Finally got around to reskinning my doors.
Doing the top bends and side bends of the skin using our 36inch pan box brake made our job a lot easier.
We started out using an 18 g sheet metal at least it was sold as 18 g but that measured something like 0.0475
Prepainted the inside facing of the sheet metal with POR 15 leaving clean section for edge spot welding.
We had very little difficulties doing the straight edges but admitedly very nervous about the bottom curved section,
So we designed a test jig that duplicated the curvature of the door.... tacked everything in place and clamped it to the heavy work table,
Grant found that the hand held dolly shown in the pictures to be invaluable to get the skin to slow roll over and the curve of the dolly was a good match for the curve of the door.
Here are some pictures.
Once the skin is beatten or tapped near 90 degrees the jig was turned over to finish the remaining 90 degrees of the bend.
You will noticed that we spot welded the skin on the test jig the same as we had spot welded the real door. We used a special flat tip for the bottom electrode and a pencil tip for the upper electrode.
The flat bottom electrode wad on the good face of the door and minimized any cratering that might occur. The skin will be buffed with sanding paper and the small remaining depression filled with a very small amount of JB weld for a smooth finish.
The door edge was supported by a 1/2 half inch thick by 2 in. bar stock that we had rooled at the local fabricator..... we actually tweaked the curvature with our hydraulic press to get a perfect match ot the door.
The door is actually 1.75 in. thick so we shimmed the door with 1/4 in. stock so it could be clammed very tigth to the table.
We were pleased to see that the metal stretched very easily with a series of light tap with small ballpeen hammer than went on with the hand held dolly.
Again tap, tap, tap into submission.
After reaching about 45 degrees we fired up the oxy-acet and warmed up the metal to take out stress.....allowed to cool thenresumed tapping.
Once we reached a 90 degree bend we made sure that the bend was square against the 14 g door section to insure a tight fit/bend.
We heated and allowed to cool at least 3 times.
The sheet metal stetched beautifully until almost flat. At that point we turned the door over and hammered with a large ballpeen hammer against the flat of the table. Table top is 5/8 SS and very ridgid.
more to follow.