Door skins, part 3

My goal for today was to figure out how to repair the top edge of the door. In the process I ended up removing all of what remained inside the door. Probably a good idea anyway, because of the welding that needs to be done.

I notice that with my new camera (Nikon 1) I take more pictures. I consider that a good thing. Why so many more? I'd say it is because of the larger monitor. I react to what I see, instead of hoping the one shot got what I wanted. Plus, it's fast. So, here are a lot of pics.




My first challenge was to do something about the reinforcing doubler behind the door skin around the door handle. I used a cutoff wheel on a die grinder to cut away the door skin, trying to leave the doubler intact so that I can reuse it. You can see some wounds where I hit it while working blind. There is some rust in the area, including behind the doubler, but I think it can be treated.



Had to remove some rubbery coating BMW put along the bottom edge of the door frame. It worked very well, except for where moisture got under the paint and rust formed under the coating. Removed with scraper and wiping with rag soaked with acetone.



Removed the few remaining plastic plugs that are used to hold the interior panel. Not sure how many the factory implemented, most of mine were broken.


Found this channel on the bottom of the door. Probably held a rubber seal; no sign of that.



This interior trim piece was attached by a single tiny Philips head screw.






Decided the door release mechanism had to come out. Note the one almost hidden bolt accessed through a hole in the door frame.



Removed the rear window lift guide. Two extra thin nuts at the top, two bolts at the bottom bracket.

Door skins, part 2

Good news! The shop is back to Sunday hours. That means I will be working on Sundays and can stay longer. Of course, the 8th is Easter, but after that the schedule should smooth out.


I began where I left off, peeling back the door skin. Originally I used a standard pliers, but I discovered that medium sized slip joint pliers provide better leverage.



Found two places where the door skin was brazed to the frame. Both are near the top, between where the edge wraps around and where it is spot welded to the window opening. One at the front, on at the rear.


Rather than grind away all the spot welds along the top edge I decided to cut through the skin with a cutting wheel.


Even then the skin would not come free. Problem was the door handle mechanism. Hard to see, but it appeared to be attached to the door skin. Removed some the the mechanism, but ended up cutting around it.



After the door skin was off I decided to split the piece over the door handle to see what was underneath. Still not sure how the doubler is attached, appears that one end is attached to the frame and the other end to the door skin. Looks like I will need to remove from old skin and attach to new skin.

E34 oil change, door skins part 1.1

Most of today's session was taken up by an oil change on the E34. First time for that car, so it took me an hour. The Fram replacement cartridge came with oil rings for the cover and the cover bolt, and two crush washers for the cover bolt and the drain plug. Filled with same oil the po was using, Mobile 1 15w50. Reset the computer with my new Polk scanner.

I spent what little time remained on the E9, prying off the door skin. Finished the bottom edge. Got better results with some channel lock pliers.

My E34 was in the bay next to my E9, and on the other side was a mid-2000s M3. Just outside was a late model 530, getting new tires. So naturally we all wasted some time admiring each others rides and swapping car tales.

Had to leave early to do packet pickup for tomorrow's 10k run in Kailua. Sorry to say their packet pickup was as messed up as everyone else's. Seems like a job opportunity, a professional packet pickup contractor.

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New camera, door skins part 1

We will have a guest artist spending a week with the U.H. Gamelan, giving a bunch of lessons, and I decided that I wanted to video my sessions. My old Nikon 5400 can shoot video, but it is low res 4:3 and the battery is going. Time to buy a new camera. Okay, an excuse. Been looking for months and wanted a Nikon 1. Now I had to choose between the U1 and the V1, decided to go with the V1. Still learning how to use it, including how to upload to Flickr. I have been reducing the image size from the 5400 to 800x600, plenty good enough for this blog, but so far I have not figured out how to do that for the V1, so these pics are full size.







Decided that since the door skins are here I should dig into the doors, and come back to the floor. Comparing the skin to the actual door I found some things to do before removing the old skin. Removed two rubber pads that act as stops for the door handle. Removed the lock, and the side mirror mount. Measured the spacing of the holes for the trim:

LH door

#1  5/8 in. from fwd edge

#2  7 1/2 in. from #1

#3  9 3/8 in. from #2

#4  9 3/8 in.

#5  9 7/16 in.

#6  5/16 in. from rear edge

Last but not least, I got started peeling back the lip of the door skin. I must admit that by the time I had to leave, my hand was tired and sore from working the pliers. Hopefully I will get one off next Saturday.

Not giving up

So maybe I was having a bad day. Stuff at work. Training hard -- cycling and running, that is. For whatever reason, the accumulation of setbacks seemed like too much to take on. So I decided to abandon this project.

Time passed. A few days. I discussed my decision with friends and got a lot of encouragement to keep going. So I decided I was back in the game.




The next Saturday, my birthday, the door skins had arrived from England. Got them from a terrific restoration shop, Classic Heros. Love their address:

Coles Hall Barn
Five Ashes
Mayfield

I can just see Bilbo and Samwise walking through the meadow.

As I unpacked the door skins, wrapped in a lifetime supply of bubble wrap, I noticed many little spots where the primer was worn or scratched. In other places this would not pose a problem, but in Hawaii that bare steel will start to rust right away. I wanted to cover the bare spots with enamel, to really keep to moisture out, but it was raining so I could not shoot paint outside, and there was a nice car in the next stall. I wiped all the bare spots with Acetone, then shot them with POR-15 etching primer and called it a day.