Evidently this is not too common. I finished the repair last night and thought I would post my "fix" for the archives. Each spot weld was drilled with a a 3/8" drill, just through the outer door skin, not through the component. I then cleaned up the area around each hole with an angle grinder. A dremel was used to clean up the exposed metal under each hole. Clamping the hinge assembly to the door skin, each hole was then filled using a mig welder. Surface grinding, primer and touch up with some colour match paint finished the job. Spot welds that were repaired were 4 above and 2 below the lower hinge (where it inserts into the door) and then about 8 that hold the hinge subassembly to the kick panel of the door. You can see three of the spot welds normally in the exposed metal area right at the bottom of the door ... opposite the footwell step. Kind of scary to think how a factory mistake like this would manifest itself in a more critical area of the van. I've never seen this problem in any vehicle before. |
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