Thread: C5 gto
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Old 05-31-2017, 10:16 AM
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heinke heinke is offline
MetalShaper of the Month Jan 2018
 
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Prescott, AZ
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Post Drivers door – door card

Making the drivers door card was pretty much a repeat of the passenger side. I thought some step by step pics on hemming the door pocket opening edge might be of interest. The first step was cutting out an opening that is about ¼” smaller than the final opening. I did this with an electric jigsaw.



Next was turning a 90 degree flange around the opening. Doing this on an inside opening is much harder than outside edge because you can’t use a bead roller. To prepare for making the flange, I clamped a dolly with a long square edge into my bench vice and used a plastic forming hammer. I chose the forming hammer for it’s round faces that could make the flange in the curved parts of the opening. I chose the plastic hammer as it would be less likely to leave hammer marks as a metal faced hammer could. I slowly hammered around the opening forming the flange using the sharpie marks as a guide.





There’s quite a bit of stretch required on the curved sections. I used the hammer small end for the curved areas and large end for the straights. The Al 3003 was soft enough that annealing wasn’t required.



Next I flipped the door card over and worked from the backside. While sitting, and balancing the dolly with the largest flat portion up on my knee, I carefully hammered the flange over using the large end of the forming hammer. It’s important to keep the dolly flat on the outer surface to avoid marking the panel. I set the hem close to flat with the forming hammer. The final set was done face up on a power hammer using a rubber faced upper die and an almost flat lower die. I used a low power setting to avoid warping or marking the door card surface. The hem is now completely flat after the power hammer work.



The door pocket opening now has a smooth edge free of any burrs or potential snags.
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