Ford Blitz Restoration/Rebuild

[Private_collector]

driver door damage 4.jpg driver door repair 2.jpg driver door repair 3.jpg
This tiny little countersunk hole caused me the most pain today. I attempted to just apply weld to create the rough profile and finish with a good filing. Every time I touched the area with MIG, I blew the hole bigger, so that method ended fast. Finally settled for manufacturing a new countersunk hole (or 1/2 of one). The shape was easily formed using a broken flathead V8 intake valve head placed onto a pre-drilled piece of sheet metal, and belted repeatedly into a length of soft wood, until a 'countersink' was created. A small magnet inserted into door, held the patch in place for welding.

Welding it on wasn't as hard as I had expected, but here's where the pain comes in. A weld spark managed to get into my welding helmet, bounce off that, and into my ear! I promptly exclaimed 'oh darn!', or perhaps something ever so slightly more ribald. To be honest, the actual comment contained a reference to the son-of-god and a speculation on potential dubious parentage. Oh well! What doesn't kill you.........makes you angrier.

The hardest part of this repair, was in flattening the weld back to panel level. The grinder couldn't be used because the area is too tight.

More to follow.