Body work journey

Should be free shipping at Schofields at that price too!

 

Jim. I've found a paint shop close to me that sells the Lechler epoxy...but they have loads of options. Any chance you remember which one you have used?

And a more general question for all, the skin is spot welded round the outside, does the existing and new skins have any fixings in the window area or does it just sit/push in and the window scraper holds it down. Mines covered in paint and I can't see what's what under there.

Thanks as ever for the help.

 

I've just found the datasheet and it's Lechler "LS107 (S9107)". Just triple check they give you the correct hardener for it; I got given the wrong one when I was doing the Baja chassis and the paint didn't harden at all so I had to take it all back off again (even more frustrating as I'd got it shotblasted to save time!).

I'm not sure I quite follow you about the section around the window area? As you say, it's spot welded round the outside, then you'll just need to butt weld the new skin where it transitions into the window surround (so the section bottom left in the below picture, and then the same in the section that's just out of the picture):



I'd also recommend checking that all of the holes on the new door skin are there for the outer window scraper to push into (the row of holes along the bottom of that picture). From memory mine was either missing some entirely or had to be opened up a bit to accept the clips.

 

Thanks Jim. To clarify, im happy about the vutt jointing the two small arms, what I'm wondering about is how the new skin attaches to the exiting door where the scrapper sits. So in your picture the top of the door skin in the foreground , is that welded?

 

With you now.
There are a few bits to weld there:

• The two flanges you can see on the left in the first picture that are bent at right angles to the scraper section. They weld to corresponding tabs on the door.
• The two sets of holes in the first picture which I drilled for plug welding to the support bars on the door. These can be a bit awkward to weld as you'll be plug welding through the narrow gap between the door skin and door.

The below shows the corresponding areas that you'll be welding to:

 

Brilliant thanks, I now know that I have to grind those bits out at well. Better to ask than have an OH sxxx moment when I've Broken something

 

No worries, feel free to drop me a PM if you need any more details. I've masses of pictures from when I did mine.

 

Thanks so much for this thread guys - I've put my door back on but it's not right and I think I may need to start again!

 

A very interesting day at the NEC Practical Classic restoration show. Spoke to a chap who works for HB Body and the picture below shows the codes for the 2k epoxy and primers recommend for bodywork. The picture shows (from the top) bare metal, then the 989 is the 2k epoxy, the 260 is the filler if needed and the 261 is another filler epoxy type prior to the base or top coat. Luckily, where I get my paint from (LE Went) supplies the HB epoxy so I might as well use this.

 

I painted this 41 years ago with 4 coats of cellulose

 

@Flakey, nice wheels..oh your in my old neck of the woods...watch out for them

 

This is quite nerve wracking doing this for the first time. I'm hoping to to sandblast this to clean up and then protect. A few tricky bits that I would have struggled to work out without the pictures above, so thanks all. The H frame has come away from the bottom of the door where I can see from the pics above that there should be a tab on each H frame foot that gets attached to the frame and then sandwiched under the skin. I'll need to fabricate something. I'm still looking at how the tabs by the mirror bolt works and how best to dismantle. Otherwise tools down time for now.

 

Looking good Chris.
Inside of the frame looks like it’s in great condition too.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Short update..door skin arrived which Schofield packed it really, really well...#cardboard mountain!

I also figured out how to carefully dismantle the VW origami that is the tab for the door skin/mirror/how many tabs do they need quandry #head scratch for hours!

Now to continue cleaning the waxol off the skin and figure out how best to get at the nasty little nooks and crannies VW invented just for us #VW

 

The mirror mount has to be strong, people are often bumping into mine (if I drive too close to the kerb )

 

Looking good Chris

Sent from my SM-T580 using Tapatalk

 

I've been thinking...which is always a bad idea, about how the H frame is attached to the door frame and how the skin is attached on top of both. My H frame has lost their tabs and so I'll have to weld some on, hence the head scratching.

The picture below shows two ways that the tabs could work. The top 'OUT' method is how I think I've seen them done (please correct me if I've missunderstood @JamesLey, @MorkC68, @mcswiggs etc) but I'm wondering if the bottom drawing 'IN' would be better as the skin could be spot welded flat to the door frame without the H support tabs causing a small gap around them for water ingress.

Thoughts would be appreciated, Ta.

 

In hindsight I would have done as you suggest (IN). It's a bit of a crap design as it does mean the skin has an extra layer of metal at those two points.
I suspect VW did it that way to make it easier to spot weld together.

 

Thanks Jim. I'll look more closely how to do my alternative option then. Assuming I'm correct in thinking the H frame is glued to the skin with Sikaflex(?) as the skin is placed on the frame, I will need to make sure that the H frame doesn't deform the door skin when it is attached.