I am looking to fix rust on the inside of the door mounts on a 69 convertible. The rust is not real bad, it’s just surface rust, no flaking. The way that GM welds the cage holding the plate in makes it look impossible to remove the tapped hinge bolt plate without cutting the cage. Before I start cutting I though I’d post to see it anyone had a nice way to repair the area.

Mike If I am reading this right. your side cowl area where the two door mounting plates
are located have surface rust ? If this is the case, just clean area up with your gear drive DA 36 grit. shim coat with a good
plastic fillet ( Evercoat RAGE GOLD my favorite) clean out body holes and threads and finish with rasp,board 80 and DA 120.
prime and paint. Conv some times have rust at the bottom of cowl and thats a cut/weld
deal .
GL

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Wayne
ACES 1556
TCG 186
So many Mustangs
So Little Time

Thanks for the quick reply.

I can always count on the members of this sight.

I lucked out here – no rust at the bottom of the cowl but yes I do have surface rust directly under the hinges themselves.

I really didn’t describe that area correctly. What I’m looking to do first is remove (if needed) the flat plates on the inside of the cowl. These are the plates that the 3 hinge bolts would thread into. They’re held in place by a sheet metal cover that is spot welded on to the inside of the body.

The only way to get the plates out is by cutting out the spotwelds on the inside of the body. This can turn into a time consuming,frustrating, and possibly an expensive job. IMO it's not worth it unless you have to replace the hinge blocks. You may be able to shoot some oil on it to prevent more rust from forming. If the threads are all good on the blocks, I would leave them alone.

[This message has been edited by deejay (edited 07-05-2001).]

Thanks for the input. I don't want to have to cut out the blocks. I'll try painting what I can see and spraying oil behind were I can't prime/paint