2nd Gen Non-Engine/Transmission Fixing the rust/paint on my drivers door

[JCyrbok]

I like most CTD owners have fallen victim to the dreaded drivers lower door rust. I realized that I had a problem when the paint started to blister (too late, LOL). My truck is out of the paint/rust through warranty ( i think, but I will check).



With the way the economy is I can only afford to fix this myself, which is fine. All my paint/rust damage is below the rubber side trim on the door and on the bottom door surface.



What is needed and what the process for stripping the paint down to good bare metal, priming and painting? I have done alot of stuff in my life, auto paint is not one of them though, LOL. But I figure I could atleast do a good enough job to fix/stop the rust and make it look decent enough on the bottom of the door.



If someone could either point me towards some good books, websites, tutorials etc or post a brief (but detailed) post here on what needs to be done, so that I would have to do it again in a year LOL.



I envision taping the good paint off below the trim, and using a random orbit sander to remove the paint and rust down to the bare metal (hopefully there is no rust through, which I dont think there is), then prime, paint, clear. Total that I would do to try to blend it well would be width of the door and about 12inches up from the lower edge.



Thanks a ton and everyone have a good and safe holiday season.



J-

 

[VHolloway]

I sprayed my lower door with eezox gun oil

check eezox out on line

 

[Beach]

The rust usually start's inside the door in the pinch weld. Moisture build's up from the crappy drain plug's. I had bad rust on both my door's. I took both door's and the quad cab door's off and gutted them, sandblasted all the rust off inside and out, then used POR-15. It's decent stuff, but I'm sure other's will chime in with a better product. I cleaned and painted the lower 6-8" of the door's and then reassembled everything. My truck is silver so I used silver POR-15. I also used body seam sealer along the inside seam and outside bottom of the door to seal it all up. The final thing after all that was the color matched line-x along the whole bottom of the truck. Turned out good and no more rust. NOTE: If you go this route, make sure you fill any dent's, wave's or hole's completely flush with the rest of the sheet metal! The line-x follow's every contour and will show shadow's or low spot's in the finished product. I wish I would have known that. you can see a faint outline of where my rust was. Oh well, it look's 10 time's better now. Good luck. I was going to post picture's of each step I took when I did mine, but I lost my usb cable for my camera. Maybe someday.

 

[TravisG]

I sprayed my lower door with eezox gun oil

check eezox out on line

Do tell about this gun oil. Did you just coat the seam with oil, or what? I put a little oil down there from time to time, but I have a little rust starting to develop.

 

[kenny61]

If you sand down to bare metal you want to clean it with metal prep. Go by the local paint suppy shop and tell them what you want top do and they should be able to set you up.

 

[RHestand]

Ditto as per most of Beaches post, on my 98.

My guy, here in Marinette, WI. that did both my doors said he used to fix a lot of them a few years back, while still under re-call warranty, due to poor design. "Inverted pinch seams and water drain holes too high. "

He said he would probably have to R&R the bottom 6" on both doors, and that's what he ended up doing. There was a lot of "surface" rust, but no through holes on them. So when he showed me the pieces he cut off, I was amazed at how little good metal was still left on them. It really didn't look that bad in the beginning, from the out side.

After welding back together, sanding, smoothing, and new drain holes, he sprayed some thick yellow rubbery stuff in the bottom, on the inside of ea. door, up about 12" .

Then on the outside, about 10" up from the bottom, front to back of truck, he sprayed on a tough chip resistant coating, then over the top of that, matching finish paint up to the trim line.

I couldn't be happier with the results, and he said if it ever rusted again, he would fix it for nothing. I love seeing what an excellent mechanic can do with metal.

Ray

 

[PatrickHansen]

I had my doors rehabbed by my body shop; they pretty much did what Ray's mechanic did. The doors will probably last longer than the rest of the body now!