Thread: C5 gto
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Old 06-17-2017, 06:24 PM
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heinke heinke is offline
MetalShaper of the Month Jan 2018
 
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Prescott, AZ
Posts: 487
Post Passenger door – finishing door skin

In summary, for this being my first door skin, I approached it with apprehensions but it came out good in the end. Not to jump ahead, here’s the details.

I now had the door skin ready to attach but once attached access to all things inside the door will be limited to the door card opening. In other words, the door will no longer be wide open with access from the outside. So, I wanted to complete everything that would involve drilling or measuring which would be complicated with limited access.

First was making sure the exterior door handle work. I’d already cut a hole in the skin for it but now that it’s actual location was established; I could test it out. It turns out that it activated the latch fine but would do so even in the “locked” position. I had to shorten a piece on the door handle and lengthen a linkage piece to make it so it only opened the door in the “unlocked” position. I also decided to fabricate a bracket between the backside of the handle and the steel door frame so that a push on the door handle to close the door wouldn’t have the handle pushing inward on the door skin. Given this is an aluminum door skin, I didn’t want it to get warped by aggressive door closure.

Next was to drill holes on the door skin window flange for window exterior trim/seal. There would be no way to drill these once the skin is attached.



Now I was ready to attach the skin. My plan of attack was to start at the top and work downwards. I was concerned about a gap forming in the upper back corner between the window frame and the door skin. So, I started in attaching the skin there. I secured the skin with a vice grip grip cushioned by a cedar shim and hammered over the flange to secure it.



My main tools for hemming the skin are sitting on the stool. A low crown body hammer and the largest dolly I own.



Once the upper back corner was secured, I moved to the upper front corner next. I worked down the front and back edges to about the middle of the door. Here’s the completed hem on upper front part of door.



I wanted to keep the skin surface tight all over so I was trying to avoid trapping extra metal somewhere. So, next I moved to the middle of the door bottom and attached the skin there. I then worked small sections on front, back, and bottom edges converging on the lower corners. This way no metal became trapped and the skin is tight as a drum head. Here it is with skin attached all the way around.



Once the skin was attached all the way around, I checked it with a straight edge. It still had the low crown and no apparent warpage. I let out a big sigh of relief.



The real test is how it fits on the car.



The upper front corner was low but I was able to raise it into position with a little pull. The surface match between body and door is great everywhere else. I let out a second big sigh of relief as I was sure I’d hammered the surface level all over the place during the hemming.

The door gap has a couple of issues. The gap is too wide on a good portion of the rear edge and part of the bottom. I think these are both best addressed with a little bit of filler in the door opening rather than messing with the door skin itself. I was shooting for a 3/16” gap, it’s about ¼” in these places, and so I missed by 1/16”.

My conclusion is that the inner door frame flexed in these areas while I was hammering in the hem. It’s now locked the 1/16” flex in resulting in the larger gap. For the drivers door, I’ll install some sort of temporary bracing inside the door to keep the inner frame from flexing in these areas while the skin is attached.

All in all, I’m very satisfied with how this door turned out. The door gap is an area for improvement on the next one but I think the flaws on this one will be easy enough to hide. As to the Al 5052 alloy, my conclusion is that looking at it cross eyed will cause it to work harden. Well maybe not that bad but I can say you should expect to anneal early and often if you use it. For a door skin, I do think it will be worth the extra work over Al 3003 as it does seem a lot tougher, especially in work hardened state.
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