'55 International Metal/Body/Paint Work

[theastronaut]

The doors didn't fit in the openings very well with uneven gaps all the way around. I learned how to use 1/8" welding rods to fill up the gaps and make them even on the blue '65 I restored.








I started by bending the 1/8" welding rod to the shape of the door/panel edge and used magnets to hold the rod flush with the edge of the panel.







Once the rod was tacked in place I fully welded it on. I like to do one spot weld at a time, skipping around to limit heat build up until all of the gaps are filled in.









After fully welding the seam, I ground the welds down flush with the door skin. I used a 4.5" grinder to knock down the biggest part of the weld bead, then switched to a 2" air grinder to finish off the weld.









There were smaller uneven spots that 1/8" rod was too big to fit so just welded up the edge enough to close the gap.








There were some spots that were too tight, so I had to grind them down and reweld the edge to make the gap larger.