37 Buick Coupe door removal

[Skidplate]

Hey guys.... and girls, here’s my question. I’m getting ready to remove my doors to have them blasted. I’m assuming to remove them off the hinges, one just has to knock the pins up and out. The question is, how do I disconnect the Door Stops. If I don’t have to, I want to keep the door interior panels attached. This leaves me with coming in at the kick panel, equally difficult to get at but better to go in the correct way than to find out after I’ve removed the wrong panel. Open to input.

[MCHinson]

All of my cars are sedans but I assume the door check straps to be the same. Remove the kick panel and you will be able to remove the stop on the door check straps. The door check strap has a stopnut on the end which just unscrews. 

[Skidplate]

Cool. That’s what I was assuming but the kick panel is kinda difficult to remove without damaging It so I wanted to ask before I dug into it. So you agree, the pins just tap out? 

[MCHinson]

I would recommend some solvent first, but they should be able to be tapped out.

[Robert Engle]

I like to have undersized pins, so as soon as you get one pin out, slip the undersize pin in.  It helps to keep the door from getting away from you.  I do the same on hanging the doors, the undersized pins are asy get in and easy to replace with the correct sizie press fit pins.

 

Bob Engle

[Skidplate]

Both good suggestions. Kinda dreading muscling them onto a bench. Funny how light they feel until they’re free. I spect a thick blanket or two on the floor may be in order. Pulled the trunk lid off yesterday and layed it over on blankets on the bench and an old screwdriver rolled out from between the folds. Think I’ll frame it.

[1937McBuick]

Isn't  there bolts through the body (front of the door opening)?    I think the hinge straps have tapped holes.

That way the hinges would stay with the door,  I don't know if that is good or bad...alignment problems?

I guess it depends how in depth the restoration is going to be.

[Robert Engle]

When I hung the doors on my 32 Buick, I wrapped heavy blankets around the top door frame and used my engine hoist with a woven strap wrapped on the door frame.  It worked very well and the doors were easy to handle.

 

Bob Engle

[Stooge]

When I pulled the doors off of my '37 Century coupe, I unbolted the hinges from the body and left them attached to the door rather than knocking the pins out, but my doors also didn't have any door panels in them so I didn't have to get around that to unbolt the stoppers, but if your getting your doors blasted, wont the interior panels have to come off anyways? Might as well make like easier and pop them off to give you some extra access to the inside of the door.

[39BuickEight]

11 hours ago, Robert Engle said:

I like to have undersized pins, so as soon as you get one pin out, slip the undersize pin in.  It helps to keep the door from getting away from you.  I do the same on hanging the doors, the undersized pins are asy get in and easy to replace with the correct sizie press fit pins.

 

Bob Engle

 

Sounds familiar:

 

[Skidplate]

Damn, that crane makes the door look really really heavy. But I guess it does cut down on bugging the neighbors to help hang your doors. And as for the panel removal, to be honest, I’ve never been able to gracefully pull a door panel without damaging something... never. And here’s my plan with blasting it. I’m using real thin sheet metal (roof flashing) to slide in between the panel and the paint. Lots of Flashing, even more Gorilla Tape to hold it all in place and a 3’x4’ sheet of chipboard over the whole panel SHOULD protect the original upholstery and get a good quality blast job. We’ll see.

Edited May 11, 2020 by Skidplate (see edit history)

[39BuickEight]

1 hour ago, Skidplate said:

Damn, that crane makes the door look really really heavy. But I guess it does cut down on bugging the neighbors to help hang your doors. And as for the panel removal, to be honest, I’ve never been able to gracefully pull a door panel without damaging something... never. And here’s my plan with blasting it. I’m using real thin sheet metal (roof flashing) to slide in between the panel and the paint. Lots of Flashing, even more Gorilla Tape to hold it all in place and a 3’x4’ sheet of chipboard over the whole panel SHOULD protect the original upholstery and get a good quality blast job. We’ll see.

They aren’t all that heavy for a healthy person.  They are not light by any means, but they can be carried around.  The hoist just prevents having to deal with the weight at all while lining up hinges and fasteners.  

[Skidplate]

Oh, and about finding pins that are a tad smaller to hold the doors in place once the normal pins are removed.... I finally found a use for all those damn pristene TORX screwdrivers lounging around in my tool box.