Repairing the doors

Zagato used either steel- or aluminum-skin doors during production. The use of different material followed a random pattern, whatever was available was used. I have seen cars most probably produced only days apart one equipped with aluminum-skin doors the other with steel-skin doors.

There is no specific advantage of aluminum doors except that they are lighter in weight. Although aluminum cannot rust like steel it will surely corrode. This is especially the case where the aluminum door-skin meets the steel door-frame. A sign of the corrosion is a kind of white powder or residue that develops in the areas of contact.

The doors in my car were completely made of steel and in remarkably good condition. Nevertheless they were in need for welding and I decided to separate the door-skin from the frame.

Door skin separated from frame and stripped from paint and primer. Next step would be to grind the skin with emery. The upper section of the skin is spot-welded to the frame. I used a drill to drill out the welding spots. After carefully unfolding the flap that runs around the other edges of the skin the frame and skin could be separated. The lower section of the skin was rusted and replaced by a specially made repair panel.
	The door frame was also stripped from paint and primer. The lower edge was slightly rusted and replaced with a repair panel I made of new sheet metal.
Before re-assembly the frame and skin were sprayed with primer and covered with white paint to make visual cavity checks easier.
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