I have a 68 and the drivers side arm rest has always been loose because the long sheet metal type screws that secure the arm rest base to the inside of the door would never tighten fully. I have the door off the car now and am looking to repair the holes in the inside of the door that the long sheet metal type screws screw into. The holes are oblong and bent bent out of round......hence the looseness of the arm rest base. Does anyone have a good way to repair these holes? Did you weld in a new pieces of metal in the hole area and drill new holes or is there another way that was successfull to repair these? Thanks.

Take a paperclip and bend it in half so it makes a "U". (If the hole is really large, use a large paperclip). Insert it into the hole so half is inside and half is outside, and now you can screw the base down. Quick and easy fix.

Ed

The paper clip is a temporary fix. If you have a mig welder , I would just weld the hole up. Then grind it flat and drill a new hole.

Temporary fix if you keep removing and installing it. If you leave it alone, it'll last forever.

Ed

The screwhole probably looks like an inverted volcano. Use a hammer and dolly and lightly tap the hole back flat with the surrounding metal. If possible, I would add a few weld tacks to the hole so the screw threads have something to grab. The paperclip trick works well....for awhile. The paperclips rust out in short time.

The hammer and dolly trick worked for me like Jim said . I did'nt have to weld at all and had my arm rest off at least once since I did this with no problem's:thumbsup:

All great ideas thanks. The holes do look like volcanos but at least one has a small crack....so I think I might do a little welding as mentioned.

If going to weld, dolly in and 3 small spot welds, feed turned down, heat up around the outside edge, stiffens the metal up enough for the next 30 yrs.
Dont weld it over the hole and redrill, more work than needed.

Ever try to redrill thru a weld? Might try some new metal well nuts.