Way back when I started this project I committed to do real door windows in this car. To make room for my window frames I needed to remove the flanges of the original door openings, knowing that replacing them later would be a real chore!. It was time to tackle the job.
I'm going to use the 5/8" thick edge mounted bulb seal that FFR provides. Allowing for a little bit of compression I built the door flanges to be 1/2" away from the window frames and door surface. I cut strips of wood 1/2" thick and taped them to the window frame with packing tape. Then I cut and trimmed pieces of 1/8" x 1" fiberglass angle, temporarily attached them to the wood strips and epoxied them to the body.
It doesn't sound easy. And it was harder than it sounds. There were lots of awkward reaches, hard to access areas, odd angles and so on. Often it took several applications of epoxy to get a secure attachment. All of these areas will be reinforced by a wet layup of fiberglass on the back side when the body is off again.
BTW, thank you forum member JimS for sharing some tips from his project! The information was very helpful!
Starting Door Flange and Quarter Window by
Team Limer, on Flickr
My quarter window will be a flush piece of glass with no scoops. So I trimmed the quarter window opening and built a flange for the glass to sit on. Yeah ... lots of pie cuts to get the angle to bend like that!
Passenger Door Flange by
Team Limer, on Flickr
During my mock up work a couple of years ago I had not figured out how the door flange would meet with the body near the door hinges so I did a bit of patchwork to hold things together. Now that the door flange is in place it was time to deal with it. First, I cut out the old work.
Fixing the Door Jamb by
Team Limer, on Flickr
I'm in the process of fitting pieces of 0.050" aluminum to the body. This will strengthen the area, span the gaps and close up the space between the body and the door. These will be epoxied and riveted to the body and then glassed in place on the back side.
Door Jamb by
Team Limer, on Flickr
More on all of this later ...