Repairing Defender doors

[487AOU]

The front driver's door and rear door of my Defender 110 have rotted lower frame channels, but otherwise the doors are in serviceable condition, apart from some paint blistering where the door frames touch the aluminium door body. I'm intending to 'unroll' the aluminium at the bottom of the door, remove the lower channels and weld in new ones, to save me the considerable cost of replacing the doors, here in North America. Has anyone done this? If so, can you tell me how you got on, and can you give me any tips?

Thank-you.

[Landy-Novice]

when i repaired mine i rolled back the ally, it kept splitting so do it very carefully LN

[Orgasmic Farmer]

Just been watching this series, episode 2....

http://www.youtube.com/p/4E1AB0BCD79C9D48?hl=en_US&fs=1

He shows you how to anneal the aluminium to allow it to bend easily. Gives a tip on how to get the temperature right. No idea if it will work but worth a try!

[GL88]

YRM do various repair sections, including for doors: http://www.yrm-metal-solutions.co.uk/

But when I did mine I made a section out of box section steel with a bit of flat bar welded to it. And I didn't peel back the fold at the bottom of the door but cut through the frame at the sides and tapped the rusty bottom rail out before sliding the new one in and welding it to the sides.

You may find that if you've got blistering on the outside then the ally has perforated through electrolytic corrosion. Depending on how bad that is you may be able to fill it or it may be scrap.

[RustyNissanPrairie]

I've done both my doors about 3 years ago.

The door skins cost approx £60 over here in the UK-its not worth trying to save them.

Buy a length of rail from YRM

Remove door card, winder, lock mechanism, window trim pieces etc.

Unfold the original skin from the outer edges, and peel off.

Brace across the frame area to be cut out,

cut frame

Weld in new YRM frame,

cover in zinc primer, waxoyl inside

cover the outside rail where it meets the door skin with very thick PVC adhesive tape, slather waxoyl on everything,

lay new door skin in frame, fold the edge over with a hammer and dolly.

Takes a day to do one door properly.

Been fine in 3ish years since.

[Repair My Landrover]

You may find this guide useful if your going to have a go at the doors Defender door repair see attached pdf 

 , also the YRM Frames come highly recommended. With a bit of luck it should take about 1 hour per door.

Defender Door Repair Project (1).pdf

Edited August 4, 2020 by western
pdf version of repair added, clicky link is dead & has been removed

[western]

On 6/11/2011 at 1:25 PM, Repair My Landrover said:

You may find this guide useful if your going to have a go at the doors See the attached PDF above  , also the YRM Frames come highly recommended. With a bit of luck it should take about 1 hour per door.

post above amended to include the pdf info 

Edited August 4, 2020 by western

[JimAttrill]

One trick for annealing alloy is to take the paint off and rub soap on. Heat carefully from the other side. When the soap goes black stop.

OR:

Put sawdust on the panel. When the sawdust burns with a sort-of sparkle effect the panel is annealed.

Best to try this on a scrap panel first.

[mickeyw]

I have heard of this technique in the past.

Working with the modern Defender door material is very different from the Birmabright used on Series panels.

A roofer mate once lent me his lead beating gear to straighten out my old SIII rear quarter panels. It was him that mentioned the annealing bit and using soap. We had to anneal a few times before we had finished straightening, due to the panels work hardening.