EdwardB’s 35 Hot Rod Truck Build - Well Traveled

[edwardb]

Paul, you are way ahead of me as always. Assuming I will probably have similar issues when I get to my doors. You mind posting or sending a few interior photos of your pie cut handy work? Just trying to get a better idea of the process. Thanks

I too would like to see pics of the pie cuts made to get the doors to fit better.

Gary

Thought about taking pictures as I was laying this out and doing the cuts. But didn’t. So will try to explain and show what I did. Pretty straightforward, I think. First, with the doors on the cab, marked where the door to body alignment started going out. On both sides, in the vicinity of the door handle on the sides, and 14-16” back on the bottom. Then I measured the amount the door stood proud at the bottom corner. As noted previously, just over 1/4" on the left side. Under 1/4" on the right side. Of course () used a digital micrometer and noted the actual values. This was the amount to remove on both sides. Then removed the doors.

Next, I laid a piece of blue masking tape on the inside door shell portion going up into the radius of the door skin. Then, using a spacer block (roughly 3/16" thick) drew a line with a Sharpie on the tape parallel to the back of the door skin. Basically, where the inner radius ended. That was one cut line. Then I traced the curve of the door sides and bottoms onto pieces of thin cardboard. (Ram Board from HD. Perfect template material. A roll lasts forever.) Then used the templates to trace the second cut line which matches the curve of the door. On top of the first line where the alignment started to go out and offset by the measured amount of misalignment at the bottom rear corner. Hence the term pie cut. In this case, a long skinny pie cut.

Using a Dremel with a cut-off wheel, it was easy enough to follow the lines. Tried to make the cuts as straight as possible to get a good bond line. I wasn’t sure how flexible the door skin would be once the cuts were complete. But not an issue. Easy to clamp and close the pie cut. Next, applied HSRF somewhat liberally to the cut, making sure both sides were wetted, and clamped closed. Tip: Either leave the masking tape in place or apply new strips along both sides of the cut lines. Then once clamped, scrape the squeezed out HSRF off and let cure. Then remove the tape. Prevents getting HSRF on the gel coat (which you need to remove because it doesn’t bond well but still is a pain to sand off) and makes it real easy to give a light sand and you’re done for the outside. For the inside, I use vinylester resin and 2-1/2” wide strips of fiberglass cloth across the cut lines for reinforcement.

Today took these pictures. As mentioned above, this is after the cut and re-bond. So only for illustration. But hopefully makes sense along with the above description. The bond line is visible. The tape outlines the approximate amount of material that was previously removed. For the sides, the match is nearly even. With usual finishing methods will disappear. For the bottom, the shell is angled so removing the 1/4" or so of material caused the match to be slightly off. As evidenced by the additional visible HSRF and slight step. A little bit of body filler will make that go away. Or do nothing as it’s on the bottom of the door and not normally visible. Hope that all makes sense and helps.

RH Side:



RH Bottom: