mud mountain

I just looked in the FAQ section and the article about door skin replacement wouldnt come up .Any help would be apreciated.

fakesnakes

It as actually one of the easiest panels to replace. The skin is crimped over the door frame. After making sure the door is properly aligned with the rear quarter and front fender, remove it from the car. Lay it on a bench and use a 4 1/2" angle grinder with a 60 grit flap disk to grind through the edge all the way around the door (you can use a larger grinder, but the smaller one is easier to handle). Grind just enough to cut through the crimped flange, separating it from the exterior skin. Do not grind into the door frame, it needs to be preserved as the mounting edge for the new skin.

Remove the skin (it should practically fall off) and the remaining flange (you may need to use a chisel or panel knife). Clean up and straighten the edge. Now is the time to fix any other rust issues inside the door. Often there is rust damage in the door frame. Inspect for rust and treat or replace as necessary. Give the inside and edge two coats of rust converter (I prefer Eastwood, but POR 15 works also). Once dry, lay the new skin over the door frame and check the fit. Using a body hammer, work the new skin crimp over the edge of the door frame, going around the door evenly (Eastwood makes a skin crimper for this, but I have found the body hammer method easier and their tool can leave crimp marks in the exterior panel if you are not careful). You will want to trial fit the door, checking the alignment to the quarter panel and fender, before completely crimping the skin.

If everything lines up, finish crimping the skin, reinstall the door and you are ready to prep and paint. It is about a 1/2 day job, full day for your first one, but you will get the hang of it quickly.

I hope that helps and good luck!

mud mountain

Thanks fakesnakes , I bought the car about a year ago and tore it apart soon thereafter. Since then Ive been avoiding it (this project is way over my head) but Im going to go ahead and jump in now, I've always wanted to restore an old Mustang but I don't know anything about it. I guess I can't screw it up but so bad, and with all the info on here it might turn out pretty decent. Thanks.

zmetalmilitia

The door skin is one thing I didn't have to replace. I didn't realize the skin was only crimped on the door frame. No welding? easy easy.

chris66dad

We replaced the door panel as fakesnakes described. We did plug weld the new panel on with the MIG after the edge was bent over and crimped.
Here are some pictures
http://chris66dad.tripod.com/id19.html