Hey, I thought some of you might be interested to see my solution to rusty ambulance doors.
Your doors rot out from between the inner and outer panels because the old weather stripping hold moisture right against the seam. even if your door look good from the outside, the cancer is lurking inside your doors.....
The reason the upper rail is basically rust-free, it a combination of:
•gravity pulling water away, down to your lower edge.
•sand, salt, and grit work their way from your tires and rear floor into your lower seam.
•old weather stripping acts as a sponge, and holds water against the seam long after it has rained.
Get yourself another passenger side ambulance door (preferably with its lower edge already rotted out -- that way you'll most likely get it for free) for every one of your doors that needs a new lower edge.
existing door -- green, donor door -- red:
the previous owner made a valiant attempt to fix his (or her) door by riveting tin gutter material over the rot. I guess it'll work for a trail rig, but I wanted a quality job.
Here's what my lower edge looked like. There was no steel left between the inner and outer panels!
Go to your donor door and cut off the upper rail of the window frame. It's acually ~5mm narrower than the width of the lower edge of the door, as well as ~4mm thicker, but we'll deal with that later.
Cut the upper rail off the pillars 100mm from the top edge. My 45° cuts were made to avoid the curves where the rubber window seals go. Remove the inner part where the window rubber mates.
I forgot to shoot a pic of the red 'cap', so imagine you are seeing this piece in red (If you're red-green colour-blind, disregard and skip to the next step.)
For a really good fit, you'll want to use the donor door as a test run. Work out all the bugs, and then transfer the shape of the amputated donor door to your 'good' door.
I had two donor doors (the blue one was only good for the pull handle that was bolted to it!). Cut your patch cap (again I forgot to get a shot of the red cap) in half to stretch it out ~5mm. I used a portion from my blue, practice cap to fill the 'stretch', but you resourseful people could get this 5mm piece from elsewere on the donor door.
Now, cut each half into an outer and inner side. The best place to cut in on the inner panel, about 5mm from where the outer panel wraps around. Slice closer to the plane of the floor in this pic, don't slice closer to you, because then you get into the radiused part that clears your upper sill brackets (remember this blue part came from the top of the door).
Now, cut the lower edge from your good door. This was the tough part because I had no rust perforating the outer panel; It appeared mint from the outside....
However, one look at the inside confirmed the need for all this work.
This was as test fit prior to sectioning my new cap into inner and outer sections
This is as far as I got tonight. Everything is going together straight and true. The best results come from slow (read tedious) progress, only tack welding far apart, and waiting for each tack to cool (ie. to the touch) before tacking 150mm away. .6mm (.023" for our non-metric friends) wire, lowest voltage setting, really slow wire speed, and the welder tip nearly touching the door. Oh... also lots of C-clamps, vice grips, and thick aluminum stock to act as a level clamping surface (and heat-sink). I think I was able to minimise warpage, by alternating tacks on the inner and outer surface.
'kinda cheating -- the last piece it just resting in place:
I know the lower corners of the rear door opening on stock Toyota tubs changed from right angled to radiused corners (or vice versa). My tub is made from aftermarket panels, so the 90° corners suit me fine. If you need radiused corners, that could be handled by a cut-off wheel and a little more welding.
Once I get everything tacked into place, I'll stitch the seam solid with lots more tack-welds. The finished door will get caustic soda dipped, and pickled before Endura epoxy primer and paint.
Cheers,
Steve
Your doors rot out from between the inner and outer panels because the old weather stripping hold moisture right against the seam. even if your door look good from the outside, the cancer is lurking inside your doors.....
The reason the upper rail is basically rust-free, it a combination of:
•gravity pulling water away, down to your lower edge.
•sand, salt, and grit work their way from your tires and rear floor into your lower seam.
•old weather stripping acts as a sponge, and holds water against the seam long after it has rained.
Get yourself another passenger side ambulance door (preferably with its lower edge already rotted out -- that way you'll most likely get it for free) for every one of your doors that needs a new lower edge.
existing door -- green, donor door -- red:
the previous owner made a valiant attempt to fix his (or her) door by riveting tin gutter material over the rot. I guess it'll work for a trail rig, but I wanted a quality job.
Here's what my lower edge looked like. There was no steel left between the inner and outer panels!
Go to your donor door and cut off the upper rail of the window frame. It's acually ~5mm narrower than the width of the lower edge of the door, as well as ~4mm thicker, but we'll deal with that later.
Cut the upper rail off the pillars 100mm from the top edge. My 45° cuts were made to avoid the curves where the rubber window seals go. Remove the inner part where the window rubber mates.
I forgot to shoot a pic of the red 'cap', so imagine you are seeing this piece in red (If you're red-green colour-blind, disregard and skip to the next step.)
For a really good fit, you'll want to use the donor door as a test run. Work out all the bugs, and then transfer the shape of the amputated donor door to your 'good' door.
I had two donor doors (the blue one was only good for the pull handle that was bolted to it!). Cut your patch cap (again I forgot to get a shot of the red cap) in half to stretch it out ~5mm. I used a portion from my blue, practice cap to fill the 'stretch', but you resourseful people could get this 5mm piece from elsewere on the donor door.
Now, cut each half into an outer and inner side. The best place to cut in on the inner panel, about 5mm from where the outer panel wraps around. Slice closer to the plane of the floor in this pic, don't slice closer to you, because then you get into the radiused part that clears your upper sill brackets (remember this blue part came from the top of the door).
Now, cut the lower edge from your good door. This was the tough part because I had no rust perforating the outer panel; It appeared mint from the outside....
However, one look at the inside confirmed the need for all this work.
This was as test fit prior to sectioning my new cap into inner and outer sections
This is as far as I got tonight. Everything is going together straight and true. The best results come from slow (read tedious) progress, only tack welding far apart, and waiting for each tack to cool (ie. to the touch) before tacking 150mm away. .6mm (.023" for our non-metric friends) wire, lowest voltage setting, really slow wire speed, and the welder tip nearly touching the door. Oh... also lots of C-clamps, vice grips, and thick aluminum stock to act as a level clamping surface (and heat-sink). I think I was able to minimise warpage, by alternating tacks on the inner and outer surface.
'kinda cheating -- the last piece it just resting in place:
I know the lower corners of the rear door opening on stock Toyota tubs changed from right angled to radiused corners (or vice versa). My tub is made from aftermarket panels, so the 90° corners suit me fine. If you need radiused corners, that could be handled by a cut-off wheel and a little more welding.
Once I get everything tacked into place, I'll stitch the seam solid with lots more tack-welds. The finished door will get caustic soda dipped, and pickled before Endura epoxy primer and paint.
Cheers,
Steve
Last edited:
computer but I cant see any of the pics. Can anybody else see them?
