Welding advice needed to fix cracks in door sheet metal, thanks!

[taipeichris]

Hi Guys,

My 1966 has been a daily driver for a long time here in SoCal and with 54 years on the road my drivers door is showing it’s age. I have numerous cracks, tears, mounting holes and one large speaker hole I’d like to weld up.

I’m new to mig welding. Can I please get some tips on how to best repair this damage?

Thank you!
Chris

 

[okie4570]

Every 66' I've owned has the crack at the rear of the wing window like in pic 4 lol. Mine are about 3-4" long though. My paint is original and was worried about matching it back up so I've never pursed repairing them. I've got 4 mounting holes in both doors too....

 

[unimogger]

.023 wire
Take it really slow
Back up the metal you are welding with a piece of copper (heat sink, and the copper won’t stick to the weld) was

 

[EPB72]

What unimogger said ,and your really going to need to strip the affected areas at first to see how bad the rust is under that cracking paint at the mirrior mount area were you planning to fill the holes also ,,,the latch area is tack grind tack grind slow process but could come out nice if you take your time and everything shiny clean metal ,,,also tig or mig ?

 

[Jfryjfry]

Clean clean clean those areas. Practice on other stuff. What you’re trying to do is pretty tough and very easy to make worse.

Be careful cleaning up the welds up too. You don’t want to grind through anything or take away any good metal.

I had to fix similar problems on mine. I would consider having someone else do it if you haven’t done much of it.

 

[snipi]

First step, get some new 16ga steel to practice on before going after the cracks. Try to do some but welds on this new stuff to help get your settings correct. Use a heat sink like copper, or even thick aluminum will work. Make sure you you clean the heck out of the cracked areas and ensure that anything that needs to be flat (mounting holes near the locking mechanism) are flat before you weld the crack. I like to drill a hole at the end of the crack before welding (small hole no need to go big here). Take your time go slow!!! If you are gonna fill the speaker holes get the patch panel to fit as tight as possible, it will save you a lot of headaches.

Sent from my BND-L24 using Tapatalk

 

[bronkenn]

I like to drill a hole at the end of the crack before welding (small hole no need to go big here).

This step is important. Also I like using .035 wire on sheet metal as it fills more with less heat. When I worked in the body shop at GM we only used .045 wire. They also make a silicon bronze wire that is really nice for filling as it is soft and grinds easy plus it doesn't spark when you grind it so you know when it starts to spark you hit the base metal and don't remove too much.

 

[mhinchliffe]

Don't forget to planish the welds when finished, referring to the speaker holes.

 

[73azbronco]

Could you not limit damage and braze that, non structural, more flexible?

 

[Rustytruck]

Watch this video

22:17

Butt welding sheet metal the easy way.

YouTube · Fitzee's Fabrications

Dec 20, 2019

O

 

[Rustytruck]

https://bcbroncos.com/shop/exterior/door-parts/63-00730-door-latch-repair-panel-for-early-bronco/