Hummer door panel issues. Buddy bought an 03. The left side door panel was under the seat in pieces and the right side was in its way. Pulled it off to figure out what the problem is and repair. The area in the inside of the door where the handle bolts and the door pull attached was super flimsy. Use the door pull and it would pull the center of the door panel out almost an inch. I welded some 18 gauge sheet metal to the edge..it helped a lot but not enough. Plan B was a 13in long piece of half by half box tubing screwed to the inside between the the door pull and door handle..Plenty strong now. Fixing the cracks in in the door panel kinda easy. Grind the inside with 3in roll lock enough to rough it up. A little super glue in the cracks..I used thin/flexible. To give it some strength I used strip of fiberglass mat and epoxy. If the crack goes all the way to the edge I epoxied a strip of mat 4 in long down the edge where thr door panel fits against the door. Sand the edge to get it to blend. It doesn't seem to matter if the edge
a little thicker. repair only the inside of the crack won't last very long, I manage a m/c repair shop. I have repair at least 100 broken up sport bike fairings. Something new I tried,I used some door panel plastic, cut it up in little pieces, put it in a baby food jar that has a lid, add some acetone and let it sit overnight. The acetone will melt the plastic and turn it into glue. Apply to the outside with a toothpick and let it dry for 24 hrs. been a week since I did it and it passes the *bend it test. Buddy found a used door panel for the R/S...$300 worth. It had several cracks and major holes in the lower half where someone has hacked some major holes for speakers. Got some 22 gauge polished aluminum diamond plate drone Lowe's. Cut to fit the lower part of the panel. Drilled and countersunk holes around the outside edge to hold it on and ran a bead of silicone around the outer edge to keep it from rattling . about 10 screws total. 3 of those screws are long enough to be used to hold the panel to the door. I put a screw into the little ac vent at the front of the door and I made block off plates to fill the holes where rm switch for the seat heater used to be.
I ditched all the push clips, There are no clips of any kind holding the door panel on. They make removing the door panel a pia.
about 8 screws total to hold the door panel in. I can remove the door panel in like 3 min and no worries about damaging the door panel. Considering the price of a decent used panel.. close to a grand, fixing the panel is worth the time spent. I figure a spent close to 10 hrs in both doors and that includes the mods to the inside of the doors, gluing and painting. And for those who are not aware, you can use super glue b to attach fiberglass cloth/matt. Been to use *thin* and make sure it soaks all the way through. The thicker you apply super glue the longer it takes to kick off. You can buy accelerator for super glue and it's almost instantaneous. You can add baking soda to super glue and it speeds up kick time and gets rock hard. It's easier to add baking soda to the repair and then add the glue. Super glue and baking soda used the be approved to repair minor damage to composite propellors. And...somebody told me that super glue is actually a acient aliens product. They used to make boxes and fill them with sand and pour super glue on it. The glue made the sand as hard as a rock...hard enough to build a pyramid 😉
I will post up some pics a little later..got slow upload issues going on and I need to get to work...on the Hummer...with ac issues...damn EVAP, core is plugged solid

 

Cracked door panels are a very common on these 20 year old vehicles.

Interesting. Need photos to see how good or bad fiberglass looks on the outer side of the panels. Hard to understand from your description.

 

No glasswork on the outside. Soper glue the crack on the outside, I use thin/flexible. I get mine at Ace hardware, most decent hobby shop will have it. Open up the crack a little and put a thin bead down the crack, press together an wipe off excess. If the crack opens back up just push is closed again. That particular glue takes about 5 seconds to kick. I give it an hour and do the epoxy/glass deal on the back side. Roughen up the area about and inch wide, cut a piece of matt about the same width. I use acid brush to put epoxy on the area first, stick the matt down and add epoxy with the brush... don't try and brush it
it's more like push the epoxy into the mat until it soaks through. If you have a crack that needs to be filled find a place in the backside of the door panel you can cut some small pieces of of. Mix with acetone and let it set all night...need to mix it so it's like a thick paste...use a toothpick to apply..needs to set overnight to dry. I live I lake Havasu and the summer heat can turn plastic into powder and knowing I will end up removing the door panels sooner or later I tried to put them back on without push pins...ended up having to use 2 to hold the top on. The door pull screws hold the middle down plenty tight. Because the bottom of both panels had been hacked up with several attempts to install speakers I used some thin aluminum polished diamond plate. Ran a bead of silicon around the outside edge and used countersunk stainless screws to hold it on. The 2 on the bottom are extra long and the hold the bottom of the door panel tight to the door. Haven't driven to check for squeaks and rattles but I did slam the door shut several times and it didn't make and extra noises

 

And a pic of how I reinforced the area where the door pull attaches. Right below the blue tape are 4 screws that are screwed into a 13 in long piece of half by half box tubing and below that you can see where I welded a 3/4 inch wide piece of sheet metal to the edge of the access hole. Every time I made a spot weld I hit the weld with a wet rag when you do that it shrinks the weld a little and helps tighten the metal up...worked on a lot of doors over the years and never seen a d

oor pull attached to such a flimsy piece of metal...and no doubt it was the cause of most if not all the door panel damage

 

Thank you so much for the additional info. It is perfectly clear now what repairs you did, and exactly how you did them. Good info. Thanks!

 

Cool Cool 👍