two door repair panel quality,where to buy?

[Budgie]

So here's another one that's been aired on the forum recently but I need to buy a drivers side bottom door repair panel and I was wondering where is the best place to purchase one from as I see to remember that the quality differs from various suppliers?

[don58van]

Mine came from ESM. I had a professional restorer do the job. He said the repair panel was too short. He had to fabricate a small extension.

I thought this was very odd and would have thought that he made a mistake with the installation...but...Classics Monthly are doing a series on a Traveller restoration and they said that their panel was too short too (I can't remember where theirs came from). BTW, it is well worth getting the back issue with the door repair if you are doing the job yourself.

I mentioned this elsewhere on this forum a few months ago and another member said that he had the same problem.

FYI, the shortage is at the trailing edge of the door.

Don

[bmcecosse]

Did you ask ESM why it was short ? Was it for a short (4 door) door ?

[don58van]

Did you ask ESM why it was short ? Was it for a short (4 door) door ?

No, I haven't asked ESM.

It looked to be long enough when offered up to the door. It would have been too long for a 4-door. It was only marginally short.

As I mentioned, I didn't fit it. My best guess is that the problem arises when the moulding extending from the front wing is precisely matched for best fit -- it is then that the repair panel comes up short at the trailing edge. I can't confirm this because I am no longer on speaking terms with the restorer.

Don

[The vast minority]

Video of a bloke called Phil fitting a panel , his is a 4 door but seems to be perfect length.
Possibly ask him where he got his via the comment function?

If the 4 door is perfect, possibly the longer 2 door will be also

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XWt8CUKG1cQ

[Mark Wilson]

If you do get hold of him, best to call him Phil, not Dave!

[The vast minority]

If you do get hold of him, best to call him Phil, not Dave!

Thank you, Ive edited the post now. I mistakenly called the man Dave, he is really Phil.

Al

[bmcecosse]

Does he spend his spare time scooting up hills ?

[Mark Wilson]

Look at the quality of his work in his other videos (the door one's not too bad). Definitely not our Welsh mechanical perfectionist....

Mark

[Budgie]

So is the general consensus that it doesn't matter where I get the door skin bottom repair panel from then?

[tysonn]

Its just par for the course.Replica panels for the most part will need fettling to get the fit you're after.Original panels will go straight on.I wouldn't have thought that "repair panels" ever existed when the car was in production.
Mick

[SUE482]

I have put this up before but here it is again
My doors were only bad at the bottom so this is what I did, and the repair panels and bits came from ESM and I found that they were of the correct size.
Get the doors sandblasted first, makes things a lot easier.
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Cut away the rotten bits:
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Weld in repair panel and fill, lots of hand work and prep required here.
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Sprayed with primer, as you can see the boot needed repairing as well:
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Oh and dont forget the two sealing strips at the bottom of the doors.
[frame][/frame]
Hope this helps, Good luck.

[SteveClem]

The tiles in your garage are identical to those on our kitchen floor. Must be a posh garage?

[irmscher]

Don't buy Sri Lankan made panels very poor quality and fit

[Budgie]

Thanks for all the advice folks informative as usual thanks for the pics my door outer skin is about as bad / good as yours with the underside pretty solid although I will be taking it to the local body shop to have it all done but just wanted to make sure I wasn't wasting time and money on inferior panels.

[SUE482]

Steve those tiles are to my 2nd kitchen so there

[don58van]

Further to my earlier post...

For what its worth, the ESM repair panel looked to be very well made.

It might have been an error by restorer that caused it to be short on the trailing edge when installed.

Don