car body welding

Plate would be way too heavy, sheet is what you want, the same thickness as the rest of the door skin. Brazing is not recommended for two reasons. It will cause more distortion than a proper welding job, and it will make it impossible for anyone to weld it after you mess it up trying to braze it.

You can weld it with O/A. In the old days, that's all body men had. And yes, it will warp. (In fact it will warp no matter what you use to weld it, though MIG, or a spot welder, would give the least amount of warp.) Use short stitch welds spaced about every 2 inches. Hammer and dolly to correct the warp. Slather with body putty (or lead) then Surform and sand to finish.

Note, if it is a common car or truck (ie Chevy or Ford), entire replacement door skins are available from JC Whitney, and others, for about $30. That's probably the more sensible way to repair the door. (Entire replacement doors, less the window and lock mechanisms, are around $130, which would eliminate the need to weld.)

I just replaced the passenger door skin on my F350 welding truck using one of the JC Whitney skins. After crimping it in place on the door frame, I just plug welded it with the MIG, essentially duplicating the factory spot welds. Distortion was minimal. A touch with the grinder, and it was ready for paint.

Gary

By door skin do you mean the entire door skin or the bottom portion? I need to repair my 1978 F100 Ranger Lariot doors. I have been beating my head trying to figure out how to get that "J", where the outer skin covers the inner skin. I have also been trying to figure out the rounded front corner. I need to fix the inner and outer bottom of both doors on the bottom. I am not sure if the sheet metal thickness of the replacement panels is the same as the originals.

I /think/ the entire door from JC Whitney also needs all gaskets too,pretty much just a bare door?

So, about how much did you give to fix your door?

How did you crimp the edges, the outer to the inner? Vice grips or just any sort of pliers that would do a nice job?

Did you have to take the door off the hinges?

How did you keep the door aligned? I mean so that it would close like the original.

Would this be a good excuse to spend $200 on one of those Harbour Freight migs? I have been thinking maybe using solder. I have an older 110 volt arc welder that I welded a floorboard panel in with.

Is it all easier done than said?

About 100 other questions including did you take pics?

This guy has original mold stuff from Ford. I got the rear honeycomb panel for a

72 Mach I from him and it is of pretty good quality, it is a plastic piece.

Thanks for any info, Thor

Rustoleum dark machine gray, by any chance?

What I saw on one show on tv was a sheet that was bent into an L shape the bottom is the depth of the door to be fixed (bottom) and the verticle is height needed.

He then used (only sheet people would have them I figure) shrinker and stretcher unit that made the assembly bend around the curve of the car door.

The L was used for more strength and contact area from what I understand. It was welded on with a MIG.

It all depends on what and how much is gone - e.g. where... Maybe only an inserted plate is needed.

Martin

Just primer for now, Jon. I'm going to repaint the whole truck once I get the body the way I want it.

Gary

Entire door skin. They also sell patch panels, but that's more work to install.

Yeah, just a bare door.

$30 plus paint when I get to that point.

There's a special tool,

you can do it with just hammer and dolly (I did). The panel came pre-flanged, you just have to close it up.

No.

Since I didn't remove the door, I didn't have to worry about that. Though actually, the door didn't fit that well anyway and I did wind up loosening the hinge bolts and aligning it.

I suppose one of the HF wire feed welders would do, I used my Miller.

Nothing is easy. :-) But it wasn't that hard.

Sorry, no pix.

Gary

this link

will walk you through the process of repacing the bottomportion of your door if you have access to a patch panel, mig wleder & other common shop tools. ope this helps