Door Rebuild

So I thought I would start showing some details from the rebuild of the door and although not completely done I will add more steps in the next week.

Thanks to Tim Brogan, I got my kit from him and he provided some follow up guidance that was helpful, I hope this helps anybody else attempting the project!

First off, have to say this was a PITA project, I'm surprised how much time I have invested from removing all the old seals, to rebuilding the division bar and struggling to get the damn rear run channel installed, that said, one door is almost done and I'm sure the second will go much easier.

So first item is this chart is very helpful to get description of parts clear.






First step was seal removal, did that last winter in the basement, stunk up the house a couple of times but after some trials I found the best way to remove was with heat gun to get the seal warm then using a very thin putty knife, actually it was something that came from an art class to scrape the adhesive off, then wax and grease remover for the adhesive.

Once I got that removed some touch up to paint and treated any rust.



So the disassemble reassemble is somewhat straight forward, only issue during reassemble was getting glass installed, you pretty much have to loosely install everything in the door then start attaching.

So the key takeaways that I wanted to share are with the parts, some quality/fit items that slowed down the project.

1) vent seal, good fit but on the inside forward edge there is a small lip that the vent window would catch and fold over, made the closing effort very high, I simply used an exacto knive and cut off, much easier to close.




2) division bar, first thing, whoever drilled the holes was using a very dull bit, every hole had major burrs that had to be filed/ground down to fit.

The kit comes with old fashion rivets, had never used these before but the little ones for the rubber division bar seal went on ok, I didn't feel confident that the larger ones for the brackets would work so I simply used 5/32 and 3/16 x 3/16 rivets.

What I did was cut away small areas of the felt inside the channel so the rivets would contact metal, on the back side nothing interfered.






3) rear run channel, yea the biggest challenge.  So after working with this for an hour to get the curve right the first 2 clips on the top of the window fit fine, the second two clips along the back of the window were off by 1/2".

I measured this thing several times, compared to the old part but the conclusion was to get the two clips at the rear installed the channel would have to be forced up in the corner with a smaller radii.

So I just opened up the slot and got them installed.  The last two (inside the door) were also off but I removed them and the tight fit of the rear run channel bracket holds it in place, also had to trim off about 1/2 of the channel since it was hitting the bottom of the door.

For second door I'm going to make a template of the curve of the door, offset by the channel depth and use that to help bend, I dont know if that will make any difference to the clip locations but should make the bend a little smoother than hand bending.

Final step is seal install, going to tackle that today, will report!

Thanks for posting.

Well, nice to see one step went without any surprises.

Use the 3M emblem glue, one coat on door one on the seal then with a second set of hands and  a few clamps it went right together.

Highly recommend marking the surfaces that will be glued or non glued it's easy to get the seal twisted.

As far as fit, it was perfect, when done it was tight, no excess as I've heard of other brands.

Second door is almost done, amazing what a little experience will do for a repair.

So the only issue is that the drivers wing window stud is broken off the frame so that is a side repair.

First step was to remove the glass, it was a little loose at the top, heat gun and worked it out.  

From what I read that is a layer of butyl tape in there, need to confirm.

The stud was attached to a small bracket that was riveted to the frame which rusted away, rivets were very popular back in the days.

So, will water jet a new bracket and TIG the stud and then rivet or TIG into the frame.

There is an orientation to the stud, there are big splines that position the tear drop washer which limits the movement of the window.  

More to come!

One step closer, got the pin and new bracket welded up. I water jetted a few to practice with then gave it a go, looks good, hope to get door assembled this weekend.

Wing window is finally done.

Got the stud with new plate installed, used the manual rivets from the seal kit, they needed to be low profile since the rubber seal is on one side and the glass is in the channel.




For setting the glass I read a lot of posts where setting tape was used and others used urethane.  I was playing around with an old bike tire and found that 3 layers wrapped around the glass gave a very snug fit, that was 3/32" thick.

The cheapest tape I could find was like $37 so screw that, I put in three patches of the inner tube and used urethane for the rest and after some trimming it came out perfect!





So now I will make that template to bend the rear run channel and get this together.

I know I have an issue for the window regulator, the input shaft, where the window crank mounts, seems to be separated from the shaft where it engages the gear on the regulator?

If anybody has ever looked into that I would appreciate feedback!

Awesome project! Should be a great future reference.

I am so glad this "improvement" is coming to a close, second door is done and on the truck, wish I had taken some pictures of the gaps since it seems like I have large gaps along the A pillar that I dont recall from the original.  

Figure it will take a couple days of playing with some shims I cut.

So for second door I made the template to bend the rear run channel vs using the glass.  It was easier to handle and the concern of dropping the glass was gone.




As I noted on the first door the clips are in the wrong location (bottom left of picture).  The top 2 are fine but after you go around the corner they are off by 1/2".

Even lining up the old channel you can see the difference.




This time I just removed and relocate the clips!



Figure one more post for the new door handles!

Probable my final post, still have some adjusting to do but it's cold out now so will wait till spring, I really need that heated pole barn.

So the final step was to add some door arm rests which should take a lot of stress off the door handle which tends to be used to close the door.

Picked these up at NPD i will dig up the receipt but I believe they are Mustang reproductions and were around $30 for the pair.

I water jetted the triangular "nuts" since the attachments were at an angle, drilled and tapped and they fit pretty good!

Very nice series of posts. I also had a problem with the channel clips not lining up. The first door rehab was a major struggle, the second less so with experience but still no fun as none of the felt or channel seemed to fit all that well.

On the driver side armrest, I used a bolt/nut combo with large washers on the back side for added support. The passenger side still had sheet metal screws holding it in place. I assume those were factory and held up for 50+ years so I kept them for now.

I was going to make a thread about putting in the window glass with new felt and rubber. I couldn't find any detailed instructions and since it had been so long since I took mine apart, it was an experiment to get it all back together after painting.

It started well with taking pictures, but when things went awry I stopped documentation and focused on just getting it done.

Glad to see you posting about it...Looks like you're doing a better job than I did!

Took over 18 months to finish this up, yea, way to long.

Had to play with the door for over a week, walked away in disgust several times.

Drivers door is a good fit, passenger door clearly was in an accident at some point (it's the one with lag bolts for hinge pins).

But after the umpteenth trial and several iterations of shims it's about as close as it's going to get!




Had to make one of these clips, accidently threw it away thinking it was from an old string trimmer I was fixing!



Anybody know what this little square piece of plastic is on the passenger door?