door skins, any way to change just the skin? or have to change the whole door.
and
rear quarters?
who has done this before...wondering how difficult and what advice should be noted prior to that decision...

thanks

 

I have never done this, but a body shop near me is going to cut out the bottoms of both of my doors and replace them with the replacement lower door skins that i bought from classic industries, they said both doors would probably cost less than 300 if i did the prep work(sandblasting the rust off, cleaning painting surface, etc. and let me tell you something, DO NOT WELD, use body metal adhesive, it makes an even stronger joint than a weld and is easier to work with, well that's all for my advice, good luck

 

I like to know how they get the skin off?!

 

Dang I can get rust free straight doors from local junk yards for less than 100 a pair with glass and all. They really aren't that hard to find to wanna pay that much to reskin.

 

Lucky. Up here in Wisconsin I looked at 20+ junkyard cars every one was too rusted to justify putting on my car. Craigslist parts cars weren't any better. I ended up fixing mine because it was at least rust free. I didn't need to skin it though, just major bodywork.

To the OP, if I remember correctly you need to grind off the edges of the skin and then get a scrapper in between the skin and the door breaking it free by tapping a hammer on the scrapper. Its a lot bigger pain than it sounds and you can really screw things up if you don't know what you doing. If you grind off too much metal you won't have enough of the door left to hammer the skin on to, if you don't know how to stop the fresh bare metal from rusting you'll have a rusted door again fast, if you don't hammer and dolly the skin on correctly you'll have dents all over the door, ect ect. Not a good do it yourself job.

 

pretty much an exact summary of how to re-skin a door, its a huge pain and takes a lot of skill, that's why I'm just having the bottoms of mine re-done that way the doors still line up with the fenders and everything, and they body shop doesn't have to modify anything above the body line

 

I have looked on line at some of the videos for the older cars, 70's and later and yeah...that.s how you do it.
Although i do agree, replacing the whole door does seem like a good option if you can. if you cant, the to re-skin the door is doable, just a little more difficult.

 

yes, but the issue with new doors is that after market products never, and i mean NEVER are as good as OEM, so your body gaps will be off, so since i only need the bottoms of my doors patched, I'm gonna do it, the guy at the body shop said less than 250 each not including the patch panels them selves. But if the rust is really bad and the whole door skin is shot, id just by new because you'll never get the body line perfect

 

Well when we say new door we mean a new to you replacement from another car. Not brand new door. So OEM not aftermarket

 

Yes, don't think you can find an actual new complete door.
Most of the used doors I see that have rust are still better than reskinning.
It's usually just the seam along the bottom. Sandblast or grind it off , then fill and paint.
There are many parts on third gens where you are much better off restoring your part or a less rusty used part than buying a new aftermarket.

 

Classic Industries sells actual doors for our cars, 82-92, but they are all fiberglass sooooooo..... make sure you don't slam it too hard XD XD XD

 

That's for racing applications to save weight. Not legal for street use. Without extra bracing/cages

 

in my personal experience and opinion replace the door. My car had a re skinned door by the po and it was never right. Where the mirror mounts it's a tight spot and the adhesive never would hold correctly and the body lines were off. Had two different body shops look at it and they both gave me the same advice, get another door. They also told me in the long run with cost and apparence a replacement door is the best option.

 

that sucks that you spent that money and it didn't even come out right, sorry to hear that dude, and why wouldn't the fiberglass doors be street legal, nobody would know except you if you had them painted, so when your car got inspected they couldn't tell... right?

 

The doors are a big part of the structure of the body. They also hold a crash bar to protect you in the event of a side impact.
Track cars typically have reinforced structures, and typically a roll cage with bars in place of the one in the door.

 

Exactly, fiberglass doors are illegal for street use because most street cars don't have a full cage to make up for the lack of strength from the steel door.

It wouldn't take much more than 5 miles and hour t bone to have a bumper in your lap.

The doors are also a crumple zone that take up some of the energy of an impact in a major collision, without that crumple zone on a car without a full cage the middle of the car is now the first place to squeeze together, and guess where the driver sits lol.

 

Not to mention the fiberglass doors are meant to be used with lexan or nets, not windows. Probably don't have any place to mount interior panels or trim either.

 

ohhhhhh, i see now, i didn't think anything of the reinforcements inside the doors, sorry about that..... that makes total sense

 

To chime in on the quarter panel issue - depending on where the damage is a shop can simply weld a patch. That's what was done on my car. The patch was cut from a complete quarter panel (from Goodmark).