Repair a rotten defender or series 3 door frame!

I recently bought a 110.  There were a few significant welding jobs to be done.  Firstly, I had to decide if I should replace or repair my defender door.  The steel frame was rusty (completely rotten) at the bottom.  The deciding factor for me was the price of a reasonable second hand replacement.  In my opinion, they cost silly money so I was left with no choice but to try and effect a repair!  I am no expert, nor am I a mechanic.  The end result isnt the prettiest of things but it is hidden by the door card on mine and is now doing its job nicely!   

I bought the frame repair section from www.yrm-metal-solutions.com who were very helpful!

The alluminium skin is folder around the door frame.  You need to carefuly lever this up and then cut out the rotten bits of the frame.  I cut my frame out with an angle grinder.  I placed some thin steel plates between the door frame and skin to prevent me damaging the skin with the grinder.  In the main this worked.  I did damage one edge slightly but nothing a bit of filler didnt sort out!  Once you have cut away the frame, you need to clean the skin as best as possible.  I ended up with something like this!

I cut the frame bits to size from a length I bought from ebay for about £15.  Once I had laid them out and were satisfied with the sizes, the door frame rebuild began.  I coated the skin with a heavy dose of sikaflex type stuff to try and stop the two metals touching and prevent (as much as possible) the bimetallic corrosion.  The new door frame bits were welded to the existing oor frame using a mig.  We managed to do the lot leaving in the window glass etc.  you may wish to remove!  The door skin was then carefuly tapped back down to rap around the door frame repair piece.  The last few pictures below show the rebuild and the end result!.  

Door frame being welded 

Getting there!