Door rot is a thing of the past...

[DarrylD]

Passed another milestone on the big rust repair project today! The driver's side door has been cut apart and all the rotten sections replaced with healthy sheetmetal. The big job was adapting an off-the-shelf Dansk door skin patch panel to only use the bottom 2". I welded it in and crimped the bottom edge of the door this afternoon!





Now I'm ready to test mount the door back on the car and do whatever sheetmetal work is necessary to make that 3 to 4 mm gap all the way around. Effort focused especially at the base of the lock post / rear quarter panel at the bottom rear corner of the door opening.



By gosh, I might be finished with the drivers side repairs by the end of the week!

[bigchillcar]

excellent work as always, soldier! ya gots the skills dat pays da bills, darryl..
ryan

[rnln]

Darry,
Very nice work.
as you are there taking pictures, do you have any detail pic of the dash int/ext? I am trying to understand which path the water comming into my footwell from the dash above
Thanks.

[bigchillcar]

rnln,
have you eliminated the window seal? these cars are most prone to leak from the upper driver's corner of the front window seal. until i replaced mine with an oem (do not buy aftermarket - they will leak), i was finding water in my footwells, too.
ryan

[Adam Reed]

Hey guys, coupla questions triggered by this thread-

I have a '66 coupe. I bought a couple of doors in fair condition at Gary Emory's Porsche Campout last summer. Both were in far better condition than my old ones, with 480K on the car those doors were sad. Badly done old repairs, front edges turned inside out from dead-doorstop syndrome etc etc. I cleaned up the new-to-me doors and started fitting them. Drivers side was a beaut, gaps are perfect. Passenger side door is a big problem. The new door is maybe 1/4 inch shorter than the opening. I cannot add enough shims to the latch to make it work and the gaps are huge. So I set it aside and refurbed the old door. Anyone have any idea what this is about?

Second Q: When the windshield seal leaks and the water runs into the little weep holes at the bottom of the WS, what is the drainage path? What rusts?!!!!!

thanks!

Adam Reed
'66 912, 480K miles (current 912 Registry record holder)
2.2L T4 power! Woo Hoo!

[bigchillcar]

adam..it can begin to rust in the metal under the dash where the window and dash meet..and of course, eventually the floorboard and behind the wooden panel behind the pedals.

not sure if this is the answer, but porsche and karmann (or is it kardan)(sp?) both built bodies for the 911..maybe that's the answer. of course, these cars were hand-assembled, so it could be that it simply won't ever fit your car correctly. these are wild -ass, semi-educated guesses though..
ryan

[defcon65]

Wow, I'm really impressed with your skill, Darryl. You are clearly way above the DIY level. With pics of repairs like that and the number of rusted 911s out there, you will surely be busy repairing and advising others how to do it for years to come. Great stuff!

Regards, Joe

[Adam Reed]

Hi Ryan

The reason for my question is that I had a bad leak there a few years back, it leaked out of a seam up behind the dashboard on the passenger side. Bad enough that lotsa rain= slosh..slosh. I was just wondering whether there is supposed to be a drainage channel in there somewhere, something like the one to drain the sunroof gutters. Or does the water just go in..and rusts itself a channel eventually?

Adam

[bigchillcar]

hi adam..fine details of the body of the car aren't my particular forte..other far more knowledgable members will hopefully chime in on your question or maybe a better plan would be to start another specific thread. i'm going to say that there are no provisions, like you stated, built into the design, as water was never 'expected' to be inside the car in that particular area. however, as we've learned over the years, the windshield seals are prone to leakage when they become old, allowing water to leak down inside of the car, some of it stopping in the gap between the windshield and dash, while the remainder pools on the floor in cars with major leakage problems. incidentally, my car's floorboard would likewise fill with water when i first purchased it..and there was evidence that this had occurred in the past as well. i replaced my windshield seal and have had no more problems with water inside the car.
ryan

[DarrylD]

Oh yeah! Check out that gap at the bottom of the door!



Now I just gotta figure out how to reduce the gap by 1 mm and I'm within spec (4 mm)! As a body repair beginner, I can only solve one problem at a time and it takes a lot of time at that!

Adam, one thing you gotta ask yourself is why were those doors at a swap meet! Sometimes the stuff that gets sold is comes out of the "reject" pile in the back of the garage! Water leaks could be coming from holes that have rotted thru the back of the hood weatherstrip, windshield weatherstrip, door weatherstrip, etc. Only a complete tear-down autopsy will give you the answer but it should be obvious once the rubber is removed.

[rnln]

bigchillcar,
No I have not but that doesn't leak that much on me. Once in a while I have a drop or two in. Right now, the worse for me is the footwell leak. Today I took the front grill off (1)...



Because I after reading one of the post lastnight, I think there should be something behind it like an adapter to some hose (curve down toward the front). The thing cruving down toward the front can make the water fall out to the front, eliminate water to come in the dash. When I took the grill off, there is nothing there on my car. Behing the grill is just bare metal.

Can someone confirm with me if there is anything behine the grill?

[red964]

Im looking at Sills, Inners, B-posts and rear qtrs.
Im gonna have fun cutting it all off, and no doubt tears trying to put it all back together again.