MTFCA Forum

Repairing rust damage on the bottom edge of my 24 roadster body. Drivers side went good, simple strip of new tin. But the door side was a problem, Placed the panel on my bench, clamped the door in place and cut new tin to patch. Welded in place and tried it on the wood frame, not even close to fitting. Had to split the new tin and extend it by one half inch. Seems to fit good now and the door fits,

My dad used to joke that if you made something too long, it would be difficult to make it right. However, if you made it too short, you could always scab a piece in to fix it!

All kidding aside, LOOKING GOOD!

Good for you, Jim!

not an easy job, I know.

as far as the door opening goes, for the sake of others who are trying their hand at this, I made a bolt-in spreader that held things in place...too late for you, Jim, but maybe others...

It's a terrible picture for looking at the support spreader, but it bolts to the top of the hinge stamping and goes directly to the latch stamping and bolts there. It held things nice and steady and lent a huge amount of strength and stability to what was a very wobbly panel that threatened to collapse at any moment. It was a really big help.

Hopefully someone will see this and remember it in the future for their use.

Very nice setup Scott. Boy, your side panel looked considerably worse than my '15's passenger side panel was. I did have to make a patch panel, and repair a break where the two pieces (front and rear pieces of the side panel) were originally spot welded together.

Very good idea Scott. Another thought, maybe use a turnbuckle in the middle of the bracket to make adjustments if needed? Dave