Door Repair

November 29, 2009

I’ve been driving around with a little door damage caused by some worthless waste of flesh a while back.  I wanted to try to repair the damage myself, so I finally upgraded my wire welder to a MIG.  The cylinder cost me twice what I paid for the used welder in the first place, but now I have have it for future projects.  I figure the money I’m saving more than paid for it anyway.
img_4914 I had to take the inside door panel off img_4916to start with. This is easy if you know where all the attachment points are and where to pry, but it is a bit of a pain if you are not a pro. Here is the torn up sheet metal.
img_4917 Of course, when I bent it back, the shape was all off. I tried using a hammer and dolly to beat it back in shape, but I couldn’t get it to come back out to the right shape. I gave up and decided I’d use filler to get the shape right later. img_4919 I welded a piece of sheet metal behind the door to strengthen the area a bit. It was pretty floppy before I did this.
img_4921 All I had on hand was white primer, so that is what I sprayed on the bare metal as the sun was going down. I installed the Jimmi’ Jammer before I reconnected the control rods. This little fitted plate adds a bit of armor to protect from this kind of break in.

Who Wants to Steal Quadzilla?

September 24, 2009

This is what I found today.
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I didn’t notice it this morning or at lunch, so I figure it must have happened this afternoon in the parking garage at work. Seems harder than just breaking the glass, which makes me think they might want to steal the truck… the factory alarm is disabled by turning the lock cylinder. I’ve stopped carrying anything of value in there, except maybe a trailer hitch worth $50 brand new. My project tomorrow will be to disconnect that wiring so that the alarm will go off unless the keyless signal is used. This really gets me pissed off, talk about TREADING ON ME!!!