Replacing door wood in a 68B Cabriolet

[30cabriolet]

I have been putting it off for months and now it is finally time to replace the wood in both doors of my Cabriolet. Cabriolet doors are the same as for the Briggs Fordor, they just have the tops and rear of the window cut off. Originally the wood was assembled first in a jig and then the door skin was attached last. This procedure causes the screws at the front of the door to be installed from the outside in and makes it difficult to install new wood. I am using a kit from Classic Wood.

The only original wood in good shape is the horizontal piece at the top, but I can not install the rear door post wood without first removing the horizontal piece due to a mortice and tenon joint at the rear. What is the best way to start? I figure that I have 3 choices:
1. I could cut the original horizontal piece someplace in the middle(leaving the front attached) and create a lap joint to join the new wood to.
2. I could cut a slot into the mortice of the door post wood to allow me to slide the post up into the original tenon of the horizontal wood. This will only work if the original tenon is the same size as the new mortice.
3. Remove the horizontal piece completely and install all new wood. If I choose this option, then I need to figure out how to remove the front two screws that are installed from the outside in. I might be able to drill them out, but then how do I install the new screws?

Any thoughts?

[BRENT in 10-uh-C]

Originally Posted by 30cabriolet

Any thoughts?

Yep, do it as it was originally done. Assemble the door wood and fit it to the body first. Then disassemble the door sheetmetal and install it onto the wood. You can deviate from this plan if you make your own wood as we sometimes do in this instance but what you are contemplating will likely come back to haunt you.

BTW, --you probably don't want to hear this but wood coachwork become much easier after you have done several cars.

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[30cabriolet]

Originally Posted by BRENT in 10-uh-C

You can deviate from this plan if you make your own wood as we sometimes do in this instance but what you are contemplating will likely come back to haunt you.

.

That's why I have been putting this off. The only right answer is to disassemble the door skin and since this is a first for me, I don't know how bad I would mess it up.
When you make your own wood, how do you make it different to allow you to deviate? I may have better results if I make the wood instead of using the kit.

[BRENT in 10-uh-C]

I personally am a fan of disassembling the skin by grinding the edges and TIG welding back together when completed. The problem with the door is it is marginally strong at best due to allowing room for the window.

[Terry, NJ]

I am facing a similiar situation with my 30 Briggs town Sedan. I disassembled the door and the wood,trying to distort the door skin as little as possible. Originally, I wanted to make all the wood from an ash tree I recently cut down. After getting the old wood out, that seems a little optimistic unless I can get ahold of some blueprints somewhere. So now, my door is looking like an empty sardine can as I comtemplate shipping costs from Utan or NC. So, You make the frame first, then apply the door skin? I can see why you like grinding it off. Trouble is, I don't have a TIG welder to put it back with. Also, What about the nails? Is there any advantage to SS. The originals were pretty good after 80 years.
Terry

[BRENT in 10-uh-C]

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There are no commercially available blueprints that I am aware of.

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[30cabriolet]

Well, I did it. I installed new wood in my Cabriolet doors without having to disassemble the door skins. It was easy to do once I figured out a few tricks. I hope this makes sense for the others out there that emailed me wanting to know how it was going.

There are 3 screws that are installed from the outside in: 1 where the vertical doorpost meets the top horizontal wood (mortise and tenon joint) and 2 at the front of the top horizontal wood. To remove the 2 front screws, I used a small cut-off wheel to cut slots into the visible portion of the screws. I then used a screwdriver to back out the screws. I did have to grind off some of the front screw to get it to back out of the hole far enough so it would not hit the door skin. Once all the other screws and nails were removed (except for the last screw installed backwards), I pulled down on the vertical doorpost until I could move the wood enough to see the last screw through the door handle hole. I then removed the screw with a screwdriver and pulled out the wood.
When fitting the new wood, the most important thing to know is that the vertical doorpost is made from 2 pieces of wood. You must separate the two pieces to make it easier to fit/cut/sand the doorpost wood so that it will fit correctly. I used a tabletop band saw to make the fitting easier.
My wood kit came with the tenon of the mortise and tenon joint rounded at the top. This allows for the horizontal and vertical pieces of wood to be angled to make installation easier. I put the front of the horizontal wood into place with the rear angled down; I then slid the vertical doorpost onto the horizontal wood and pushed up on the doorpost sliding everything into position. You must install the screw that holds the joint together (through the door handle hole) as the wood is pushed into place. I finally secured the front screws with wood screws from the inside out.

[Roadster62]

I know this is a Wood Coachwork 101 question, but are all joints dry, screws only or is a good grade of glue used sometimes?

[kelley's restoration]

good for you
i try to use as much original wood as possible to keep as much of the factory dimensions as possible.
i have never found repo wood to fit exaclty so it eliminats some of the trial and error stuff
tk