How thick is the metal on the body of a car?

It's for the doors on my 63 Dart. I'm going to do some rust repair, and i'd like to get the metal first, and I want to know how thick to get. Thanks.

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1963 Dodge Dart -225 Slant 6, 904, 2.76's, 18.84 @ 73
1970 Nova 12.53@108
1970 Bug 15.38@87

most american cars use 22 ga all older cars have the same thickness regardless of what you have heard.

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Part of Tyrde-Browne Racing

thanks. I wanted to buy the metal first, and I didn't know what thickness to get. Thanks again.

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1963 Dodge Dart -225 Slant 6, 904, 2.76's, 18.84 @ 73
1970 Nova 12.53@108
1970 Bug 15.38@87

I beg to differ, unless there's some sort of difference in gages (Slant Six Dan might know if there's such a difference)

your car should have 20 or 18 ga steel. You don't wanna do rust repair and welding with thin gage sheet metal, it will warp like crap and you'll never get it right without massive amounts of bondo.

I'll use 18 ga AT LEAST for exterior doby panels, 16 ga for floors, undercarriage, etc.

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Juan Ignacio Caino

Please use e-mail button istead of PM'ing. I do log in sometimes but I'll be answering quicker thru e-mail.

Well, here is my 2 cents. Many of the "replacement" patches that are already pre-stamped vary from 18 to 22 gauge. It seems like the ones that are E-coated are thinner than the bare metal ones for some reason. I don't know if it is because of where they are stamped or ??? but that seems to be the case.
When I form my own exterior metal patches, I use 20 gauge. It is easier to work with than 16 or 18 gauge. On floor pans I use 18 gauge.
The comment was made about warping... well in all honesty if you weld correctly there should never be any warping or at least minimal warping that can be straightened out with a hammer and dolly.
As far as all cars using 22 gauge... I would agree that most of the old iron I work on isn't any thicker (or much thicker) than cars up into the '80's. If I had to guess I would say that they used somewhere around 19-20 gauge. Todays cars, that is a completely different story. Some are pretty thin!

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Chris'
Autobody
Restoration
Service