inner door bottom patch
 

I'm working on a 1970 door. The bottom of the INNER part of the door is rusted. Before I ordered a patch, I wanted to make sure the OUTER part was good, so I sanded it down to bare metal to confirm the OUTSIDE is GOOD.

Now with that being said, the only rust I could find was on the inner bottom of the door AND the flap that is bent over from the outside-in along the bottom edge of the door for about a 1/2 inch, which is pitted badly. So I only ordered the inner door patch.

Now that I have received my inner patch in the mail, I am struggling with getting the old sheet metal out without mangling the bottom part of the door, the good part. I can only drill out a few spot welds out at the corners of the door but not near the center because the inner part of the door bottom gets in the way and theres no way to get in there squarely with a drill. So I take a grinding wheel and start cutting away at the spot welds. Before long, I'm inclined to start bending the flap back to try to release the metal stuck inbetween the flap but its not being cooperative, and I'm hesitant to bend it back too much because i'll end up warping the good outside of the door.... but regardless I'm going to have to bend that back to fit the new patch in..... so.....

Long story short, should I maybe cut an inch off the bottom of the OUTSIDE of the door, and recreate the fold over with a piece of sheet metal bent over, or can I just grind the edge off the bottom of the door and re-weld a strip to simulate the flap-over,,,, or what????

http://imgur.com/S7zfIhH.jpg

Re: inner door bottom patch
 

Take a long stick of flat bar and clamp it against the outer door skin a few mm above the seam. It'll give you a reinforced point, and it would allow you to bend the lip out without transferring the ripple up into the good door.

Re: inner door bottom patch
 

Willing to bet once you remove that inner piece you will find rust pits/damage on the skin.

I certainly would NOT cut off or grind off that bottom flange. Drill out the spot welds and make a plier like this. It will peel back the folded edge.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...Picture585.jpg