Door creases from the West Coast style mirrors.

[Ranger72]

Like the title says, I have door creases where people have hit the mirrors and dented the doors. Shamefully, one of them was me...

The passenger side mirrors shimmy when driving over about 45 or so, and I think its because of the flex where the crease is.

Is there a solution short of re-skinning the doors? Has anyone tried to brace the mirror mounts from inside the door?

I don't want to bang it flat and bondo it as I am afraid the flex will just crack the putty.

[tsherry]

Like the title says, I have door creases where people have hit the mirrors and dented the doors. Shamefully, one of them was me...

The passenger side mirrors shimmy when driving over about 45 or so, and I think its because of the flex where the crease is.

Is there a solution short of re-skinning the doors? Has anyone tried to brace the mirror mounts from inside the door?

I don't want to bang it flat and bondo it as I am afraid the flex will just crack the putty.

Funny you mention this. Had the same problem on my '67 CS. Under the bondo, I found all kinds of damage caused by west coast mirrors getting clocked and buckling the sheet metal. Both doors had it, the drivers' door was worse. I went after the damage with hammer, dolly and torch, to heat the metal enough to work it and put some tension back in the panels and to shrink some of the stretched metal. That worked fine on the passenger door, but the drivers' side was a real mess--should've just replaced the door by '67 doors are scarce, even if there are 10 other Bump's in the nearby wrecking yard at any given time. I ended up using an autobody adhesive (panel adhesive) to add two reinforcing panels to the door--one below the bump, the second above. I had to use some blocking to hold the panel in place until it cured (which was not long). The panels were just plain sheetmetal, painted with Rustoleum on both sides. Seems to have worked like a charm. Tomorrow I'll drill some new holes for the new mirrors....which will go through both hunks of metal.

[fordman]

put a metal backing plate behind the bolts. unless they have the plugs in the doors. for the bolts to screw into. then yo umay need new plugs put in the doors. or remove the plugs and use a metal plate.