Door repair

The doors were taken off the Morgan on the day in mid-April 2020 I made the decision to do a full restore of the car. Back them I stored them somewhere safe on a shelf just as they came off the car. During the frame repair I stripped all panels on the frame by hand. This was a time consuming and messy task. After checking the best options to get the paint of the wings, cowl, hood and rear arches I decided to have them dip stripped. On the picture below you can see that a Morgan can fit into the trunk of a Mercedes E-class if necessary 🙂

After I dropped of the body parts at RTEC in Andernach a few days ago it was time to prepare the doors. So, 6 months into the rebuild I had a closer look at them. As the left side of the car had the biggest damage on the wooden frame, I did check that door before. To my surprise it is in good nick. If I only had checked the passenger side door as well…. the lower front corner as well as the front of the hinge part were rotten.

Now it is safe to say that I was not keen on removing the door skin. The website Replacing Morgan Door Skin (morganrebuild.co.uk) is a valuable source on how to repair a door. Since the guys from the paint-shop are also helping me with all metal works I asked for their advice. Due to the different curvature on the top and bottom of the door – this would have resulted in many additional hours I would have to pay for.

Trying to avoid this expensive and challenging task I tried to repair the damage myself. Some of the ash wood of the old sill board I replaced was still quite OK. Using other door, I started by creating a template using a copy bit on my hand router. The rough cut out was done with a jigsaw and the template and copy bit used on my router table. Using the replacement piece, I marked the area in addition to the rotten part. It took a bit of time making cuts with the hand saw and a chisel to carefully remove the wood while leaving screws and nails in. The front piece that the hinges attach to was cut in half and replacement screwed to the back piece which was still OK.

Since I got the bulkhead back on Saturday, I was able to do a complete trial fit on the frame and the repaired door fits nicely. The driver door however as well as the scuttle panel are a bit of an issue. The repaired frame on the driver side is approx. 5mm off from where it should be. The gap that should be below the driver door (and was there when I did not have frame screwed to the bulkhead) isn’t there anymore on the back of the door. This means the angle of the hinge post on the repaired side is off a little.

I will tackle this in November after I have picked up my overhauled rear axle from JB Sport Engineering….

  • right door after sanding
    right door after sanding
  • The lower part of the door as well as the hinge part are rotten
    The lower part of the door as well as the hinge part are rotten
  • Creating a template with a copy bit on the hand router from the other door
    Creating a template with a copy bit on the hand router from the other door
  • after roughly cutting out a piece of ash from the old sillboard
    after roughly cutting out a piece of ash from the old sillboard
  • marking what needs to be cut
    marking what needs to be cut
  • carefully using a hand saw and a chisel to remove the old wood - but keeping the screws and nails
    carefully using a hand saw and a chisel to remove the old wood – but keeping the screws and nails
  • almost done...
    almost done…
  • since the back of the hinge post in the door is not completely damaged - I cut in half
    since the back of the hinge post in the door is not completely damaged – I cut in half
  • using another piece of ash (from upper part of the old latch post) as replacement
    using another piece of ash (from upper part of the old latch post) as replacement
  • using the saw to get the new part flush
    using the saw to get the new part flush
  • trial fit
    trial fit
  • looks good
    looks good

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