I actually started shopping for different door panels in the summer of 2019 and noticed USA1 Industries was advertising some pretty nice looking door panels on their Instagram feed. After several conversations with them I felt confident their panels were “different” from LMC’s and would be more along the lines of the original door panels plus they would “die” them in the special non-OEM 1978 color I wanted. I placed the order on February 10th 2020. A month passed with no updates from them, then the second month comes and I email them only to be told they’ll be done the next week as they were waiting on a couple pieces of trim. Two more weeks go by with no reply from them then finally I called them and someone actually answered the phone. Of course, the convenient excuse of the Rona had to be used but they said they should ship the following week, which they didn’t nor for several more weeks. Eventually on May 12th they arrived! 3 months it took for them to arrive from the date of order! And, I wasn’t alone as turned out USA1 has a habbit of being extremely slow with delivery the goods they sell even long before the corny virus was a thing.
So this is how they looked when I eagerly opened the box. Pretty snazzy from this angle, no?
The first thing I noticed was this big dent in the trim that had to have been there before they even shoved it in the box
Then I started noticing their fine craftmanship like this. At this point I sent them pictures of the dented piece and expressed my thoughts on their craftsmanship which the never replied nor sent a replacement.
I bet this door pocket would have stayed on a long time being so securely fastened like this
Also found the Dashtop 2424 sticker they must have forgotten to peel off, as I’m sure they don’t really want people to know they are actually buying off the shelf Dashtop door panel set for under $200, painting them then adding garnish from CounterPart Automotive and selling them to suckers like me for $800.
I was about a week away from taking off on my annual Desert Trip so I really had no choice but to toss them on and hope for the best. Well, they didn’t fit very well and the first one broke while trying to install the ill-fitting POS.
So, now what am I going to do??? I was leaving in less than a week for a week-long off-road trip and now I didn’t want the door panels I paid $800 for and waited over 3 months to get! What else was I to do, but go up into my attic and fish out the original door panels and restore those instead and that exactly what I did and they turned out great!
First round of power washing 5 years of attic dust off
Then I turned on the burner and melted off the old gray interior paint. That stuff was actually on there pretty good and took some time to get off
My old original door panels weren’t in real horrible shape, just all the texture was worn off from the top, but I had a plan
I added several light cotes of spray can bed liner to bring texture back to them
And it worked!
In the end, they turned out really nice and I have much more durable OEM door panels and not someone's overpriced junk. I could use some new door pockets though
While the paint was still drying on my refreshed original door panels, I packed up the USA1 Industries door panels for their journey back to North Carolina and let them know that I was less than impressed with their junk and wanted a refund. Knowing very well, how USA1 has treated customers by reading comments on various forums and Instagram, I contacted my Credit Card company and filed a dispute before I even left to drop the box off at UPS. I had my money back before they even got the box.
Interestingly enough, 2 weeks after the returned door panels were received by them I received an email from their customer service that they would “sent this over to the production manager to get you a replacement trim piece sent”. This was over 12 days from when I first contacted them about the dent in the trim and they were just now replying to my email!
This was my reply back…..
I’m actually dumbfounded by USA1 more and more every day. Right now, I don’t know what dumfounds me more. The fact that it took USA1 12 days to return the email I sent on May 15th or the fact these POS door panels have actually been back at your place since last Wednesday and you don’t even know it. Now that you have them, please issue the full refund per my discussion with Randy.
I actually already had my money back by two weeks by then, but they probably didn’t know that either.
All was not lost in the USA1 door panel caper though. I actually learned of CounterPart Automotive as USA1 was too lazy to remove the wrappers from the loose trim pieces they sent to so did some Googling and found the CounterPart part numbers for the door pulls, trim and arm rests and ordered them for from a different source for considerable less. CounterPart makes some really nice arm rests for 77-80 trucks! Finding those was almost worth dealing with the aggravation of USA1. Unfortuantley, CounterPart is a tiered supplier and doesn't sell directly to end users so it takes some digging to figure out who sells CounterPart and who is selling Ching Chang China's Finest Auto Parts
Long story short with all of this door panel caper is to stick with OEM parts as much as possible. The aftermarket is full of various grades of overpriced disappointments and no one really cares. Many of these vendors find it acceptable to put crap in a box and ship it out the door because if you won’t buy it someone else will. We as enthusiast have the power to determine who gets the next sale from us and I tell ya……. I will never give a gat damn dime to USA1 ever again. LMC has been on my black list for years already