This is why I don't do bodywork...

[rlith]

So.. When I bought my truck way back when, one of the issues with it cosmetically (sic?) was that the idiot kid didn't realize the lock inside the door was broken and kicked the door shut several times. This caused a nice flat spot on the door and actually tore the steel and the latch on the B-Piller. When I got the truck I used a hammer to try and reset the latch itself and welded it. It was an inelegant solution. The door sat in too far by a 1/4 inch, I had to slam the hell out of the door to get it to fully close, and the paint on the door along the winshield started chipping off badly. Another issue with this kid is that he bought the wrong door pin and bushing set for the driver's door. What does he do instead of getting the proper set? He tries to drill the farking hinges!!!! So with all that's wrong with the door, it sagged. I managed to cure this for a little while by welding the bushing in place to the hinge...Again, another inelegant solution...So I bit the bullet and and had all this crap fixed... Not a cheap solution, but my body guy is very elegant.

He didn't want to replace the hinges (the bottom hole of the top hinge was not only over drilled, it developed the nasty egg shape). So since the hinge itself was fine (not bent) He simply welded the holes shut, ground the weld down flat, then redrilled the hole to the proper spec... Won't have to worry about that again! YAY! (No pics sorry)


Forgive a lot of the pics, they were taken by my phone cam..

He started by pulling the driver and rear driver door. The with the handy chop saw, cut out the latch section of the B-Piller (this saved him from having to redo the hinges and balance the door)



Here's the section they cut out... Here you can see my crappy weld job, but hey, it worked for almost 2 years!





Here you can see the inside. I drew a line where the steel actually tore..





Here is a pic of the door, I've outlined the flat spot. On the right line I made thicker, it was actually creased against the seam, not to good..(Makes me want to be the kid that owned this prior to me)




And hear is one of the guys working on the door to repair that damage..




Here we see the initial install/weld/paste of the b-piller section



A final pic of the same section prior to painting...




Another issue is the dog leg section of our trucks (lower corner by the rear quarter) that tends to chip. It was getting a bit of rust down there, fortunaly it was just surface, but I've let it go on too long... Figured I'd get that fixed...Here's a pic so you can see what I'm talking about...





So that's everything that needed repaired...Now here are the final pics..

Note: The brown spots are leaf reflections..

The final look of the bpiller and latch (The white stuff is lithium grease)



Final of the door after blending...




and the dog leg...





So all in all I'm pretty happy, and as the subject says, this is why I don't do bodywork, it's as much as skill as it is an art, and there ain't no way I have the talent!

[tblake]

very very nice. Nice truck.

[MagicRat]

Nice job and a nice truck.
I hate the way a few seconds of carelessness does such extensive damage to a truck. Thats a nice repair!

( BTW is that a d00bie lighter in the last pic? )














just kidding!

[ChrisGood]

no that is a doobie lighter, truck looks good

[rlith]

Was outside having a smoke, couldn't find any other lighter than the bbq one, LOL

[ChrisGood]

been there done that, i always have my zippo, couldnt find it for a week, ran around with the my zippo for my grill, big one like that only butane refillable

[rlith]

Wellfortunatly I've since found my zippo..LOL..(Makes me think of the song by Spider Robinson.."Leather Zippo Holster")

[JimmySLS]

Well i am glad it went good for you rlith.So are you going to be the new mod for the s series forum?Later bud