Treacle

Sorry for the lack of activity here at Rusty Heaps, but it’s been One of Those Years. In any case, I did finally get the second door skinned, so I’m running out of excuses for not tackling the front fender on the passenger side. Aside from a lack of funds, anyway.

Here I’m making the “liners”, which are the steel pieces wot get nailed to the door frame, and which the outer skin is folded around.

And above they’re mostly finished. They get attached with brads.

I’ve cut the outer skin and primed the inside. There’s about 1/4″ of “extra” material all the way around, I bit more up top where there is no liner.

I follow Ron’s advice, always, at Mad About Morgans, and hence the straight bit between the hinges is folded over first, using a piece of scrap steel on the bench and then slipping the skin into place.

The hinge openings are cut out and filed to fit after the door skin is all the way secured.

The first 90 degrees of bend is done a few degrees at a time, using pliers.

You start from the center of the corners and work outwards. Just about to commence the work with a body hammer as the pliers have done their job.

Here’s the skin mostly in place, the top bit has not been folded over the armrest area yet, nor have the hinge openings appeared.

And here’s the door on the car, complete with a sloppy coat of primer.

Next up is the license plate panel under the back of the car. It should be straight across, but I’m taking a liberty and making it fit the actual number plate in the center. The inner red line is the actual outside dimension of the panel…it will have its edge reinforced by a wire bead, and the outer red line is the metal which will be wrapped around the bead. At the top, the inner red line is where the panel will be folded at 90 degrees to provide a nailing edge.

The beading in those license plate corners should be…interesting.