Sliding door lower half replacement

I'm just doing my every-other-year bodywork repair and respray, and have also been addressing damage to the lower half of the sliding door. The damage resulted from a "campsite gatepost incident"

No amount of my filler work will disguise the damage, so I've done the best I can in the knowledge that when resprayed it will look naff.

Just noticed from the JK website that the lower 20inch of the panel is available separately, but the skill of fitting it is way beyond me.
I'd need the join to be "invisible" so that spraying wouldn't show it. The door frame is sound.

Is this a simple job for a bodywork specialist and what sort of cost would I be looking at?

Thanks in advance

Mike

 

I will dig out the pics I from when I did mine. Bloody hard job to not warp the panel.

The body shop ended up using a lead to fill in the low spots. Propper old school

 

This was before and during I didn't get any pics after we helped it into shape with the panel hammers.

Was one of the least fun jobs on the bus, the main panel warped even with us bring careful and running the welder as low as possible.

And like I said it was finished off with lead at the bodyshop.

 

And here was John in action on the door

 

Ok, this is what we do, I have no pics but can describe what you need to do. Take sliding door off (obviously).
Offer up the replacement repair panel & scribe a line across the door. Using a 2mm cutting disc cut 10mm above your line (it's worth scribing another line to cut to) & remove lower section, you will need to trim round the sides & bottom (careful here). Clean off remaining panel with a flappy back to clean metal 25mm above cut line & the inside of the panel in the same area. Then you can spot weld a 50mm metal strip behind the panel with a 30/35mm strip still exposed as in the @grandmst post above. Try to alternate where you spot to avoid warping i.e. start on the left & do a spot then go to the right & spot then to middle & so on. Allow time for the metal to cool between spots if possible so you are not chasing the heat to a particular patch on the panel thus avoiding warping. Clamp up the repair panel to fit & tack weld across the panel again alternating where you tack so as NOT to chase the heat. Go slow here & allow time to cool. Clean off weld flush with a flappy then you should have about a 40mm strip to fill first with fibre fix, sand back flush then finish with body filler (I prefer uPol fantastic because it spreads like cream & is easy to sand).
Hope this helps

 

Have you ever glued them on? Some folk use resin instead of welding.

 

If your filler work won’t hide the damage you already have then it won’t hide the fact a repair panel has been fitted.

Also with the amount of shock and movement a sliding door has
Normal filler will eventually just crack.

Do you have any pics of the door with the damage?

 

Not bottom repair panels but top of outer sill where it meets opposite slider panel but welded everywhere else. The trick is to alternate the spots or the tacks don't buzz along the seam with stitches from one side to the other as when you heat up a spot then move along to the next one it's already hot then you apply more heat that eventually has nowhere to go so the panel (s) shrinks causing it to pop in usually..... this will then need buckets of filler. I should imagine glueing would work with the correct type of adhesive but there is a lot of movement in them there busses!

 

Mine was glued(not my work)


I will be welding it when I come to repair it.

 

Welding that panel is not a particularly difficult job but if you are paying someone to do it then I would have thought buying a half decent complete sliding door on ebay and respraying it would be more cost and time effective.

 

The glue will be a sod to clean off for welding Para & it looks as though they've used a full repair panel. We like to leave as much door on as we can so usually cut the repair panel down (I didn't mention this above as usually the cut isn't straight but I can work round that).

 

They are making new lhd sliders again, we have one in the shop, don't know what cost though!

 

Yeah I know it’s going to be a pain but I’ve got plenty of patience.

 

Does it need repairing?

 

The bottom repair panel has separated from the top original skin

 

Just a thought,but are there any complete RHD sliding door skins available?

 

The guys that did my bus used car panel glue on the seams in the middle of the panels.
The guy was trained in a BMW garage.
Joggle the edge .. squidge in glue.. clamp and a few minutes later its glued. Need to get it right because the glue cures very fast so cars dont drop apart on the production line.
Worth a thought..

 

No, RHD doors not in production as far as I'm aware, depends on demand so make a few requests