John Bonnett Posted February 24, 2013 Share Posted February 24, 2013 This is relating to my aluminium body that I am building.One option is to use the original door shells and re-skin in aluminium rather than build a complete new door. Will the door go out of shape once the old skin is removed? Would it be better to attach the frame to a a jig before removing the doorskin?I'd be pleased to hear from anyone who has experience with this job.Thank you John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted February 24, 2013 Share Posted February 24, 2013 Not done GT6/Spit. However, on Herald/Vitesse the door frame is fairly floppy without the skin fitted. The factory-fit skins are also brazed to the frames at 3 or 4 points. My own experiences have shown that without these brazed/welded points the door will go out of shape when slammed against fresh new door rubbers, leading to the lower trailing edge standing proud of the rear wing. To an extent this will depend on how tightly you've folded the skin over the frame but my technique now is to fit the newly skinned door, twist to shape as required and tack at the corners and swage lines to fix it in place.Not so easy with a mixed metals door...... There are some pretty good panel adhesives around used to stick modern cars together, but don't know if the curing time would be long enough to allow you fit the skin, trial fit the door and tweak as needed......Door skin is not the heavy part of the door anyway.Nick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Bonnett Posted February 25, 2013 Author Share Posted February 25, 2013 Thank you for your thoughts Nick. The Spitfire door is considerably smaller than a Herald so it may be a bit more rigid. However, if there were any risk of it going out of shape after the steel skin had been removed I would weld the door to a rigid frame first of all which should keep everything as it should be. I'll bond the aluminium skin to the steel door using panel adhesive all the way round before tightening the folds and not only should this stop any relative movement between panel and door it should hopefully be a barrier to prevent corrosion between the steel and aluminium.There's a long way to go before addressing the doors but it's good to have a plan.John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ferny Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 How did/does the side impact bar attach to the US cars (later UK ones had them?) and how much more rigid does it make a door without a skin? Could be an avenue to explore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James1500 Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 I'd be tempted to attach the skin to the frame loosely and do the final adjustments on the car, that's the only way you can be sure of final fit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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