I now have installed the lower braces and also the mid-door angle braces. Both the mid-door angle brace, on both
doors, were falling out. The wood brace were still very good shape, the screw weren't holding anymore. This tells
me the braces take a lot of stress to worked loose like that.
I filled the old screw holes with Kwik-Poly to help give the wood extra support, then moved the screw holes on the
new brace just a bit so I wasn't drilling into the same hole.
The mid-inside brace is now installed to help give even more support, and something for the window regular
to bolt onto. This inside brace on both doors was in good shape, and didn't need new wood.
You'll also notice the lower brace seems to have a few extra screws installed in the lower right- hand corner.
This isn't by design, but by accident. This was the first time I've ever used screws in hard wood; I
kept twisting them off before they got tight. So I drilled another hole and twisted that one off too, then did
it again. By now the words are just flowing out of my month. I tore it all back apart and removed all the broken
screws. During this tearing apart and cool down period I remembered a fellow telling me to use beeswax when
installing screws in hard wood. I located some beeswax and WOW what a difference that made!!! Do Not install
a screw in hard wood without using some sort of wax or soap on the threads!!! Very important note to remember!!!
Now were going to switch doors; this is my drivers door. As you can see the top piece is rotten and missing
some important tenons on this end. The top of this door was very loose and almost falling apart when I
removed it from the car. On the outside of this piece of wood there is a body panel of aluminum wrapped around it.
Here is a good look at the cross section of my top piece I must remake. You can see all the different step cuts
that are going to be required to reproduce this piece, what you can't see from this picture is the front is cut at
an angle and is slightly curved. The tenons are suppose to be almost two inches long; there is about half that
left now.
