"Barn Door" Restoration

[FishDoctor]

Hey folks:

Pesky, rotted-out FJ40 barn doors! Yes, if you have a pre-1975 FJ40, the odds a good that you have to deal with rusty barn doors. I have yet to see any patches offered for these similar to those available for ambulance doors, which is honestly really surprising (at least to me). If you are aware of a source for these, I'd love to know about it! In the meantime, my solution has been to make solid barn doors (I call them "quarter doors," too) out of two rotted doors. It's not absolutely perfect, but I think the results are pretty darn nice. This thread spans my process in case it might be useful for anyone else.

Best,

Reuben

 

[FishDoctor]

First, I select a project door that is mostly solid from at least 2 inches above the bottom edge of the door. I also select a donor door that is really rotted out on the both but still has a decent upper portion. More later!

 

[FishDoctor]

My next step is to separate the donor into its inner and outer component parts and clean and remove any rust. I have an electrolytic rust removal bath that I use for this. This does a nice job of removing any rust, including rust in hidden spots I can’t get to with a sandblaster. Another advantage of using electrolytic rust removal is that it’s non consumptive. Yes, the metal still needs to be wire-brushed and sanded after this, but removing any surface rust using this method makes the latter MUCH easier.

OK, enough for right now. I’ll keep adding more as I can.

Best,

Reuben

 

[Hugh Heifer]

I have done this often. (And posted about it) You should also know that the angles of the bottom of the doors are the same as the angles and curves on the front doors (as well as tail gates and ambo doors) so if you find pieces and parts of both that need repairs or qualify as donors the corners and edges are interchangeable. You can use sides as bottoms too with some work.

Good job on stitching them together. I have about 7 doors in the shop I intend to use to make a couple good sets.

 

[FishDoctor]

I have done this often. (And posted about it) You should also know that the angles of the bottom of the doors are the same as the angles and curves on the front doors (as well as tail gates and ambo doors) so if you find pieces and parts of both that need repairs or qualify as donors the corners and edges are interchangeable. You can use sides as bottoms too with some work.

Good job on stitching them together. I have about 7 doors in the shop I intend to use to make a couple good sets.

Great to know! I hadn’t really thought about using other parts of donors, but that’s really good to know! I’m self-taught in all of this, so I can always use pointers. I’ll have to check out your posts on your experience with this. It sounds like you’ve got WAY more experience!

Very best!

Reuben

 

[FishDoctor]

So, this is my first project door. I bought this door and it’s mate as a “rust free” pair only to find out much later that they had been fairly skillfully “repaired” with filler. You can see the rot along the bottom in the first photo paired with the top from the donor door. I thought that the only issues on the project door were along the inside bottom, so I planned to just replace the inside portion of the project door. Hence, I separated the inner and outer skins of the donor. Then I removed the inner skin of the project door only to find that there was a lot of pitting and even some rot that had “worms” of filler that had been pushed in. I really shouldn’t have been surprised, but I guess I was. I decided that I needed to replace at least part of the outer project door skin, but I didn’t want to do the whole thing at this point. I may regret this later, and I won’t do that again, but I have faith that the electrolytic rust removal, followed by weld-thru zinc primer and then a generous coating of POR-15 will keep the remaining pits from being an issue down the road. I guess we’ll see. Regardless, I will continue to separate the donor skins for future projects to allow me to get at every nook and cranny for rust removal and treatment prior to installation.

 

[120mm]

I love electrolysis for rust removal, but lost my "old school" battery charger I used to use for it.

Digital chargers just refuse to work.

What are you running your electrolysis tank with?

 

[spotcruiser]

I made a tailgate out of two old rusted barn doors. It's much more usable as a drop-down tailgate.

 

[FishDoctor]

I made a tailgate out of two old rusted barn doors. It's much more usable as a drop-down tailgate.

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Nice work! I have thought about doing this as well. I may end up doing it for my 1975 since I'm planning to run it with a factory soft top. Thanks for sharing!

 

[FishDoctor]

I love electrolysis for rust removal, but lost my "old school" battery charger I used to use for it.

Digital chargers just refuse to work.

What are you running your electrolysis tank with?

Yep, the digital chargers are just too smart! I'm using the power source pictured below. I use it to do both plating and rust removal. It was pricey compared to an old-school charger, but it is very adjustable in terms of voltages and amperage.