Door distraction
I’ve learnt a lesson this month. If you’re restoring a vehicle, be sure to inspect the doors thoroughly first before painting the body. It doesn’t sound a big deal, but to start repairing door frames and re-skinning doors just when you think you’re on the home straight – after you’ve already spent an age on the bodywork – is somewhat demoralising, especially when you are confronted with Leonardo’s sculpting skills again.
It’s times like these that I wish I was a Malteser tester or a bingo caller… “Okay Iain, stop feeling sorry for yourself and get on with it!”
It’s very tempting to cut the skin off, but…
Stripping down a VW camper door and repairing the frame and fitting a skin is a job that’s not for the faint-hearted. If you’re on a budget and time isn’t an issue, or you are the type of person who gets a thrill from showing your mates your fabricating magnificence, then this is surely for you.
To buy a perfect, rust-free cab door for a VW these days will cost you between £200-£250ish, and that’s if you can find one, of course. One in fair condition that needs work will be around £140. So if you’re handy at fabricating, a £60 door skin and some time and patience can save you money. Which is always a bonus.
Before any cutting or welding takes place the door needs to be stripped down and the glass removed. This is quite an awkward job and I don’t have the space here to explain the full details of how to do it, but the glass removal basics are as follows: Remove the 13mm bolt that secures the quarterlight vent frame to the door, then remove a tiny screw at the top of the frame that is hidden behind the Contributor
window channel and also remove the tiny screw at the bottom of the vent frame. Undo the two 10mm bolts that secure the cab window to the lifting mechanism, then lower the glass to rest at the bottom of doorframe. Next remove all the guides and rubber scrapers – with these out of the way its possible to pull away the quarterlight frame, with a bit of jiggery. With the quarterlight vent removed, only now can the window be taken out.
It’s very tempting at this point to go and cut the skin off, but the frame on this camper was corroded badly in lots of areas, so it made sense to make good some key areas first with the skin left on while its still rigid, to get some structure and reference points back.
The old door skin can be removed by drilling out the spot welds securing it to the frame – the replacement door skin does not include the full window frame, just the very lower part of the front and back window frames, so a butt welded join must be made there and the rest of the skin spot welded to fresh metal around the frame. An easy operation in itself, but I’ve lost count how many times I’ve had the door on and off through the various stages of repair to get the lines somewhere that I can be happy with. Phew! Where are those Maltesers?