1940 sedan, different door?

Hal Beatty

Hal Beatty

Senior Member
I'm finally in the process of getting the glass installed in my long-term project Two-Many Door Sedan and have run into this issue. I've owned this car for 49 years now and never noticed this until I was installing the new glass run in the front doors. The picture is of the passenger front door in the area where the front window glass channel attaches. As you can see there is a recess in the outer door skin! The driver side door does not have this issue... Anyone hazard a guess as to what is going on here? Looks like I'm looking for another door...
 

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If that was mine, I would weld a piece of large wire like coat hanger size in that depression and grind it down. it would be invisible. I would think a fuzzy strip goes along there anyway.
 
Yeah, I wish I had noticed this before the car was painted. Haven't decided what I'm going to do about it yet and it's too cold to be working out in the garage this week. To me this looks like the door was built this way at the factory and I'm wondering why...
 
I would make a specialized tool and try to straighten it in place (since it seems the car is already painted). Maybe a short steel bar with a hacksaw slot in it the depth of the flange and a provision to hold it in place and carefully hammer it forward to force the metal back. Or, maybe a special constructed pry tool that would grab the metal tightly so it could be bent back in place. Or, maybe a combination of the two. That looks like a minor ding and since it is bent on the inside, the repair doesn't have to be perfect, especially since it will be covered with the window "fuzzies".

Since there is apparently nothing else wrong with the door (since it has been painted), I would do everything I could to fix it and avoid replacing the entire door.
 
If it wasn't noticed before and will be covered anyway, why mess with it? There's about a 99% chance you will only make it worse!
 
Supposed to be like that. It's clearance for the stainless at the front of the glass. I'd be more concerned why the driver door doesn't have the depression. It should be there too.
 
alchemy said:
Supposed to be like that. It's clearance for the stainless at the front of the glass. I'd be more concerned why the driver door doesn't have the depression. It should be there too.
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And the winner is???
Alchemy has this one 100% correct.
 
alchemy said:
Supposed to be like that. It's clearance for the stainless at the front of the glass. I'd be more concerned why the driver door doesn't have the depression. It should be there too.
Click to expand...
Absolutely correct.
 
There was a change from sliding glass vent to vent wing windows. The recess is likely due to the divider channel for that door. It's hard to tell them apart otherwise.
 
Correct. My '40 has that depression on both front doors to accommodate the stainless window divider's up and down movement. Perhaps your drivers door is off of a '39 which didn't have the vent window.
 
Ok, now we're getting somewhere... maybe a '39 door snuck in there. I've got the window in place in the passenger door and there's a large gap between the fuzzy strip and the stainless window divider at that point, so I'm going to have to fill it somehow to prevent water from getting in. No problem on the driver's side door, everything fits as it should. Sounds like I'm going to look at '39 doors to see what the difference is... Interesting as all of the original glass out of this car including both door windows and vent windows has been dated 3-40 on the bug.
 
You'll get water in the doors no matter what you do. It's why the doors have drain holes.
 
Yeah, I expect I'll get some water in the doors. As TJ pointed out, these things are not tightly sealed. But with the window rolled up in the passenger door I've got a 3/16" gap between the fuzzy strip and the stainless window divider... somehow it just doesn't look right to me.

Thanks for the help guys!
 
I find this thread interesting. I have a 67k mile mid year production 40 coupe and neither door has the depression on the outer part of the opening shown on the sedan door in this thread. Is the coupe vent window in the garnish and door glass so different it doesn't need this depression? The coupe door glass has a stainless piece on the front edge which I would think is the same as a sedan. My dent free, rust free car I removed from a garage where it sat since 1957 and shows no sign of ever having any bodywork done.
 
deuce_roadster said:
I find this thread interesting. My dent free, rust free car I removed from a garage where it sat since 1957 and shows no sign of ever having any bodywork done.
Click to expand...

So do I. I have almost all the service records for my sedan from July '41 on and they mention repairs to both rear doors (damn suicide doors) and the trunk lid/tail pan area. Nothing about front doors ever being worked on; and I can find no evidence of damage or repairs to either side of the body in the area of the front doors. Now I'll be eyeballing every '39 and '40 front door I come across from here on out...
 
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