I have two thin cracks in the upper section of the door interior where you would normally rest your arm with the window down. My Dad said we could repair them and we proceeded to do the drivers side. Pop riveted a plate on the back side using contersunk rivets, cleaned out the crack with a dremel cutting wheel. drilled a tiny hole at the end of the crack to stop the run. Dad brazed the crack closed, cleaned it all up......... today the crack pops open again...... Would cleaning this crack out again and mig welding it remedy the problem? I still have the passengers door to do also and I hate to do the same thing on that only to have to fix it again.

Power windows or manual? Could it be that the widow is being cranked up too hard, flexing the inner door skin out and thus cracking it?

I have a 66 I am restoring and if I crank that window up hard, the inner door flexs out.

Manual windows, the door doesn't flex when the window is up or down fully, it appears to have a slight bow in in that area. When we pop rivet the backup steel in place it's done with it bowed slightly out, this puts it back in the proper place. Getting the crack welded up so that it will hold is the problem. Before the repairs it just caught a little arm hair once in awhile and pulled it out when you moved your arm off the door.

it just caught a little arm hair once in awhile and pulled it out when you moved your arm off the door.

8O OUCH!

I know very little about metal repair and why it would fail. I do know that whatever was causing the stress on that area, it is still doing it and you are bound to continue to have problems with it. Even if you get it fixed, the crack will probably develope in the closest weak area. If you have a way of posting a pic of the area, I can look at my 66 and compare.

Posted the pics of the cracks to my web site. The primered one is the one attempt to repair on the drivers side. The one on the passenger side is in the rust spot.
Current Project (http://www.281.com/scrubbys/index2.htm)

I can see the crack....does the crack go all the way to the inside when the cat wiskers go?

Yes on both of the doors. The passengers side is not as long of a crack as the drivers. I can take more pics if needed and post them later today.

Were you able to weld the crack where it runs behind the cat wiskers?

We brazed the whole crack even behind the wisker area, then clean ed it all back up prior to priming.I was thinking that brazing the crack was not a real good idea as this would be a weak point. Maybe it would be better to have someone mig or tig the crack after clening it out with the dremel again. If I cleaned out the crack a little more, I should be able to weld right thru to the backing piece and lock it all together making the the area stronger, not sure this would work or not.

That's a good idea. I was going to suggest that instead of rivits, just weld right through the hole in the skin to the backing piece.

Also, check the entire interior skin of the door for cracks etc. That could cause enough weakness in the door that the arm rest area would bear more strees that it was designed to.

I'll give that a try this time around and see how well it works out. I replaced door hinges awhile back, the worn out old hinges may have contributed to the cracks. Also, the door seals are not the correct ones, the last owner ordered a set from JC Whitney (they sell two different types, one is larger than the other), he bought the larger cross section seals which are too big. I have the new correct door seals to go in after paint. Prior to doing the hinges, the doors were a pain to open especially the passengers side, it was tough to push the handle button in and get the door open. Since replacement of hinges and re-alignment the doors are back to opening the way they should. Thanks for the assist, Ill let you know how it works out.
Kevin

Stripped the door down completely, glass, weatherstrip, felts, paint, etc. and proceeded to the local muffler shop. Had the plate welded in (MIG) through the holes then had the crack welded up. Seems to be the way to go to get a good strong repair. I'll spend the rest of the day grinding it back flush and getting some primer shot on it. Then it's on to the other door to fix the crack in it. Thanks for the input on this. :-D
Scrubby

Anytime. Hope you got it fixed.

Just a little input here. If the plate is hidden behind your doorpanel or armrest, I'd just clean up the weld. Grinding it down even with the surface might not leave it as strong as you need. Does it LOOK like a good weld? If so, I'd just clean it up and prime it. If it was thicker metal, it wouldn't hurt to grind it down. You don't want to be pulling all this off again after paint.

The guy did a good solid weld on the rivet holes and then on the crack. He over filled a little bit with the weld, there was no warping of the steel. That was my main concern. I was able to take it back down smooth. Got the drivers side done and primered. Almost like it was never there. Now on to the passengers side. Thanks again for all the input from everyone at El Camino Central.

Scrubby