Nice!

 

I have so much appreciated this forum, and the knowledge that comes with it. So if I can help anyone walking the same paths, I’ll throw it out there. I always appreciate learning how others that did things differently approach tasks.

Thanks! Hope I don’t let you down on this one.

 

Some health issues knocking me down, so moving slowly now. But feel like jumping back into the right door today with goal of getting it off car with hinges off door. We shall see?

First, a little cleanup. It appears that. I have once again reinvented the WHEEL with reference to the door fixture. My body and guidance counselor advised that I could have used his for free. I just looked at the problem and came up with my own solution, albeit free to me. Just scrap lumber and an hour of time. Two examples of off the shelf door fixtures.


Looks like a good one, but $500 to the door, at least.





Similar to the one I cooked up.


This morning I measured existing gaps. Wrote results on the door itself. Took a pic, will print it off and mark it up as existing conditions. Gap is about 3/8” at bottom. Should be in the 1/8” to 3/16” range, I believe. So my guess is that the door bushings sagged to the point the door was not working and someone solved it by over adjusting it. We shall see?


As is photo, for historical reference



Front of door at window pillar is nearly touching the chrome trim



Rear door is about 1/8” high at the new QP’s. QP’s are correct, because bottom edge rests on the existing factory rocker.



Marked car body hinge locations with black marker. Just for reference purposes



Paint stir sticks are in range of .125-.140”, so a good gap, if possible to achieve



Stick is way lose now under the door.

 

Had a good morning and got the door off and hinges disassembled


With fender absent, getting to all the 5/16 NC cap screws is relatively easy. Much more difficult with fender in place



Homemade door fixture worked great



Every time I take something apart, first thing I do is tap the female threads



And run a die down the cap screws. That way things can be finger tightened easily, and that helps a bunch



These little cheap spot blasters work great to cleanup small parts, but do it outside, with SAFETY. Eye protection and an 95particulate mask, minimum



The detention spring can be compressed in a vise, gradually releasing the tension



push the leaf of the hinge upward, releasing more tension



Last step in removing spring is using a screwdriver to pry it out. Still some residual tension, so be careful doing this. I used a piece of iron wire to corral it so that it didn’t jump out somewhere and lose it, or worse yet, hit me and hurt me.



With spring out, I took a cutoff disk and cut the hinge pin in a couple places and drove the pin parts out.



The top hinge uses nylon bushings, and if you look close, you can see that they are worn clear through



New bushings will fit tightly in the hinges. I’ll press them in with the vice. I am looking for the tightest fit possible with the new hinge pins



Lower hinge with the spring pressure uses a bronze bushing. The old ones were split.

I will be replacing all bushings with bronze ones. Fusick has a good kit with pins and bushings.

 

Glad you’re feeling better. I think your photo journals are terrific. Thanks for posting. What media do you use with that blaster? Soda?

 

Good feedback Iron! Thanks. Hoping this helps others somewhere along the way. I am actually working up a YouTube vid on the doors, but that will be weeks away. Around Upper Midwest we have a homeowners big box store called Menards. I buy media there called BlackBlast. About 10 buck for 50 pounds. It works very well in my low powered blast equipment.

https://www.menards.com/main/buildin....htm?exp=false



Blasting is messy work, and having eye, head, lung protection is important, and then cleanup is also to be considered. I well remember about 55 years ago when I bought a Sears chepo blaster, ran it in Dads garage. Went to close the garage doors and that sand had found its way into the garage door rollers. What a terrible mess, but lesson well learned.

 

Nice job, the door fixture is cool!

 

Thank you Kindly! Nice positive comment. I am thinking I may be able to disconnect it from the floor jack and attach it to a wood sawhorse to support door for other ops. Not sure just yet, but I can have it off the jack in seconds.

Today I set up the sandblaster outside and blasted the hinge parts. They cleaned up really well. Near as I could tell, there was not primer beneath the red lacquer?


Took about 3 minutes of blast to have them all looking good. Then 15 minutes of cleanup!



Right front turn signal was blasted and painted. New lens installed. Looks really nice assembled. Old and new parts side by side for comparison

 

Able to get back to this a little today. I focused on repairing a hole in forward low area of door where Radio Man had chopped in a speaker hole. What a mess to straighten out.


Radio Man put a speaker in this area. I suspect what happened is that they cut through the finish interior door panel and were then committed to the speaker position. Little did they know that there is a substantial piece of 12 gauge steel reinforcement beneath the 20 gauge door Sheetmetal. It turned into a real mess for them.



I trimmed up the ragged edges and fit up a piece of 12 gauge to restore structural integrity.



After finishing the heavy steel work, I fit up a piece of 20 gauge and tacked it off.



Welding in progress. I welded about 5 seconds, then used compressed air to cool the area to minimize distortion



Welded and ground down.



While at it with the welder, I filled two holes, one on each end of the door where beltline stainless steel moldings attach. I don’t like em and will not use them. Here I have reamed the hole to remove rust, and clamped a copper backer. Hole size is 3/8”



Blasted the hole with several bursts set at a hot setting.



Used the air file to work the weld flush.

 

Sunday. Work performed over that last few days. Epidural lumbar injection helped me a lot!

looking at removing old rubber parts, totally shot mostly. Removed beltline attach points across the door. Testing new paint strippers.


Old door seal is really bad. I take pics before removal, in case I forget how they go back on. It will be awhile before that happens. Door interior to the edge will get new paint before that happens.




Curled it up, and saved for future reference if needed.



These little short door bottom seals were still in remarkably good condition. Looks like the design intent is to allow internal rainwater to get out, but prevent dust from going back up into the door



A little heat from the heat gun and I could get them out without damaging the retaining ****.



I was not so lucky on these door bumpers. Even with heat, the mounting **** broke off. I found a complete set of rubber parts on eBay that have hood bumpers, door bumpers, and even ash tray bumper!



Broke off! But hey, the rubber part is so old and brittle so getting new is a good thing.



The SS beltline trim attaches each end of door with screws. Through a big hole, previously welded shut. There are 5 more steel stud anchors across the door face. I think they were resistance spot welded to the door skin, as I could not twist them off, easily.



So….took the air file and buzzed them down to door surface, plus’s just a little . I’ll probably hit each spot with a short hot burst from the welder and then work them down flush.



The EPA outlawed the manufacture of paint strippers with methyl chloride. The new stuff works remarkably poorly, for the most part. I found that using Jasco from a home owners store worked the best. Sand the lacquer paint with 80 grit, slather on a heavy coat, and cover it with plastic sheeting for about an hour and the paint comes off pretty well.

 

Installed new bronze bushings in hinges today. I debated waiting until after final painting individual hinge parts, or bushing the hinge assembly in epoxy primer only. Looks to me like assembly line methods were to assemble raw unpainted hinges, attach hinges to door and body, and then paint them. No primer at all. So my method is kind of a hybrid. Primer first, then assembly of hinge, I will paint the hinge with new color change red, and then final attach to door and body. I will likely do a preliminary fit up and pilot hole stake the final locations to make things easier.


This is the top hinge. New bronze bushings, two of them same size. The old nylon bushings totally worn out for comparison.



Bottom hinge with roller detent. It uses one small and one large bushing. They are a mild press fit



The vice works great for this. A backer washer provides room for the bushing to protrude through the hinge steel



The new hinge pins are knurled. The knurling is just a little bit longer than it should be. If totally driven home, the knurling gets into the bushing, just a little.



So I stopped short of setting the pin all the way home.



Right side hinges. Ready to do a door/body fit up. Ready to color paint too. I need to do old paint stripping before the fit up. I suspect I will need to adjust rear door panel gap by welding on door edge. So I want to be cleaned up as much as possible before doing the door hang.

 

Slowly working on door, when time is available. Chemical stripped paint, outside and at ends and bottom. Then sanded outside face with 120. But that revealed rust spots that nothing but a blasting would remove. The door looked like someone had shot it with a shotgun and #8 pellets. So multiple rust spots. Door ends the red paint came off chemically very well. But the primer stayed put. So a short blast quickly removed that as well.


I covered all holes to try and keep sand out of the inside. Window operator, door latch. Sand in them would mean I need to remove and clean them. Also, sand will etch glass. So there is risk with doing this.



Example of rust that needs removed. Door hinge nuts are plugged with cap screws and fender washers



Door bottom seam. Rust there as well. Perfect for a blaster to knock out.



Hinge end after blasting. I used short pieces of 3/16” wood dowels to plug weatherstrip holes



Latch end after blasting. 1/4” dowels used to plug door bumper holes. Latch is taped off with duct tape.



Door face after chem strip and sanding.



Lots of places like this. Rust below surface that sanding won’t get to. Blasting will. Gotta get all the rust out if new paint is expected to last.



Door face after blasting. 90 degrees in Iowa, with high humidity.. I plan to epoxy prime, just one coat, to seal it up. I think I may have to weld buildup the latch end to make a good panel joint between the new Quarter panel. I won’t know this for sure until I rehang the door, and temp install the fender. So looking for a break in heat and humidity so I can paint it. For now, back in the air conditioned Shop.

 

Heat and humidity broke, just a little on Friday. So I prepped and primed the door ends and bottom. Then flipped it over and painted the outside face Saturday morning.


Once blasted, rust starts soon thereafter. So a little sanding with 220 grit for one last cleanup.



Since I am having back problems, I had my Granddaughter help me carry the door out side a couple days ago. You can see her handprint in the corner. A good example of what skin oils and salts will do to bare steel. So it was sanded away . Wiped down with grease and wax remover. Tack clothed, and then two coats of epoxy.



So, the door is now primed, outside face, ends, and bottom. Blotchy look is sunlight filtering through the oak tree. Next up is removing old red paint from door sill and hinge jamb area. And priming those areas.

 

That’s terrific - great work

 

Thanks!😀. I am jealous of your username. It seems to fit these old cars pretty well. Lots of Oxide on my car anyway!

Summer in Iowa is a tough time to accomplish much on a hobby car, but got the old paint stripped from the car jambs and sill/rocker area. Then got it in primer.


I used Jasco stripper and a stainless steel welding brush to remove the old red paint, and what looked to be maybe one coat of lacquer primer?



After stripping was complete, I wiped down the area with lacquer thinner to clean it up, then some 220 paper to clean up the problem areas.



Masking it off for two coats of epoxy primer



Masked up, final cleaned. Ready for paint. I hate to paint in the Shop area, but box fan vented it. Used a half face organic vapor respirator.



Hinge area, ready for paint



Latch area. This has a new Quarter Panel. Original Sheetmetal had perhaps 50 spot welds that showed through the paint. I did some filler work to make this better than what the factory kicked out the door.



Hinge area after the paint



Latch area



Painted out. If I really had my act together, I would have the color choice made, and color and clear coated the rocker and hinge areas. But I don’t! Next up will be doing a test fit of the door to verify panel gap condition. I fear that I will need to do some door edge welding to account for the rear door edge trim strip I plan to eliminate. Also, I think the Chinese QP perhaps isn’t the same as original factory Sheetmetal. I hope I am wrong! But I need to get the door and fender back on to sort it all out.

 

Today I was able to hang the door. So lots of info to post that may be helpful to others doing door work. I will break it into three posts to make it easier to focus upon, for me anyway!


I took the door fixture fabricated earlier and cut away the door edge to allow installation of 1/4” foam weatherstrip from Home Depot. Protection from scratching.



I’m getting old. This door weighs maybe 50-60 pounds? But awkward to handle. Once in the door fixture it is so much easier to handle. Here I have temp attached the hinges. I am looking to mark locations for 1/8” indexing holes so that once I get the door hung and adjusted, I can drill through these holes into jamb structure, so that rehanging the doors will be quick and simple, without going through the adjustment process again.



1/8” holes will allow use of these Clecos. Aviation Sheetmetal temp assembly devices, and the pliers like tool to install and remove them.



The hinge leaf that attaches to the door will get one Location Hole. In a position that will be accessible with the door in the fully open position



A Cleco in the retracted position. It will hold parts together like this



A Cleco in the extended position narrows the barbed end, making it possible to fit through a 1/8” hole



The door jamb adjustable nut plate. It will move about a half inch in any direction



If possible, I would like to avoid hitting this nut plate with my Location Holes.



This is what the nut plate looks like from backside by the foot panel.

 

Second post on door hanging means and methods.


The door edge. Notice one huge hole upper right. Not sure what this hole is for, but think it may be a gauging or factory alignment hole used to attach doors as they go down the line. Whatever. I don’t want to put my single location hole in the door hinge leaf where that is.



So looking at Driver side door. I decided that placing the Location Hole where the black dot is marked should work.



So I drilled single holes on the door leaf, and two holes on the car body leaf. So reattaching using these Location Holes would mean taking the hinge, Cleco to the car body and attach with the cap screws. Then bring the door to the door hinge leaf, find the two single Location Holes and Cleco the door hinge to the door. All the while supporting the door appropriately with the door support fixture, until the cap screws are threaded and tightened. This should, in theory, allow the door to be reattached in the original adjusted position.



The car side hinge leaf, with two holes. Cleco inserted to test



Alternatively, in place of Clecos, a 1/8” drill bit could be used as locating pins when doing reattachment.



A door base supporting fixture. May or may not be helpful. Some shims of various thicknesses



Latch pin temporarily installed. This could be left off the car until later. Just get the door swinging first.



The door support fixture makes cap screw attachment so easy. I cannot imagine doing without it. Just jack it up until things line up and bolt together. Do try to get the car body hinge leaf in the “center” of the adjustment range. I started by just tightening the single center top screw

 

Third and final post for work done today. Hot humid crappy day outside. Air conditioned Shop is so much better place to be!


With single top cap screw on top hinge tightened, I jacked up the door until door bottom was level, plus a little for expected Sag, and then tightened bottom hinge screws and rest of top screws.



So I slid the support fixture out from under the door, and it is hung and swinging.



Using small floor jack and block of wood to support rear of door. Loosened the bottom hinge screws and jacked it up. Lots of trial and error work involved. You are in theory adjusting X,Y,and Z axis. Things are loose goosy. The door hinge leafs allows for vertical and in and out adjustments. The car body hinge leaf allows for vertical and forward, rearward adjustments. Literally with all cap screws loose, the door could be moved almost an inch in any direction. So getting it where it needs to be to align with the QP and Rocker is a slow process.



After getting the rear of the door close to where it needed to be, there was a metal on metal collision with the new Quarter Panel. This is at top of door, rear end.



So, I retrieved the old QP and compared new,to old. The new QP has a much sharper profile that caused the inner door metal to collide.



I made a paper pattern of the old part



Took my Dremmel and sliced the metal allowing it to be hammered into same position as original QP. I’ll weld it later. Easy work really



With the top fitting well, (X Axis), I focused on the in and out position of the rear of the door. First thing is to get the latch pin in a position that flushes the door with the QP, at the latch pin. Then observe the door at the top and bottom.



Here you can see that the door bottom needs moved inward. So a floor jack and block of wood supports the door while cap screws are loosened and the door bottom moved inward. Again, lots of loosening, repositioning, tightening, and observing the door to see if it is fitting better.



I fiddled with the door for perhaps two hours, trying to get it perfect. Overall, the present fit is way better than what the door was before I pulled it off the car. It is not perfect in all respects. But I don’t think it was perfect when kicked out of the factory. Panel gap turned out better than anticipated. Remember the door edge had a cheesy SS strip of metal, that could be used as a panel gap adjuster, so to speak. That ain’t going back on this car. No way, no how.



Overall the gap at rear of door isn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be. A little wide in the blue tape area. The gray and black accentuate the difference. One color, and not nearly so noticeable. I need to decide if weld building the door edge is worth while. I will decide this after the front fender is fitted up, I hope next week.


ANYONE, that has worked doors and the adjustment procedure is absolutely welcome to bring your ideas to this thread.

 

A couple of items need to be addressed early in the restoration process. I would remove the inside cowl panel covering and vacuum out all debris that has accumulated inside the cowl, then clean it as thoroughly as possible. Using a dentist's pick, clean all crevices where two panels are joined together, and check for rust. Then do the same with the inside of the door, because you don't want rust-through to happen after the car is painted. The door skin is crimped around the edge of the inner door frame, and this is where trapped water can cause rust to bubble out along the bottom edge of the door, especially in the rear lower corner. Once you have cleaned all these areas with the dentist's picks, leave them alone until after the car is painted. After painting, you can spray the inside of the doors and the cowl with a product called PDRP or cosmoline, its more common name. It will wick into the smallest spots and create a water-resistant barrier for the future. If you do it before painting, it can cause problems with the solvents in the paint, resulting in fisheyes or bubbles. This is how cars of this era were "rustproffed" by Ziebart. Ziebart is a commercial name for cosmoline. "PDRP is a waxy film lube with high solids used for corrosion preventative compounds suitable for a wide range of applications."*
I would also remove the pins, and file off the area that has excess knurling so you can put the pins fully seated. Possibly you have a lathe that you could use to cut them down?
* https://toolup.com/products/sprayon-...SHK6QTFJNiVwv_

 

Thanks Junkman for adding your wisdom! Many times I have thought having one of those picks would be helpful, and I really ought to get a couple of them. My brother has a lathe so it wouldn’t be impossible to knock off those knurls. I did use the 3M cavity wax at the edges of the rear wheelhouse where it meets the QP rim. Perhaps a little too early in the process? Just didn’t want to forget about it. 3M makes a nice kit with 3 different wand lengths to reach those deep dark areas. I will make a point of remembering to hit the door bottom before the finish panel is attached. I am fortunate that the rust isn’t spectacularly bad on this car. Mostly the QP rim areas and front fenders behind the wheels.

You can direct spray out of the can, or remove the cap and replace it with a long wand to get to hard to reach places.

 

I was able to fiddle a little more with door adjustment today.

My theory on side Sheetmetal is that it gets adjusted from back end forward. QP is set first, and there isn’t much adjusting to it. It is pushed up against heavy structure and spot welded in place. 250 welds on each side.

Then the door is hung and aligned with the QP maintaining an even bottom gap across the rocker/sill area. About 1/8 to 3/16” bottom gap. Top back of door should align with top of QP. Door latch pin is bolted in position and door is test closed upon it. Adjust latch pin so that door skin is flush to perhaps .040” outside of QP at the latch pin. This controls some wind noise. Door hinges can be adjusted in and out to align top and bottom door edges with QP edge. With door latched, moving the top hinge in will move rear bottom of door out. And vice versa. Also need to raise door hinges enough to account for some sag. It is trial and error. Anyone wanting to add to this is welcome to do so.


Yellow gap measurements are first attempt. Factory spec on the door to QP is .220 plus .040 to minus 0. So max gap would be.260”. I am trying for .240”



Moving the door forward .050” made much of the gap at the door front better. Factory spec shows fender at zero to proud of the door by .040”. Again, I would assume it is a wind noise thing?



The gap at top hinge area. Factory spec goes from .220 a few inches below top of door, to .330 at the pinch points. So aesthetically, the door gaps from a factory car were not a perfect even gap.


All of this theory is great, if all of the Sheetmetal is accurately factory produced, and not tweaked somewhere along the way. Also, the repro Sheetmetal may or may not be produced to exactly match factory metal. So the likelihood of being able to perfectly align everything is not guaranteed. It can be done. It takes a bunch of welding work. And I may do some welding, just have not decided yet.

 

So I will resurrect this thread for an update. I have chosen paint color and want to paint door edges and door sill/hinge area on the car. I am doing a mild color change to a red with some pearl in it. The Matador Red was just plain worn out on this car, and with extensive bodywork, I just couldn’t save the old lacquer paint. My thought is to get the difficult, largely unseen areas of the car painted by myself and turn the car over to a good Painter. So I am going to do hood underside, trunk underside, door edges and jamb areas hard to get to with the doors hanging. I did fuss and fume over door edge panel gaps. I recently changed all the body mounts and the rear door panel gaps on both sides of the car got better. So I will tinker with the paint on the right side of the car.


After the right side body mount install. Door/QP margin got better yet.



Bottom edge is very consistent, and top of door metal lines up with QP.



The small 1/8” holes are drilled to allow hinges to be removed and save the very time consuming location accuracy. Holes just go far enough into the car body to get a good mark.



I decided to also put two holes in the door leafs of the hinge. So I can attach hinge to either the door or car body first.



With hinge location “pinned” to the car and door, I now am confident that removing the door and reproducing the panel gaps after painting will be easier



This area of the door would be quite difficult to paint with hinges in place and the door hanging. I don’t know factory painting sequence. If anyone does, please chime in.



Hinge bolts, hinges, and detent spring jigged up for painting.



Looking forward to turning this area Red. Epoxy primer has been in place for about seven months or so, so it is well cured out.



The chemical adhesion window for paint over the epoxy is three days. I was about ready to say What the Heck and just clean and paint it without any scuff. But I had bought these 800 grit hook and loop abrasive sheets. I am kinda easy prey for people selling new stuff sometimes. Super Assilex is what these are called. 4 sheets and a foam backer. $36 is kinda pricy. Got them on eBay.



But I am telling ya, They Work! And really well. I don’t know what comprises the abrasive, but it cuts very quickly, does not dull quickly, does not load up the paper, which is really more of a fabric.

This stuff works way better than Scotchbrite. This is the foam backer I could easily rub out a Quarter Panel in about five minutes with these things. The abrasive sheets attach to the foam backer hook and loop.

 

Again, let me say nice work! It's good to see your update.

 

Nice job as always !

 

Thank you Mr Moderator. Hoping I can help a few others along the way

Thanks Iron Oxide.

This Post will involve the paint prep I did before turning the door edges, sill and hinge area, and fender under hood areas red. It is a little window into my warped mind, and how I tend to overthink things sometimes.


I thought I had the hinge leaf cap screws paint prep all done? I drilled lumber and had the screws sitting ready for paint. But I took a closer look at the back side of these cap screws and noticed that they have hardened steel spurs on the back side of the flange.



Purpose is obviously to lock these cap screws down and prevent loosening. So I don’t want to load up this area with paint, or the lock down won’t happen.



So, this is where I go in the ditch sometimes. I used a same size washer to cut circles of vinyl tape to mask the area where heads will rest on the door hinge leaf.



I just set the cap screws in the body hinge leaf, and will paint them together. I am pretty sure I know how this was handled in factory. I think the door with hinges already bolted on was attached to the car body, then the whole assembly was painted together.



Trying to make the door edges a thing of beauty is somewhat silly, when you see deformed metal and spot weld spatter on the door edge that was never cleaned up.



Door seal holes blocked with small wood dowels to prevent getting red on the glass. Latch is masked off



I am painting the inside fender where hood hinge bolts up.



Back edge of fender where door tucks under will also get painted



I am painting hinge area and sill area. Will not paint back door jamb but will instead have painter swing the door open and paint it with the quarter panel

 

Today I got the parts painted and clear coated. Overjoyed at how they turned out. I actually like painting, but it is so hard to do in a dirty shop with other expensive vehicles, tools, equipment in the same area. I have built spray booths for two airplanes, corvettes, just don’t want to do it again, but will if I have to. Hoping I can shake a painter out of the bushes and have it done by NOT ME. Color matching paint anymore is not hard to do, and my paint will be in areas that are not highly visible.


So I got a paint cost estimate from local DuPont dealer and they came in at $3800 for one gallon of red. I have had my eye on UreChem paint for a while, and decided to give it a try. Couldn't find any bad reports on the Net. So….this is a quart of Red Peril urethane and a quart of clear. Activator and urethane reducer. $170 to my door.



A $20 mini gun and a $1000 Sata. I used the small gun and it worked well.



Hinge and Sill painted and clear coated.



Hinge leaves and spring. I’ll bet no spring ever got it this good.



Fender inside edges and back tuck in area.



All three door edges.



Remembering this is what it looked like before the repaint.

 

Thats pretty awesome and honestly inspirational. Can you tell is a little more about the sata gun? stand alone compressor?

 

Excellent work!

 

Nice work! And...you said....

"I think the door with hinges already bolted on was attached to the car body, then the whole assembly was painted together."

You are correct in that regard as well...doors were in place as well as the trunklid when the main body was painted.

 

Steve - x2

 

I know enough about auto painting to be dangerous. First car I painted was a 66 corvette convertible, painted with DuPont acrylic lacquer as I remember it. I bought a Binks siphon feed paint gun. Paid about $70 for it, which was a lot in 1972. Back then, you could paint without a respirator. Lacquer fumes wouldn?t kill you, but sure got some good highs and headaches too. Since then, with advent of catalyzed paints, paint vapor can indeed kill you. Nastiest stuff I ever used was DuPont Imron on two airplanes I built. Imron requires an outside supplied air respirator, and if the mask covers eyes that is better yet, as isocyanates attack eyes as well. That paint lasts forever it seems, but it is catalyzed with isocyanates. With modern paint systems, you really have to pay attention to and adhere to Material Safety Data Sheets.

Here are some random thoughts on painting equipment. Anyone is welcome to comment.


2 cylinder 220 volt compressor is big enough for what I do. Hose reel is really nice. Air filter is barely adequate. It gets most of the moisture, but not all of it.



Paint guns bought over the years. Far left is a siphon feed Binks model 69. A great gun, but operates at about 50-65 psi, wasting about half of the sprayable material. HVLP Sata is next. Uses lots of air at lower pressure. (HVLP usually operates at 2Bar or 29 psi) Increases material efficiency. Very pricy gun and not worth what I paid for it. Modern version is at about $1300. The small Harbor Freight mini HVLP gun costs $20 and does a good job. Lastly is a new Inocraft Drizzle.



A good respirator for auto painting is the 3M charcoal filter that gets most of the organic vapors. OK to use if you also have good room ventilation. Keep it sealed up in the bag if not using, as the filters will wear out quickly. Some paints, this is not adequate. You will need a supplied air respirator.



This is what you get for about $100 if you buy the Inokraft. The kit comes with three different air caps and needles, so it will handle almost any paint consistency. I intended to use it for high-build primer surfacer. Have not got there yet, so have not tried it. This gun is intended to run well on low flow of air, so small compressors will work. Also in the kit is an air filter and air pressure gauge to use at the gun. This would I think be a good kit to use for someone starting out. You could learn how it works on primers and undstand it well when it is time for colors and clears.

 

So pulled off the masking and pushing forward, a little. Took a half day to get that darn spring back into the hinge. Got the hinges bolted to the door. May hang it tomorrow?


Getting the door edges painted breaks loose a bunch of work. The two dust seals on bottom of door can be re-installed. Two small rubber door bumpers can be installed.
Door seal can be installed.



There are two small bumpers on latch end of door. I happened to have a plastic push pin that made this task easy. I am going to do the door seal with the door hanging.



Saw a door spring compression hack on YouTube. Compressed spring in vice, and cinched up the zip ties. They held, for a while. Not a good idea, at least on this vintage of spring.



As I would learn later, the spring must be fully compressed to get it installed and zip ties were nowhere near enough.



Got this at Advance Auto for $15. Made of mild steel. Should have been a high carbon steel, as it was not a match for the compressed power of the spring.



Not enough threads on sex bolt, so used a washer stack to get more tightening range



I found that I needed to compress the entire spring to get it in place. Taking the tool jaws and inserting them into the first coil from the end was not enough. And the tool didn’t like compressing the entire spring. It bent the tool, so C clamp to the rescue.



I don’t think I could have did the spring with the door hanging with what I had for tools. Once spring was fully compressed, I slipped one end under the roller catch lever, and then pushed the bottom portion on to the bottom spring mount.



Then I loosened up the C Clamp and tool



I had to cut a small notch in the V of the tool to allow it into position by the roller catch. This was done earlier in process.



So the bottom jaw of the tool is pinched between the spring mount and spring. I took a wood dowel and drove the spring off of the tool.



In position, finally! Way too much time spent on this. Learned a lot. Next one will be easy. Scratched up the spring some.



Oiling up the roller. There is such tremendous force on all the parts due to the high spring force. I wore not only safety glasses but also a full face shield. The spring came out of the tool once, and I am happy it went away from me rather than toward me.



Finished up the day using two 1/8” drill bits as locating pins to bolt hinges to door edge.



Theoretically, they should be back where they were before removal. We will see……..

 

Hung the door today. The indexing holes seemed to work very well. I don’t think it would be worth doing if the hinges are not in excellent condition. Drilling alignment holes in hinges with worn out bushings would be of no advantage. But in situations where the door will get removed and replaced several times, the door to QP and Fender alignment will not need to happen multiple times. For me, the door to QP and rocker/sill were as good as before removing the door. I’ll set the Fender tomorrow, for what I think will be the last time.

Probably my last post on this thread unless I find something worthwhile on the Driver side door. Hope to be removing that later this week. Rework that door and fender, and that will be the end of the significant metalwork.


Using both Clecos and 1/8” drill bit shanks to align Body hinge leafs to Body. Installed and tightened all cap screws very well.



Using a paint stick Go/No Go gauge to check gap between door bottom and sill. It was exactly as before removal.