1993 240 driver's door metal failure

[thelostartof]

Has anyone seen this failure on the driver's door lower hinge where the metal on the door itself has cracked and failed.

I will get more info and pictures but I am picking up this car for a reasonable price for as straight and clean the inside is but it does have a few issues I need to go over.

If anyone has seen this and has advice on repair. My plan was to remove door clean the metal and then weld and grind flat and reinstall and hope it sits flat. This is my first step into owning a 240 so this will be fun, I have been working on them long enough now I will have my own to fix up.

 

[Smorgesborg]

Yep, had this exact issue. I took it to a welding shop and they patched it up within an hour or 2 for a hundred. They sprayed it down with rustoleum the same color as my car and greased up the hinge. I'm personally still concerned about the inner metal, but in the meantime it's fine.

 

[2manyturbos]

I have seen that several times. Just replace the door. What really broke loose is internal to the door structure. The cracks will return if you just weld the up from the outside.

 

[thelostartof]

Would not a used door have the same failure waiting to happen?

I guess once I get it apart I can be sure if it is repairable from the inside also.

These cars are getting harder to find. You wouldn't happen to have a white door laying around would you?

 

[2manyturbos]

Would not a used door have the same failure waiting to happen?

I guess once I get it apart I can be sure if it is repairable from the inside also.

These cars are getting harder to find. You wouldn't happen to have a white door laying around would you?

I might still have a white driver's door. I'll check. It's usually a bad hinge that causes the fatigue. Eventually, that door will just cave in. The hinge will go right through the door. That's how the last one I encountered was when I bought the car. It isn't a prevalent problem. It's just like the hood issue. If the hinges are lubed over the life of the car the hood stays nice and straight.

 

[lookforjoe]

I have seen that several times. Just replace the door. What really broke loose is internal to the door structure. The cracks will return if you just weld the up from the outside.

The way to repair it would be to drill through the stress cracks & weld the inner structure back to the skin. If each leg is drilled to prevent further spread & welded, it should be a strong repair. Assuming it can be accessed from inside, some additional edge welds to join the reinforcement to the skin would be wise. Checking the upper support welds at the same time. That's how I'd approach it, anyway. I'm used to dealing with unobtanium, so fixing something like that which doesn't involve (real) exterior body work would be a no-brainer.

 

[2manyturbos]

I'm sure it can be repaired. I figured I would be 2-3 hours into repairing/welding the door and then I would have another1-2 hours time repairing the paint. It was one hour to replace the door and the end result was back to looking like it came from the factory.

 

[culberro]

I have seen that several times... What really broke loose is internal to the door structure. The cracks will return if you just weld the up from the outside.

This is exactly what happens. On my 92 the factory missed the spot weld that holds the inner reinforcing plate to the door.
I had to drill out the cracks and weld them up, then I drilled another hole in the door so that I could plug weld the inner support structure to the door skin. Grind/sand everything smooth, then I shot it with some high gloss paint. I'll see if I can dig up the pictures of the repair.

 

[dl242gt]

Wurth HHS Plus is a preferred lubricant for the hinges and latches.

 

[culberro]

I finally found the pics. I traced the lines with a sharpie using dots, this allowed me to follow the crack while welding. I then drilled out some cracks and added holes to access the inner nut-plate for a plug weld (2nd pic you can see the nut plate corners through the new holes). Zap zap, grind grind, spray bomb and reinstall on the car.

 

[thelostartof]

Thank you for the pictures, that is exactly what I had in my mind to do also.

 

[conehead]

I have seen that before but i assumed it was just the paint flaking...damn. good to know