WTB: Hardtop Fox driver's door

[Pranav]

We found/agreed that a 87+ door will work. Hopefully picking one up tomorrow or so...

[Storm Trooper]

I'm pretty sure Craig doesnt use mirrors anyway

Mirrors are overrated. They're just for looking back where you've already been

[Pranav]

Went and picked up the door at a salvage yard in Tomball. Out of curiousity I asked if they had any 4th gens there, and low and behold there was a black 4th gen firebird stripped and ready to go...

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... I know, I have a problem...

But seriously, I knew I was going to need an inner fender and core support as my RF corner has been hit and repaired twice (once whenever it was a street car); gonna try take a crack and replacing that piece over the summer, and will have good practice on drilling out spot welds and doing an extraction on this piece off-car...

Now looking at how "simple" the frame rails are from the backside, I'm curious if any 4th gen guy has considered the possibility of welding on an entire new front clip if they're ever involved in a full frontal. Looking at the GM parts systems they even had whole frame rail sets available...

I was also pleasantly surprised by how light 3/4 of the front end is...

[dtanker65]

I am an amateur with body work, but I have learned a bit about spot welds restoring an old mustang. The most important thing evaluating the disassembly is to identify the center of the factory spot weld to be removed before doing any grinding or paint removal. I center punch the welds to be removed first thing. Spot weld cutters are okay, but they are expensive and snag and break easily. Quick and dirty is to identify the weld to be removed, grind away the layer of metal to be removed with an angle grinder and use: a sharp flat chisel; vice grips; or whatever you have in you bag of tricks to remove the discard piece. Even though this is your baby, destroy the metal to be removed and protect what is staying.

This is a race car, so chassis alignment is important. Do you have the factory frame measurement drawing? You don't want to make a repair if the car need's a tweak on the frame machine. Setup would be a nightmare, though it might be great turning one way :-)

The harbor freight spot welder is useless, it is for HVAC work regardless of the advertised specs. The only technique I have figured out, to duplicate the factory spot weld strength, is to cut a 3/8" hole in the new part and grind clean the old part (cut or punch the 3/8" hole, not drill; the spot weld cutter does a good job here with a 1/8" pilot hole). MIG welding works well here, just be sure to get penetration on the base metal part. I practice on scrap until I get the heat and wire speed right and do some destruction testing until you figure it out. Remember before you do the final weld out,
to support the car from the suspension points, not jack stands on the body.

Good luck and have fun, welding is a whole new adventure!

Dennis

[martinsntx]

Went and picked up the door at a salvage yard in Tomball. Out of curiousity I asked if they had any 4th gens there, and low and behold there was a black 4th gen firebird stripped and ready

Did you see any sn95's? I'm looking for a passenger door.

[Pranav]

I wanna say I may have, call them up:
Charlie's Auto & Truck Salvage
10910 FM 2920 Rd Tomball, TX 77375, United States
(281) 351-4444

I've had good luck finding stuff here, most of the salvage yards have their good stuff on this database:
http://www.car-part.com/