The Doors - Part 2 (with a Post Script)

The primer has been drying for a full week so it's time to guide coat.

A contrasting primer was lightly sprayed and allowed to dry.  I used my 6" DA (dual action) sander on the large flat areas.  In this picture I just finished the lower half of the door.

I changed to a 3" sanding disc to do the curved areas.  This includes the area above the center line and the very top of the door.  Care must be taken not to sand any edges or corners with the DA otherwise you'll likely sand through the primer.

Hand sanding was next and that was followed up with a maroon scuff pad.  Fortunately we didn't sand through the primer so we are ready for the primer sealer.

I used a wax and grease remover and a post sanding cleaner before painting.  These products are recommended by House of Kolor so I use them.  A couple coats of primer sealer was applied to both doors.

I am certain hanging the doors is a two man job but I was able to do it alone using my motorcycle lift.  I put a padded Lazy Susan on top of the lift then jacked the door up to height.  It worked great.  Two would have been better but this worked fine.

It took a few hours to hang both doors.

All the body work really paid-off.  I am sure this fit is better than the 1963 factory fit.

It's sexy.

The primer sealer will be allowed to dry then I'll scuff the paint to match the rest of the car.

Admittedly, there are a couple areas on the doors that require attention.  There is one spot on the driver side door that doesn't transition well to the body.  It's only about 2 inches long but it will need to be stripped back to bare fiberglass for a proper repair.  The other area is just a general clean-up of all the door to body joints.  You can see some of it in the photo above.  Cleaning up the joints will only require a few swipes of the sandpaper but that act will require us to rethink how the inside lip of the doors will be painted.

I am also working on the hood so I'll post pictures of it soon.   Be forewarned, it's fuzzy...




Post Script


Here are pictures of the repaired transition area.  This is a blurry photo but it shows how the body line doesn't transition well between the door and the body.  The body line on the door became soft from too much sanding.  The door is on left side of the picture.

I decided to make the repair using our Icing finishing putty.   I protected the body with tape then bridged the gap using a plastic spatula.  I cut the putty at the gap with an Exacto knife just as it started to set.

The transition between the body and the door is now very nice and the body line is identical on both sides.

The Doors

I spent the last couple months looking at the inside of the doors admiring all the work we've done which included the paint job.  When I finally turned the doors over I was shocked to see how little work had been done on the exterior.  I even spotted a crack in the bonding agent that will need to be fixed.

I grabbed the grinder and removed the crack until it was almost gone with exception to just a very thin amount on the back side of the panel.  I always try to leave a little something for the new fiberglass and resin to rest against.  It acts as a form.

Before I get too carried away with the grinding, sanding and painting I thought it best to protect all the work that's been done on the inside of the doors.  Masking tape and masking paper was just the ticket.

I spent several hours the last couple weeks getting the doors in the condition shown below.  All the fiberglass work is done, the skins were guide coated and the low spots were filled in where necessary.  The outside window openings were then masked off in preparation for paint.  Take note of how little of the green primer remains after all the body work.

Last weekend I applied 2 to 3 coats of two-part epoxy primer then I set the doors aside and allowed them to dry for 1 week.

This weekend I guide coated the doors again.  I find it best to use a contrasting primer for the guide coat, not a glossy paint, but a primer.  The reason is because the glossy paint gums up the sandpaper where the primer will not.

Now that the second guide coat is done you can see how much more of the green primer is left on the doors.  That means the doors are getting flatter.  There are still areas where fiberglass is showing so the doors will need another coat of primer.

And here they are with their third coat of primer.  I painted these this weekend so they will have to dry for about a week before I can guide coat them again.  They really look good and I suspect one more guide coat should do it.

Look who showed up!  Ty and his wife Bonnie flew into town a few days ago and Gerri and I got to spend an evening with them.  Not one too miss out on working in the garage, Ty grabbed a rag and polished the blue paint.  Yes it was mostly for the photo but it was still good to see Ty back in the garage.  

While the doors dry I'll start doing similar work to the hood.  The hood as you recall is in need of a lot of TLC.  Fortunately, we have the know how and I am prepared to spend many hours making it right.

Thanks for watching.