Repairing or replacing doors

tvmaster

True Classic
Have some broken bondo on the ‘74 passenger door. My body guy says it could cost up to $700 to repair and paint, depending if the bondo needs to turn into re-welding metal and likely a full paint job.
Or, find a non-holes door and repaint it.
Has anyone been faced with something similar - seems like a wash either way. Or is painting a good door lots cheaper than fixing and touching up a door with holes. I know, it’s likely too subjective, but thought I’d ask anyway just in case.
thanks

UPDATE: a photo of the damaged area

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cheap fix: clean the area, repair with new bondo, repaint with best matching paint you can found in rattle can..this will be ok for a everyday car..for a collector\garage queen car, proper fix is welding, and then the new paint will not match exactly the rest of body, so, maebe complete side repaint ..my point of view is that it's depend on what use you make of the car..
anyway, if your car has bondo repair on one door, expect there are also other similar repairs all around..and it's normal for a near half century old veichle..personally i dont make me get headache for some questionable repairs on my old lady: i prefer drive her then make her perfect.
 
I would look for a pair of doors - finding ones without rust or previous repair may be difficult though. Some one was giving away X1/9 body parts - I think it was on the FB page - at least then you could give them a door to strip, clean & repair as necessary, then give them the car for install & paint (assuming you aren't doing it) to minimize downtime. I think any bodyshop is going to consider this work low priority so if you give them the car up front, it is likely they will have the car for an extended period.....
 
Depends a lot on how hard it is to find a replacement door and you won't know what shape it's in till it's stripped. What is the price to get the replacement door shipped to you if not local, pretty high, I bet. All things to consider. Also, aren't the mechanical windows and electric window doors different where the mechanism bolts up?
 
Yes, shipping doors would get pricey I should think. I’m basing this job on finding ones locally which could be picked up. I already have one, spare door, but it’s for the driver’s side, and from a later model with thru-glass mirror and different interior handle. And no door card. Came with the car.
Guess Ill see about patching the Bondo hole first and feathering the paint, since matching aged patina won’t be easy for any shop.
 
Is the rust high up or down low on the corner? I find that lower-down stuff is basically unnoticeable 90% of the time. These cars are so dang tiny that any parts that start to curve under the body just totally disappear from view. If the bad spot is low, and especially if it's on the corner of the door, yeah, I'd just sand it down, fill it with fiberglass body filler (stronger than regular bondo), then try to get a reasonably close color match.
 
I Went through this about a year ago. Shipping was not to bad. I got the doors from Arizona or Nevada I forget. and there were the best doors I could find at the time. And they were still rusty and rough. I had to replace the front corner of both doors, the rear of the drivers door, along with some portions of the bottom and inside of both doors. My original doors were from a Minnesota car, so this made sense for me.
There are areas to use Plastic body filler "Bondo" But fixing rust is never one. (This is my opinion based on what I have been taught)
Plastic body filler absorbs moisture if not completely sealed.
As for cost $700 to fix rusty doors. I am not going saying if is is a good price or not but, I want to give you some perspective.
Fab work can easily cost $75 to $150 per hr. I probably have 10 hrs in to each door.
Metal finishing I think is less but don't know $50 to $100 pr hr. I have 5 hrs (or more) in to the pair.
Body work (Filler, primer, sanding...) $50 to$100 pr hr. I did this with the rest of the car so I cant guess.
So if you add it up... I have over $1000 in metal work and filler, not including door cost. (I work slow so costs will very)
Body ships can match paint color, fade, and Patina. All for a price.
 

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Is the rust high up or down low on the corner? I find that lower-down stuff is basically unnoticeable 90% of the time. These cars are so dang tiny that any parts that start to curve under the body just totally disappear from view. If the bad spot is low, and especially if it's on the corner of the door, yeah, I'd just sand it down, fill it with fiberglass body filler (stronger than regular bondo), then try to get a reasonably close color match.
Fiber glass body filler is not like Plastic body filler and does not absorb moisture. If the holes are small enough this method of fixing will last a long time.
 
So if you add it up... I have over $1000 in metal work and filler, not including door cost. (I work slow so costs will very)

That's stunningly beautiful work. How'd you strip all the paint so cleanly? Just sanding and lots of patience?

And yes, do not just use regular filler. I learned that the hard way--20 years after I first cleaned up a bunch of rust spots, the (original formula) bondo had "bubbled" / bulged out all over.
 
That's stunningly beautiful work. How'd you strip all the paint so cleanly? Just sanding and lots of patience?

And yes, do not just use regular filler. I learned that the hard way--20 years after I first cleaned up a bunch of rust spots, the (original formula) bondo had "bubbled" / bulged out all over.
For the majority of it I stripped it using a wire wheel on a 4.5" grinder. VERY CAREFULL! you do not want to over heat the panel, or gouge it. This takes the filler and most of the paint primer and rust off. I followed it with a 36 grit on a dual action sander.
Some areas 36grit on a 7 inch grinder. with this you generate lots of heat fast and cause damage fast. This method does not cut that much faster than the wire wheel.

I have also learned to keep the original paint on as long as possible because bare metal RUSTS SO FAST!!! Then strip right before starting body work.

(this photo was not staged to answer your question, but it does, all of my tools are on the floor.)
IMG_20200126_150116.jpg
 
bondo putty it's polyester resin with fine powder in it, it's made to be sanded easily; fiberglass putty it's the same but with glass fiber: it's " more structural" because glass fibers make a better composite material; poliester it's the same stuff that it's used to make boats: resin + glass matt, it's just plastic that hardens when mixed with its catalyzer..doesnt trap moisture..
 
As my elementary music teacher used to say, "you don't put a good soundboard in a cheap piano, a good soundboard goes into an expensive one".
I would probably repair the car to match the rest of the body. What I mean is if the rest of the body is rust and bondo free, I would do a better repair than if the car had existing bondo repairs. How long to you expect the car to last? I would not want to do the repair twice.
 
I Went through this about a year ago. Shipping was not to bad. I got the doors from Arizona or Nevada I forget. and there were the best doors I could find at the time. And they were still rusty and rough. I had to replace the front corner of both doors, the rear of the drivers door, along with some portions of the bottom and inside of both doors. My original doors were from a Minnesota car, so this made sense for me.
There are areas to use Plastic body filler "Bondo" But fixing rust is never one. (This is my opinion based on what I have been taught)
Plastic body filler absorbs moisture if not completely sealed.
As for cost $700 to fix rusty doors. I am not going saying if is is a good price or not but, I want to give you some perspective.
Fab work can easily cost $75 to $150 per hr. I probably have 10 hrs in to each door.
Metal finishing I think is less but don't know $50 to $100 pr hr. I have 5 hrs (or more) in to the pair.
Body work (Filler, primer, sanding...) $50 to$100 pr hr. I did this with the rest of the car so I cant guess.
So if you add it up... I have over $1000 in metal work and filler, not including door cost. (I work slow so costs will very)
Body ships can match paint color, fade, and Patina. All for a price.
Off topic but....tell us about your front coilovers please.
 
Ghostdancing, Please don't think I am trying to argue with you. I just want people that may read this to be miss informed.

Standard body filler is not for fixing rust holes. It is for shape contouring and smoothing.
Fiberglass reinforced body filler is not the same stuff they make boats from.

I am attaching the like to 3M fillers because they own "Bondo" and that is the product mentioned earlier.


I am using Vicks Hydrasports coilovers. 225f/275r and it rides very, and handles nice.
 
Excellent answers everyone - thanks. If I had a giant workshop like many of you I may try and do more work of my own, but alas the garage is tight already. So, professionals will be used here, and yes, they can be very pricey. Does anyone have an opinion on what a fair price for a mid-70’s door be, if in mostly rest-free shape? Since there are so few out there, I don’t really have a barometer to gauge by if and when one appeared.
 
Midwest bayless has good prices. And they are very easy to work with. They list the price at about $236 per door. They don't have one that would work for me when I talked to them. But they get parts in all the time.
I have seen doors as low as $100, This is about what I paid, Shipping was about 100 also. Typically the less you pay the more work they typically need. I found some really nice ones they wanted $500 each. I thought this was too much. But if it saves work you are paying for it is worth it.
 
If I had a giant workshop like many of you I may try and do more work of my own, but alas the garage is tight already. So, professionals will be used here, and yes, they can be very pricey.

One last pitch for the DIY route--you really don't need a huge workshop to do a reasonably good job fixing small to mid-size rust holes. And you don't *need* any of the power tools @homegrown32 used for a job like the one you're describing. I don't even have a garage, let alone a workshop, no power tools, and not a ton of experience. But it's pretty easy to turn out a ten-footer repair like this one with just sandpaper, body filler, and spray paint, for a total cost of maybe $20 + maybe four or five hours of your time. This is a rust repair, plus a pretty big dent repair (the shadowy area above the rust holes), plus filling the big screw hole. It doesn't look perfect, but it was cheap and I was back on the road in no time.

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Update: I added a picture of the damage to the passenger door in post #1.
Maybe that will help with ideas for solutions. This is really the only problem with the door.
 
it looks easy to repair..usually doors develope rust in the bottom due water trapped inside..in your case i would disassemble the handle, clean the rust (looks like there are no holes), primer\paint ; if your doors bottoms are rust free, consider yourself lucky

BTW: nice color for an X!
 
it looks easy to repair..usually doors develope rust in the bottom due water trapped inside..in your case i would disassemble the handle, clean the rust (looks like there are no holes), primer\paint ; if your doors bottoms are rust free, consider yourself lucky

BTW: nice color for an X!
Thanks - we get stopped often and complimented on the little monster. Haven't decided on a name yet. The obvious choice was 'Kermit', but as a 2020 Covid mental-breakdown purchase, and the onset of Murder Hornets, we're leaning towards 'The Green Hornet'. lol
It's apparent it was repaired once already for the same thing. They mystery will be what's surrounding that crack...
 
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