Is it difficult to replace the doors on a thirdgen? The cloth on one of the door panels is torn, and the bottoms of the doors are developing a rust problem. Has anyone here ever undertaken the task of replacing them?

 

Swapping the whole door isn't bad. If I remeber right, it's only like 6 bolts and 1-3 wires to unclip. Lining the door back up is the not so fun part.

 

Door panels can be replaced without replacing the door.

I replaced my '86 doors because they were completely rusted out at the bottom. The outer door skin on the driver's side wasn't touching the inner door skin!

Anyway, I had two doors from my '84 parts car that were in great shape. They had manual windows; I had power windows in my '86. I had to put my power windows into the '84 doors...

Nightmare! 82-84 internals are of a completely different design (other than the glass & window sash -- steel panel riveted to window glass). However, all the holes in the door frame are the same. I had to remove all the internals from both doors, then put the '86 internals into the '84. Then I had to align everything to do with the window system- and the passenger side still won't align perfectly.

If you find doors with power windows in 'em already, you won't have to worry about that. You might have to align the window mechanism to the weatherstripping, though.

KS91Z28's right about the bolts (hinge to body). They allow for a small adjustment. This might be a good time for you to replace the hinge pins on the replacement door anyway, to prevent future door sag.

I should've done it; but I was too damn tired of bodywork, and just wanted the car back together so I could get it painted. I'm kicking myself for not changing that door pin on the passenger side. Why does everything happen on the passenger side? "Nice car! (slam)" "Um, thanks, uh, you need to slam the door harder, it won't close." "Oh. (slam)" "Uh, it's still not closed." "Oh."


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-Tom P (Hot rodded 1986 Firebird 2.8l) from http://www.f-body.net/mailbag/3rd/3rd_mailbag.html message boards
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