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Need some suggestions on fixing up these doors

932 views 1 reply 2 participants last post by  baddbob 
#1 ·
I am getting ready to spend some time working on the fiberglass nose and hood on the mustang. After reading some of the earlier tips, I figured on making certain that the doors are in the right position before I finalize the front fenders, gapping them and lining them up.

This is where I ran into trouble. I thought that all I would be doing was adjusting the hinges slightly. instead I have many hours of work. The body shop where I had the metal welded was pretty shoody in the last bit of work done on the car. The repop doors were troublesome, but what he did was simply hammer the edges of the doors to line up with the adjacent panels, be it quarters, fenders or rockers.

So I ran my hand along the gaps and edges to feel the gaps and panel alignment.. all I feel is bumps and lumps along the door edges :mad:

So tomorrow night I am going to bring some straight edges to see where the doors were messed up. I just don't know where to start now
I am determined to make this right... but it pisses me off that I spent all this money, and he would have been better off leaving the doors alone, for me. instead he folded or bent the last 1" of the door to achieve a panel match.

So any suggestions, where to start making this right?
 
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#2 ·
If the doors are to long to fit in the hole properly you'll need to hammer and dolly those bulges flat then grind the edge down and weld it back up, then grind your weld down. This is common proceedure when doing streetrods, etc. What I usually do is get the door aligned the best it can be then use some masking tape to make a line where the edge of the door should be- this shows the areas that need to be trimmed off and also any areas that need to be built up. When the tape is on take and run another line of tape next to the first tape- this way you will have a reference point that won't burn off during the metal work. Trim the edge down with your grinder untill you hit the tape, then remove the tape and weld the skin back up, then grind the face of the weld down and reapply your tape, then using the edge of the tape as a guide grind your weld at the edge untill flush with the tape. Hope this makes sense. I've done this on hoods, decklids, doors, etc....
Reproduction doors usually suck for fit and finish, most times repairing the old doors with new skins is the best way to go.
 
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