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Topic: lower door mod (Read 1926 times) previous topic - next topic

lower door mod

I'm looking to toss around ideas of how to prevent water from even entering the lower rocker / door area.

I'm sitting there staring at what ford did for water splash guards ect and trying to figure out a better way without things looking odd on the exterior.

when you close your door, you can see how water has free range up in the crevis so how do we stop the problem so our lower door panels do not experience any more additonal corrosion?

i have an idea but ill stew on it for the moment.  Likely the only way i could explain it is with a pic.

In addition, the door panels themselves rot because of water getting inside them.  im looking into that as well, perhaps drilling  a series of drain holes in just the right places then cleaning up the inside and  coating with oil base paint.

lower door mod

Reply #1
If your gonna go to all that work why not use truck bed coating. It is tuff stuff. It holds up to water and all sorts of things that paint doesn't.
84 Turbo coupe 2.3T Modded with 88 upper and lower intake, 88 injectors, E6 manifold, T3-4 AR.60 turbo, 31X12X3 FMIC, Homemade MBC , Greddy knock off BPV.
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lower door mod

Reply #2
Quote from: ipsd;181117
If your gonna go to all that work why not use truck bed coating. It is tuff stuff. It holds up to water and all sorts of things that paint doesn't.


its not really work when theres no notable corrosion now. The ordeal would be more of "trouble" if there were holes and rust.

thats a good idea for the inside of the doors, i was thinking of something rubberzed as well and thought that just a decent coat of really good oil base paint would suffice for many years to come.  The liner stuff would be great as well, comes in a spray can to.

the insides of the doors are the easy part.

the area under the doors, are another.  Thats what im really concerned bout for now and the future. 

are you suggesting that the bottoms of the doors could be masked off and coated as well?  now thats a thought.  Then i suppose the undercoating could be painted as well to match the color of the car.

Has anyone ever noticed the bottom half of their car has some sort of scratch / chip guard material already on from the factory.
Ive always wondered why my coug had a more ruff feeling along the bottom half of the doors and fenders and qtrs.,, tom explained that to me recently that ford put a chip guard system down there to protect the body.

lower door mod

Reply #3
I thought about drilling holes. When I was patching the rust on my driver's door I noticed how there weren't any drains for water to get out. No wonder they rusted.

I'll probably drill holes and undercoat my new set of doors before they go on. If you get something like Dupli-color undercoating, you can paint over it so it will match the car.

lower door mod

Reply #4
There are actually drain holes, more of drain slots. I usually clean, use rust converter and then either rust encapsulator or POR-15 on the inside of the doors.
Cleaning and resealing the outer seam/fold is a good idea too.
Long live the 4-eyes!  - '83 Tbird Turbo - '85 Marquis LTS - '86 LTD Wagon-  '81 Granada GL 2dr

lower door mod

Reply #5
Quote from: Chuck W;181143
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Cleaning and resealing the outer seam/fold is a good idea too.


thats the priimary area im talking about,, same goes for the underside of the trunk like above the license plate.

lower door mod

Reply #6
Quote from: jcassity;181152
thats the priimary area im talking about,, same goes for the underside of the trunk like above the license plate.


Well aside from "filling" sealing the trench on the inside of the door and making sure the seam sealer is good on the outside on the "fold", that's about all you can do.
Long live the 4-eyes!  - '83 Tbird Turbo - '85 Marquis LTS - '86 LTD Wagon-  '81 Granada GL 2dr

lower door mod

Reply #7
well,
Had a few issues with this door since i bought it recently and tonight i decided to tear into it.

The window made a big a$$ loug "Rewww" when first going up so i found that problem and lubed up everything good.  The door panel had been off once to install a brand new latch assembly but a couple things were not hooked up.  All thats straightened out but i think i may need a door lock solenoid like everyone and thier brother eh?

I took a pic of the crevis down in the door and  i was thinking perhaps a simple beed of silicone would be best like chuck has said.  The drain hole back at the far end lower part of the door is all clear and nothing blocking it. 
The problem i see is that if there is any debris at all in the crevis, it will allow water to pool up,, This is the weakness and i plan to silicone the crevis tomorrow.

couple pics.....

lower door mod

Reply #8
Quote from: jcassity;181124

Has anyone ever noticed the bottom half of their car has some sort of scratch / chip guard material already on from the factory.
Ive always wondered why my coug had a more ruff feeling along the bottom half of the doors and fenders and qtrs.,, tom explained that to me recently that ford put a chip guard system down there to protect the body.


Yeah mine has that. When I first got the car I though "WTF is this?". Checked the dealer brochure and sure enough it talks about it being on there.

I have a solution to the water collecting/rust problem: don't drive the car in the rain/in the winter. That's what I do and it works great :hick:
88 Thunderbird LX: 306, Edelbrock Performer heads, Comp 266HR cam, Edelbrock Performer RPM intake, bunch of other stuff.