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47 Ford Truck outer door panel replacement

2K views 4 replies 4 participants last post by  marvbabco 
#1 ·
Any advice for replacing the outer door skin on my 47 Ford truck doors. I ordered new inner door bottoms from Northerhclassictrucks, but they said the outer door is easy enough to just put on new sheet metal. Basically flat. Some guys tell me it will "oil can" if I just put on new flat sheet metal. I am a rookie and my 15 year old son and I are building the truck. Any advice is appreciated.
Thanks
Marv
Forest Lake, MN
 
#2 ·
:pimp: The doors are all the same from 1940 to 1947 and all sizes so a replacement may be the easiest route, but there is no reason you can't make or weld a patch panel in to replace the rust sections with good results. Just watch your heat and do a little at a time. :thumbup:
 
#3 · (Edited)
english wheel time

The metal shaping forums have lots of info on how to put a crown in a flat sheet. try metalmeet, metalshapers assocation. and there are a few other metal forming sites , I took a class at UVU, street rod panel fabrication, and a weekend with Ron Covell, David Gardiner in the uk has some good info on his website, and sells DVD's working with simple hand tools. http://www.metalshapingzone.com

It's easy to put too much crown in a panel, then have to bring it back . Here on Hotrodders, Cboy has written an eBook, "the scratch built hot rod," click at the top of the page. When I go south for the winter I plan on building new doors for the 29 Nash roadster. an amazing build is Chris Davenport's 40 willys, all aluminum body he built as a student at UVU.. Google "Chris Davenport 40 willys"
 
#4 ·
And let's make this perfectly clear, there is no such thing as a "flat" panel. Your doors have a slight crown to it as all "flat" panels have. That crown gives it "body" so you don't have an oil canning effect. When something like that has been worked on, welding for instance incorrectly, THEN it goes flat and "oil cans".

Brian
 
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