1950 Mercury custom build

Well got interrupted this week with having some do some actual job work but got a little done.
The doors on this thing are as hacked up shitty wok as the rest of it so I thought I should get them sorted out before I installed the rockers. This was the sweet job the previous owner did at lengthening the doors.

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The bottoms are all rusted out and then filled with fiberglass resin.

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The flat section that extends from the door jamb was in better shape (less rust)on the original jamb than on the tacked on one so I drilled the spots out of both and then cut the end off the original inner panel and moved it to the outside edge. I then started making some filler pieces to go between the two. I also angled the indent part at the door up so I could get a straight shot between the two panels.

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Filler pieces made and tacked in place. The metal finishing is a little hacky in places but I decided I wasn't going to waste a ton of time finessing inner door panels that no one will ever see.

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Now I have to fix all the other rust along the bottom. Not exactly sure how I am going to tackle that as I am not sue how much I will have to cut out.
 
I had to look at the photos several times to see the carnage in detail. . What a mess to deal with. Good work!
 
JohnnyBgood said:
So do you have to take the old door end out so there is room for window mechanisms?
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Yes I will. I have just left it most of it for now (I cut away what was in the way for what I was doing) as I will probably replace a strip of door skin all the way down the height of the door where that piece is because it is a mess like the quarter panel was. I just wanted to get some stability in the inner door frame before I start on that. I will also have to replace about a 4" strip of door skin horizontally across the bottom as well.
 
Haha I was just thinking the other day I hadn't updated this in a while. I haven't done much on it. I have been working on finishing up some little things on my truck so I can get it inspected and I needed my garage for some Zoom training for some shops for work so I needed to keep it in somewhat presentable shape for a bit so I didn't do much dirty work. I have started up again and got a little more done on the door bottom. Hopefully progress will pick up a bit again soon.
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Well it has been a while. With the blazing hot temperatures and or fire fire smoke this summer I have been less than motivated to work on this heap but today I decided to get back on it a little. I striped the door, finished welding and cleaned up some of the bottom edge of the inner door frame that I hadn’t finished and got the bottom piece fitted up properly to weld in (looks like a pretty big gap in the picture but that is black sharpie I used to scribe it when I couldn’t see the line in the DyeChem). Pictures don’t seem like much progress but I guess it was better than the nothing I had been doing. :rolleyes:

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And, not shockingly, I uncovered this sweet bit of fabrication when I striped the door so it will have to be replaced as well.

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So the more I see and read about body work on this site the more I realize that I really don’t know much about body work…so I see you have some pins welded on the door skin. I assume to pull dents…with all of the insides out of the door can’t you just reach inside and hit with a hammer to push it out a bit?
 
JohnnyBgood said:
So the more I see and read about body work on this site the more I realize that I really don’t know much about body work…so I see you have some pins welded on the door skin. I assume to pull dents…with all of the insides out of the door can’t you just reach inside and hit with a hammer to push it out a bit?
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That is the hinge end of the door and the inner frame is wide and is recessed back from the door edge about an inch and a half so there is no access to that area of the door from the back side. And yes that is what the pins are for. There is a slide hammer that attaches to them and allows you to pull the metal. Very handy in areas like this where there is no access from the back.
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I would say that was the reason the original person didn't fix it properly but having seen the rest of the work on this car I know it wouldn't have mattered where they were they would have just slapped filler on them regardless. LOL
 
Speedy this isn’t. Lots of sound deadening crap to clean off the inside of the door skins and slow fitting. Got all the patches tacked in and the bottom of the door hemmed.

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I may just leave the top half and cover with filler it’s not nearly as bad as the bottom was. I haven’t decided if I can stomach leaving t but at some point I am going to have to make some decisions on whether I am fixing every single thing and this taking forever or making some concessions for time.

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Slowly getting there. Have a bunch more metal finishing to do on it but I am not getting a lot of time to work on it so I am trying to sneak an hour or so in here and there. It's awkward to access the back and the front at the same time. I have one spot that is right behind the inner door structure that goes up at an angle that I am fighting with. It's a little low and it's hard to get the leverage need to get it to come up.
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Well I think this is about as far as I am going to take it. The previous work is awful and there are massive gouge marks where the trimholes are filled. I hammered them out as well as I could and think I will just leave them where they are. I could literally spend about 30 more hrs on this door but it’s just not worth it to me.

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Sorry JBG I missed your post. Not a lot to report as I was having and electrical issue with my truck that was frustrating me to the point I didn't want to even go out to the garage. I think I have it figured out but have to put half the interior back together. Before that happened I had rehung the door and realized that the top half was more screwed up than I had originally though so I decided it needed redoing.

The belt line was all out of whack where the extension had been so expertly added before. The verticle piece came to a point right at the seam where it was added and the belt line itself dipped about a half an inch right there as well and the rest of the skin was questionable to start with so I decided to just redo the whole thing.

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So I made a template of the curve in the door.
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And then started making a new panel to replace the mess. This is where I have stopped until I get my truck back together as it is spread over all my work surfaces.
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