Positioning Lower Screws on New Door Panel
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Joined: Feb 2010
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From: Vancouver Island, Canada
Positioning Lower Screws on New Door Panel
Is there a trick to positioning the cupped screws along the bottom of a door panel? 1970 Cutlass with new Legendary panels.
Do you try to catch the existing holes or just punch new ones in the door metal?
Do you try to catch the existing holes or just punch new ones in the door metal?
Administrator
Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 42,475
From: Poteau, Ok
If the original holes are ok, go with them. You can fabricate a hole duplicator like the ones in this link at home.
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Joined: May 2008
Posts: 3,623
From: Austin, Texas
Mock up/hang each panel on the doors and check to see how far down the lower edge of the Legendary door panel is. Many times they don't hang down as low as the original panels so you'll need to do this to see if the original screw holes put the screws in a position that works and looks right.
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Joined: May 2009
Posts: 2,249
From: Northern California
When I do interior work, I have a couple of tricks.
Usually the problem is holes that have been used again, and again, and again. Aka over-sized, hogged out holes… Long, oversize screws can help.
For holes in old sheet metal, like where door panel screws go, if I have pliers I try to bend the displaced screw holes tighter by squeezing the holes front & back to restore a bit of tension which can hold the screws in place more tightly. Of course you can use bigger screws too - #12 in place of #10, etc.
If I can’t restore screw-bite-tension and the holes are near enough to the edges, I try to use J or U clips (aka speed-nuts) on hogged out holes. Another fallback would be using the plastic anchors like you’d use in drywall if the factory holes are _really_ hogged out.
For the oblong holes where the nails go, you can get new plastic retaining cups. They’re cheap & useful if your panels still have nails.
While you have the door panels (and probably the rear quarter panels) out, that’s a good time to replace the factory tar paper water seals. By now the tarpaper layer may be shredded or gone. Either way, a good replacement is to get some closed cell foam either 1/8” thick (fits easier) or 1/4” thick (harder to fit, but quieter) to replace the tar paper. These layers don’t need a lot of precision, just glue ‘em up on the doors and leave enough edge-margin to let the door panels & quarter panels to sit flat. This is one of those inexpensive materials advances that are fun to put in.
The other big thing to do when panels are off is to clean the h*ll out of the door bottoms and be sure the rubber exhaust seals in the bottoms of the doors are clear/clean enough to let water out out. Ware gloves and pull out the big stuff. Then use compressed air to blow out the small stuff.
Panels off is also a good time to review your power windows, or window tracks depending on what you have. Simplest effort is to leave the tracks and windows in place and grease everything. Next level is pulling windows/tracks/motors, but this gets you into very deep (meaning, time-consuming - as in days -) effort getting everything as good as it was before you pulled it. Do not pull windows and tracks lightly. Getting it right on reinstallation takes a lot of hours. Like days-worth of hours. Most times a thorough cleaning & regrease can get you 90% of the results…
Hope I didn’t veer too far off track and this helps you get where you’re going.
Cheers
cf
Usually the problem is holes that have been used again, and again, and again. Aka over-sized, hogged out holes… Long, oversize screws can help.
For holes in old sheet metal, like where door panel screws go, if I have pliers I try to bend the displaced screw holes tighter by squeezing the holes front & back to restore a bit of tension which can hold the screws in place more tightly. Of course you can use bigger screws too - #12 in place of #10, etc.
If I can’t restore screw-bite-tension and the holes are near enough to the edges, I try to use J or U clips (aka speed-nuts) on hogged out holes. Another fallback would be using the plastic anchors like you’d use in drywall if the factory holes are _really_ hogged out.
For the oblong holes where the nails go, you can get new plastic retaining cups. They’re cheap & useful if your panels still have nails.
While you have the door panels (and probably the rear quarter panels) out, that’s a good time to replace the factory tar paper water seals. By now the tarpaper layer may be shredded or gone. Either way, a good replacement is to get some closed cell foam either 1/8” thick (fits easier) or 1/4” thick (harder to fit, but quieter) to replace the tar paper. These layers don’t need a lot of precision, just glue ‘em up on the doors and leave enough edge-margin to let the door panels & quarter panels to sit flat. This is one of those inexpensive materials advances that are fun to put in.
The other big thing to do when panels are off is to clean the h*ll out of the door bottoms and be sure the rubber exhaust seals in the bottoms of the doors are clear/clean enough to let water out out. Ware gloves and pull out the big stuff. Then use compressed air to blow out the small stuff.
Panels off is also a good time to review your power windows, or window tracks depending on what you have. Simplest effort is to leave the tracks and windows in place and grease everything. Next level is pulling windows/tracks/motors, but this gets you into very deep (meaning, time-consuming - as in days -) effort getting everything as good as it was before you pulled it. Do not pull windows and tracks lightly. Getting it right on reinstallation takes a lot of hours. Like days-worth of hours. Most times a thorough cleaning & regrease can get you 90% of the results…
Hope I didn’t veer too far off track and this helps you get where you’re going.
Cheers
cf
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