Front door bent backwards....**ck!!!

[Skniper]

Title pretty much sums it up.....my son had a major brain fart moment and backed the 62 through a gate with the front passenger door open. *crackly...crunch* and the whole door bent backwards (hyper-extended, if you will) toward the front of the truck.

Bent the leading edge of the door over the fender, bent the outer door skin, snapped off the door limiter slide mechanism. The door will still shut with some heavy force but it is under a lot of tension....something is definitely and obviously bent to sh*t along the A-pillar/hinge/door structure. Hard to see what exactly is trashed.

Anyone dealt with this before?? What would you guess is the major damage point here?? Sorry, no pics yet, will post some tomorrow.
Really hoping it's not structural damage to the A-pillar metal.


This emoji........is a gross f*cking understatement right now.

 

[Trapper50cal]

It's gotta be the hinge point, where they mount.
The door is replaceable, the front fender is replaceable...
The sticky wicket is the repair to the inner body pillar
that the door hinge bolts to...getting that back into the
proper shape for the door to be aligned to the other panels
and the b pillar latch point properly.

You can get the door, because you're going to need it
anyway, then test fit it to identify if that A pillar structure
is okay or not...

If there is damage at the hinge area of the pillar, there
should be some freshly cracked paint.

 

[hj 60]

I feel sorry for your kid: the moment you Sh!t something up bad as a youngster, and have to tell the maniac owner
For a now minute fix might loose the door lock hinge so it is not under tension anymore, might even get one from scrap and drill the holes so it goes out even more.
It will take some force to bend it back inwards, maybe a shop with a puller bench has the hydrolics for that?

 

[LAMBCRUSHER]

my drivers door had similar experience before I got it... you need a door with hinges, and a shovel, to fix the fender... let's hope the damage stayed local to the door for now...

 

[LAMBCRUSHER]

oh yeah, and whatever you do, your boy needs to be the one doing the work, of course, with proper training and guidance from dad, so he can have a sense of ownership for fixing his effupps...

 

[g-man]

a picture says a thousand words. Replace the door and hinges and see if it will close. If not the metal behind the hinges may be bent. Remove the door from the hinge. Remove the hinges from the vehicle. Inspect the metal on the door pillar behind the hinges for deformation. re-install the hinges on the vehicle and screw them all the way into the threads in the pillar to protect the threads and general round shape so the screws will go back in. Then take a 10 lb hammer, maybe a sledge hammer and beat that area straight. The most forward holes may have to get pulled out. If so use the old hinges as a fulcrum. Unscrew just enough to get a pry bar behind the hinge and pull like you are closing the door to pull the forward metal out. Then new hinges, new limiter, new door. Also not ideal but you could weld a piece of metal or use washers to shim the hinges out to the right position.

 

[gregnash]

Also, look through @mwebfj60 Phoenix build as his drivers door had something similar and he has done a phenomenal job of photo documenting everything.

 

[mwebfj60]

This sounds like a lot more damage than I had, sorry to hear this, reminds me of crashing our family’s beloved 74’ F250 when I was 15. Pics will tell the story but as a positive note, the hinges bend relatively easy toward the front and the A pillar is very strong at those mounting points. Hoping it’s just a door and hinges.

 

[g-man]

If I can fix this...B pillar pushed in, you can fix a door.

 

[g-man]

and make it look like this. Just some motivation for you.

 

[Mid TN]

Ouch.........

 

[Skniper]

I feel sorry for your kid: the moment you Sh!t something up bad as a youngster, and have to tell the maniac owner
For a now minute fix might loose the door lock hinge so it is not under tension anymore, might even get one from scrap and drill the holes so it goes out even more.
It will take some force to bend it back inwards, maybe a shop with a puller bench has the hydrolics for that?

Haha.... @hj 60 your first comment made me laugh pretty good actually.

And reminded me this happens to be one of my favorite Far Side cartoons...just struck a cord in me when I first saw it many years ago imagining my own father/maniac.

It’s framed hanging in the garage next to my work bench....
(fitting too that my Cruiser has often been called ‘the old gray mare’)....

 

[Skniper]

Thanks for the replies.... will try to get some pics up today. Been getting home when it’s dark and/or rainy this week.

Definitely hoping there’s a ‘fail-safe’ built in that protects the A-pillar column. Need to start closely comparing the driver door to the bent door.

 

[Skniper]

Finally got some pics together. Got to really looking at it and comparing to the good drivers door, looks like (hopefully) the hinges took the damage, and the door. There might be some tweaking to the A-pillar column needed but shouldn’t be much. Hard to tell in that tight space, nothing is really just bent all to hell.

Outside damage...

 

[Skniper]

Inner damage...

The door slide/limiter got destroyed. Sucks because it ripped it off the main body, which is internal, not the door. Too bad there’s not more of a fail safe built in to this mechanism, like the pin would shear off before ripping its anchor point....

Upper hinge, notice it bending outward away from pillar...

Lower hinge, same as upper....

 

[Skniper]

One more. Point of impact...

 

[Skniper]

Funny coincidence, just ran across a Mud’r local to me that just dealt with the same exact issue...his son was backing up his 60 and bent the driver door backwards.
A nearby body shop did a masterful job fixing his door, along with a full strip and repaint. This may be the catalyst for me to get all the body work and paint done.

Jeez....talk about $nowballing mi$$ion creep!

 

[mwebfj60]

Looks like good news. It’s a hassle to pull the door off and put back on with the fender still on but I just did it to fix bent hinges on my driver’s door. Still on the fence about whether I would pull the fender if I had to do it again. It would sure be easier to align the door. Passenger door wiring bundle will be easier to get out the hole. Just have to make sure all connectors are unhooked (window motor, door lock, speaker, mirror) and all little bundle support clips are off, remove door to hinge bolts and have one person work bundle out while other person holds the door. Bummer about the door limiter. Good luck!

 

[Super77]

Sucks, but make sure the kid knows dad loves him (even through gritted teeth). You can have many cruisers, but he'll only be your son once.

 

[Skniper]

Sucks, but make sure the kid knows dad loves him (even through gritted teeth). You can have many cruisers, but he'll only be your son once.

100% man, reference Far Side cartoon above. He's a great kid. Works his ass off in all advanced classes with straight A's, and he's a helluva athlete, keeps his nose clean. I envy him, actually. Haha.

Minor screw up.