Door Re-skinning

[Mike Wattam <MikeWattam@domain.elided>]

Hi Alistair

Thanks for the tips.

The door re-skin is a rotten job, firstly because a lot of skins are not
made accurately and secondly because fitting them requires some very
specialised tin-bashing skills.  I say this not to insult you, but to warn
you that if you are not feeling 100% confident about re-skinning a door,
you should pay someone else to do it.  Then, if the 'skilled' man makes a
bodge of it, you have recourse.

So, some tips.

First, secure a 100% correctly sized door skin.  I suggest you ring Tony
Lee on 01564 783428, he controls quality oon those panels he sees and can
tell you who has the correctly manufactured/dimensioned panels in stock.

Make sure the 'old' door shut lines are OK with no excessive gaps, if
suspect then check the body for distortion and correct (not easy).
Remove the door and make a cardboard template reproducing exactly the size
of the door hole.
Note on the template any areas which should be differently dimensioned than
the door itself (note a large gap on the forward-curved fron edge is
actaully standard!!)
Strip the hardware off the door and BEFORE you take the skin off, rectify
any rusting, holes etc.
Remove the door skin by grinding off the edges and cutting through the
braze on the top edge (if present).
Place the outer skin on the inner and clamp in the correct position with
reference to your template.
Using the correct edge folding tool, fold the edge of the outer over the
inner skin.  This is the really difficult bit, it is far too easy to bend
the steel in the wrong place and end up with a door which is too
large/small, usually too small.
Then fold the outer skin against the inner, without denting the outer face
of the skin.
Ready for strip and paint!

Hope this helps.

Mike Wattam
Chairman - Triumph Stag Register