Repairing screw holes in doors.

[tel76]

I have been trial fitting the chrome to the door shells from my box of parts and also parts that i have had to obtain.
All the parts had been removed from the door shells by the PO and on trying to fit the chrome useing new screws obtained from MB i found that several had oversize holes,there were old screws broken in and some of the chrome i had bought the holes would not line up.
As Joe and Alfreds suggestions would not work due to the size of the holes another solution had to be carried out,the following is what i have done.

  1 - I obtained from ebay several 6mm cap headed ALLOY 2inch long bolts,one bolt is good for approx: four holes.
  2 - Drill the hole and useing the taper tap screw in the tap 1/2 way,this produces a nice slightly undersized thread.
  3 - Put some loc-tite in the tapped hole and on the screw in the area where the bolt will end up, screw in the Alloy bolt,when you are sure it is in the correct distance cut it off
       with a hacksaw,some of the bolts i screwed in from inside.
  4  - Mount your chrome in position and use a drill bit that is the size of the hole in your chrome,drill to make a good centre and then use the correct drill bit to make the hole for
        self tapping screw.
I used the above to relocate the screws that were badly lined up due to the replacements that i had bought not lineing up correctly.
I will ask Alfred to post two pictures that should help.
{Photos added Feb. 4, 2013}
  

[ja17]

Nice solution Eric!

[w113dude]

Good trick Eric,

I was wondering how I would go about putting all those chromes back in place with oversized holes & looking straight.

[tel76]

Shaun,
I did them one at a time, ie i fitted the chrome piece with the oversized screws, removed one and then drilled that hole,removed the chrome and completed the tapping process.
Refit the piece, drill the new hole and fit the screw,remove new screw,fit the piece,new screw and the oversized ones,remove one oversize one and start all over.
Very time consuming but you get there in the end.

[w113dude]

Eric,

Thanks all noted, To me these last chrome details are most important, it shows attention to detail more than a lot of other pieces on the car as defects in appearance can be seen from far away. I have seen so many cars that owners have spent a lot of money and fail in this particular task.