62' Door Panel Screws (holes)

[John Waggoner]

Has anyone found a fool proof way to fix the wallowed out screw holes for the door panels. I have fiberglassed them up a couple times and they work loose again all to soon. I have tried the plastic drywall anchors but they stick out a little on the inside and set the door panel out by 1/16th of an inch.

What is the secret remedy. TIA John


Indy Meet Registration

[Jack H.]

Re: 62' Door Panel Screws (holes)

Haven't tried this on '62 door panels but did on the RH mirror mount of my '71 and it worked well. Cut a small piece of sheet steel. Drill guide hole for screw. Find opening in door, reach in and use epoxy and masking tape to mount reinforcement plate to backside of door fiberglass where 'tired' hole lives.

[Bill Clupper]

Re: 62' Door Panel Screws (holes)

John, a couple of things to try, on my '62 the bad boys are near the top, so I can grab one of the flat spring metal nuts for trim screws and guide one of them onto the screw with a long set of needle nose pliers. As another approach to repairing the holes, I've had some success by using mat, not cloth, in several layers, and using a flat plate to apply pressure on the mat/resin mixture while it cures, thus forcing the extra resin out of the patch, leaving mostly glass which is stronger. sort of a "poor man's " replication of the factory press mold process. I've forund that the strength of the repair is significantlu inproved using this mehtod. don't forget to grind the area being repaired almost paper thin before using this trick, then use enough glass layers to return the patch to slightly greater thickness than you started with, smooth down & redrill a small pilot hole. Run your screw in & I don't usually have to repeat the process.

[Ed Jennings]

Re: 62' Door Panel Screws (holes)

Another method is to use a small piece of sheet metal and secure it over the hole with small pop rivets. The sheet metal can go on the window side of the fiberglass, and the pop rivets are almost flush if you use small ones. Corvette Central sells a kit with the sheet metal strips already drilled and some real small pop rivets for about 20 bucks, but you can make your own very easily and inexpensively.

[Wayne]

Re: 62' Door Panel Screws (holes)

I haven't done this, but you also could epoxy one of the flat metal spring nuts behind each hole in the panel. Or find some of the plastic "nuts" that are frequenly used to hold license plate screws (generally they are square with 4 triangular protrusions on one side to snap into a smaller square hole such that the insertion of the screw opens the protrusions, thus further securing the "nut" in the hole).... you'd need to mark and file the holes to the correct square size, and I'd epoxy these in also.

[Jim Mitchell]

Re: 62' Door Panel Screws (holes)

I used the sheet metal method recommended by Ed on my '60 five years ago. It was easy and has held up very well.

[John Waggoner]

Thanks for some great suggestions.

Thanks everyone for the great suggestions. - I have a friend who is a tinsmith. I will see if he can fab me some sheetmetal nuts in a 1/2" x 1" strip of hard sheetmetal, then secure them with rivets to the backside. I think this should give the most security for my effort. Thanks again all!


Indy Meet Registration