The drivers side door skin is starting to take shape. We did have a problem with the bead along the top of the door – it was too wide and didn’t match the bead profile on the rear quarter panel. Both panels came from Steve’s Auto Restorations www.realsteel.com however I did notice they no longer sell the full door skins and rear quarter panels. Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining I’m happy there are businesses out there that reproduce these parts it just takes a little extra time to correct their deficiencies. 🙂
The bead had to be cut length-wise and reshaped and if you look at the inside top of the door you can see some of the corrective bead metal work. It’s funny, Ed Solaris was looking at my door pictures and he notice the diagonal metal strip is actually upside down. The bump in the metal strip should face the wood and there should be a notch in the wood to match its profile.
The lower half of the door still needs some additional attention which will be completed in the next few days.
The door bead now matches the upper cowl. However, above the door bead they still need to reshape the upper portion of the door.
The back of the driver’s door is now complete and the door seam is consistent and straight.
The door seam between the door and rear quarter has a nice consistent gap from top to bottom.
The inside back of the driver’s door is also complete and note my new/old replacement B-Pillar bracket is installed and it fit like a fine leather glove!
They had to re-fabricate this piece on the lower back of the door.
Just like new!
With the replacement door skin they gave you more metal in some areas and not enough at the bottom of the door, go figure? The reference photos that I and Ed Solari’s have collected over the years come in very handy, thanks for sharing Ed. Ignore the leather door check strap it is incorrect I will install the correct parts shortly and show you what it should look like.