FJ55 door re-skin? (1 Viewer)

[mtkreitz]

Has anyone re-skinned the doors on their FJ55?

Looking for tips or a thread that may discuss the best way to do it.

I am assuming I can just pickup some sheet steel, run it through a slip roll and weld it on. Looking for advise as to whether I should attempt to roll the edges, etc...

Looks like all 4 doors on my pig came with 1/2” of Bondo on them, covering a fair amount of accident damage, broken hinge limits, etc...

 

[RUSH55]

Gawd dayum!! At that point you might as well try to build some skins if you have the means. Otherwise might be better to just track down another set of doors.

 

[scrapdaddy]

Wow! That is thick. I've seen guys replace the lower bottom of doors, but not the whole skin. I guess if a guy was willing to give it a go and had a roller, door is a goner anyway.

 

[mtkreitz]

@bobm Would love metal-master Bobm’s opinion. How would you approach reskinning?

 

[WarDamnEagle]

Someone on here had a pile of pig doors....

 

[bobm]

Cut it at the body line below the door handle, remove all the old material including the hem on the inside of door. When you make the new skin include the hem. Lot of work but can be done. My Opinion . It's only metal

 

[abqcruiser]

Others here may disagree, but the sheet metal on the doors are slightly concave. My opinion as to why there's so much bondo build up is that someone ran a straight edge from end to end on your doors, trying to make them as straight as possible. My doors were in pretty good shape when I took them down to bare metal with little to no filler from the factory. After running a straight edge on mine, I wasn't about to go through the hassle of building them up with filler.
Except for the rust in the corners, your doors might not be in that bad of shape. I'd experiment on that door and cut out the rust and weld in some patch panels where needed and lightly skim it with filler.

 

[Ol Yeller]

but the sheet metal on the doors are slightly concave.

That actually makes alot of sense given how much time I’ve stared at mine up on the hoist...

 

[Megadoomer]

You might pick up 0.1 second on your 1320.

 

[mtkreitz]

@bobm Would love metal-master Bobm’s opinion. How would you approach reskinning?

Thanks Bob. I had not noticed a hem on that edge so I will look for it tomorrow when I return to working on it. I noticed you cutting at the body line before and was curious why you chose to cut there. Now I know. Thanks for the advise. I was also able to get a slip roll on loan for a week or bouts so I am anxious to see what I am capable of. And I agree it doesn’t need to be just

 

[mtkreitz]

Gawd dayum!! At that point you might as well try to build some skins if you have the means. Otherwise might be better to just track down another set of doors.

Either I enjoy the challenge of re-skinning or I have been watching too much of Bitchin Rides. Let’s find out...

 

[RUSH55]

Git-er-duuuuunnn!!

 

[mtkreitz]

Didn’t get to work on it this weekend because my painter called. So I had to disassemble the LX450 instead of working on the pig.

@bobm Would you add a flange and bend it around the edge (ie new door shell) or would you cut the old skin off 1/4” from the edge and butt weld it to the old flange?

 

[bobm]

Your choice. Whatever is easier. I would flange it for the Hem to minimize the welding on exterior.

 

[mtkreitz]

Off she comes...

 

[mtkreitz]

There were some hidden spot welds down each side and some previous weld/repairs near the top of the door

 

[mtkreitz]

Now I know why an old club member said pigs rust from the inside out...

 

[mtkreitz]

Also could not find the hem @bobm was referring to. Perhaps I misunderstood where he was referring to.

 

[RUSH55]

Now there’s a side of the door that most of us have never seen!

 

[bobm]

Hem is what you peeled back ( 1st picture.) on inside of door all the way around.