Has anyone used Walloth & Neschs Aluminum Door skins

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tomcolitt

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and the after market floor pans? How is the fit? I remember the quality of these German offer reproductions used to be very bad. They are having a sale on the door skins. Also, I don't know whether I could mount the aluminum door skins on the factory steel door inner frames? has anyone done this yet?... If anybody wants to join me in ordering a set, we could save on shipping costs to L.A.

Thanks.
 
Hi Tom

my car just had Walloth ally skins fitted with no problems. the door frame is steel from new so they are made to go together.

mark
 
if you mount aluminum to steel, you better have a coating between the two ... to keep the differential metals from reacting (in a bad way)
 
rsporsche said:
if you mount aluminum to steel, you better have a coating between the two ... to keep the differential metals from reacting (in a bad way)
Click to expand...

Yes. I think they are probably installed using adhesive, to avoid galvanic corrosion.

Mark. Thanks. That gives me more confidence and I'll probably dare an attempt. Do you have any detail pictures you can post or email to me before I make the purchase on Sunday?...

Does anyone else have experience with the sheet metal floor pans? Those are the ones I have a bad recollection with. I just contacted a guy on ebay by the user name of Rogertii, who re-sells Walloth and Neschs floor pans at twice their price. I asked him whether the parts were close to the shape and fit of the original floor pans and his answer was a flippant; "I don't have an E9 here for comparison"....
 
Walloth and Nesch is having a sale on theirs which is hard to beat. That's why I wanted to find out if they can hold up to the quality of Mike's panels...
 
Door skins

The old school method is just a crimp over the inner steel structure. No adhesive. But you have to paint the inside of the skin, the outside (just a couple inches around the perimeter), and the entire inner steel structure with a catalyzed etch primer. Couldn't hurt to do a second coat or a "top" coat but those primers are designed for continuous exposure (dunno about UV, but they're fine with moisture, etc.). The paint is meant to provide rust prevention and isolate the aluminum from the steel.

However I like the idea of using an adhesive, but only if it can completely fill the gap. Maybe you could squeege the squeezeout to make the inner edge of the skin blend into the steel door rim?

BMW started sandwiching a zinc impregnated strip into the crimp area on ... I think it was the E39. This fully wrapped the edge of the inner panel and helped slow rust down. I wonder if you can make or buy such a thing for the auto refinish market?
 
Fitting aluminium doorskins

I did a fair bit of research into this before I fitted W&N aluminium doorskins on to the original steel door chassis on my car. First, the chassis on both sides were fitted with the W&N bottom repair section which meant that some careful plot measurements had to be taken so as to ensure that the finished door would fit the "hole". Next, I temporarily welded two horizontal struts within the door void near to the outside in order to stop the process of turning the edge of the door skin (it comes from W&N bent through 90 degrees in order to give you a start)"pulling" the whole thing together as you work the edges. Next, after priming the chassis inside and out, I brush applied a couple of coats of Isopon Zinc 182 to the edges of the door chassis which would receive the skin and then I used a 20mm wide adhesive tape wrapped around the edge of the door chassis in order to isolate the aluminium from the steel. Apparently, Aston Martin used a linen tape for this purpose on their cars but I considered that this would be somewhat absorbant to moisture and best avoided. Next, I invested in the correct tool for the job of fitting the skin itself. This is a TAMA 66051 hand clamp available from Frosts and it worked a treat but you still have to be extremely careful to avoid distorting the face of the skin, remembering that aluminium work-hardens, to a degree.

It is absolutely essential that the lock aperture is in exactly the right position in relation to the door chassis and some judicious fettling of the chassis is needed to achieve this. So,too, the aluminium strengthening section which is pop-rivetted at both ends to the door chassis and to which the door-lock fixing plate bolts are secured by adhesive. Please ensure that these are truly secure otherwise you will hit the same nightmare which I did on one side of the car. Best, John
 
make sure they're packed well

I ordered a set of rear quarter panels from W&N 2years ago and they got dinged during shipping. Clearly packing was inadequate for global shipping. Ask them to double up on bubble wrap.
 
jvrenaudon said:
Apparently, Aston Martin used a linen tape for this purpose on their cars but I considered that this would be somewhat absorbant to moisture and best avoided. Next, I invested in the correct tool for the job of fitting the skin itself. This is a TAMA 66051 hand clamp available from Frosts and it worked a treat but you still have to be extremely careful to avoid distorting the face of the skin, remembering that aluminium work-hardens, to a degree.

It is absolutely essential that the lock aperture is in exactly the right position in relation to the door chassis and some judicious fettling of the chassis is needed to achieve this. So,too, the aluminium strengthening section which is pop-rivetted at both ends to the door chassis and to which the door-lock fixing plate bolts are secured by adhesive. Best, John
Click to expand...

Thanks for all these good tips guys...
John. I'm not sure I understand how the door lock opening could possibly get far out of position as you crimp the door skin around the frame. it seems like there couldn't be that much room for error if the panel is made well. Also, what aluminum strengthening section are you talking about? Is this an additional part that is required and supplied with the aluminum door skin, that the stock doors do not have?
 
Aluminium door skins

Tom,

Could you send me your email address please and I will endeavour to answer your questions. I have some record photographs and I have retained one of my old door skins for reference. I am at [email protected] look forward to hearing from you. John.
 
door skins

Tom,

the inner ally panel should be on your existing doors, it rivets at the front and rear of the frame and is vital for holding everything in place.

the paint shop that started on my car went bust and these panels got lost with them, it was a nightmare to find another set

mark
 
Aluminium door skins

Tom,

Daddywad is absolutely right. The new aluminium skin cannot be replaced without it as it receives the five "U" clips which fix the top edge of the skin. Furthermore, there is the curved alumininium reinforcing plate approx size 150 x 150mm with three strengthening ribs which carries the all-important fixings for the door-handle mechanism. This, and its juxtaposition with the locking mechanism and apertures in the door skin for the handle brackets, is absolutely vital. This latter plate is "glued" (black mastic originally but there is better stuff available today) to the inside face of one of three pieces of 1.5mm sound-deadening material which is first applied to the inside face of the new skin. I have photos of the assembly but am unable to place them on this forum having tried and failed several times before. Dohh! As requested before, please send me your email address and I will try to explain in full with some photos. Meanwhile, I note that Wallace & Grommit have a very attractive offer on just today for these door skinswhich, I presume, is what is prompting your enquiry.

Tell me, are you replacing the door skins on an original lightweight or are you trying to utilise the door chassis which originally carried steel door skins? John.
 
John. I have sent you an email. I would be applying these to doors that originally had steel skins. Maybe the parts you speak of were not used on those doors?.... Further up in this thread people were describing that the aluminum alloy skins were mounted to steel frames in much the same way as the alloy panels were mounted although I have no experience with this.
 
I think I misunderstood your posts a bit and I was thinking of the door latch instead of the door opener, so I was confused. The parts your mentioned are of course present on the steel doors as well, otherwise the door would have no stability. But they are made of steel instead of aluminum alloy and at least the large reinforcement piece is welded to the door skin. I consider it part of the inner door frame. The other pieces may be glued as well.
One good question is how the mounting studs for the door handle assembly, which, from memory, are welded to the door skin or the reinforcement piece, would be attached to the aluminum door skin. It probably will be clearer once I see it all in front of me, but I thought it would still be a good question to have in this thread for future reference....

Thank you very much for all of your help and I am going ahead and taking a chance with the purchase at this discounted price....
 
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Floor pans.......
They are an accurate replica without the removable twist in drain. The grooves are the correct width and depth but don't precisely match the original spacing of the factory groves.
We prefer to use these on most restorations as the large twist in plug will always be a rust trap.
If you desire more correctness, the twist in parts can still be bought, but be aware that the new ones are not a perfect match to an E9. I believe they match a mid 80's model, E30/E28. You can then modify the W&N pans to accept these pieces.
Metal quality and thickness are appropriate for the application.
I suggest buying large panels like fenders and quarter panels from your local dealer! If the part arrives damaged, don't accept it, and you don't pay freight!

We have used W&N rockers and inner pieces, all have been an accurate fit, but the primer is terrible and must be removed completely, time consuming and consequently an expensive waste of time. The metal is also thinner, so for these parts buy from the dealer!!!! The quality is worth the extra cost!

Mario L.
VSR1.com
 
I agree on primer

Mario L. said:
...We have used W&N rockers and inner pieces, all have been an accurate fit, but the primer is terrible and must be removed completely, time consuming and consequently an expensive waste of time.
Click to expand...
This was also my experience with the rear quarter panels I ordered from W&N. The primer doesn't stick well to the metal and where it scratched off rust started to show. They had to be thoroughly sanded before they could be painted.
 
Hi Mario

Good to know that the panels are a good fit as they are already on order. 25 years ago I also noticed that the plugs can easily be adapted to whatever floor pans that were available then and also that the factory plugs were a bit different from the originals. The original plugs in the car I am doing are actually still good. It was just the X grooves that had a bunch of pin holes. I was considering just plugging up the 10 pin holes, but it's never that easy to weld on rusty panels and the job always turns up more rust than expected and replacing the whole depressed pan section will be the better repair, even though I will end up selling the car when it's done... Why are you buying factory panels from W & N? They always mark up BMW parts and now I don't think they're even allowed to sell BMW parts anymore, only re-pros...
 
We avoid at all costs buying from anyone other than the factory for parts, but there are certain parts that simply are not available from BMW, and or the time to get them is ridiculous!!! To that end we plan as best possible around BMW's slow parts delivery system . .
Example is the amount of rocker panels we used in 2013 . .yet BMW NA refuses to stock any! They all come from Germany via Viking ship transport . . as in rowed across the Atlantic !

As we all know the restoration of an E9 Coupe is always an adventure with unknown surprises, and when a car is on the shop floor work flow can't be held up over a few dollars expense . . sometime we are forced to acquire parts that are readily available.

Mario L.
 
Just as follow up.... Peter and I received two sets of the aluminum door panel skins. From the looks of it they are well made and should easily fit in place of the steel door skins. Any reinforcing pieces that were discussed here are of course, also present on the steel skinned doors, except that they now need to be riveted and/or glued to the aluminum skins instead of spot welded.

The only annoying and costly thing that was unnecessary on this order was that W & N didn't write the proper US Customs HTS code on the shipping label and so US customs charged us a much higher import duty than they would have for car parts. Of course they picked machinery parts out of a hat which carry a higher import duty. And its the Gubment, so try getting you money back from them. I think I'll just take matters into my own hands and withhold the amount I over-paid from my next tax bill....
 
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