LMC 77-80 door panel kit 38-2603

[DirtyLarry]

So it all started because the spring in my driver’s door exterior handle button broke. I figured since I had to peel off the door panel it was as good as time as any to refresh them. While my old panels weren’t horrible the paint was peeling revealing the saddle tan molded color beneath it and the tops of the door panels were as smooth as glass with all of the texture worn away. I recalled seeing LMC had a new tool for uplevel door panels and thought they looked pretty decent so I ordered up the set. Kit 38-2603.

So the first set arrived and I found it odd there were no peanut packing in the box, which is unusual for LMC as they tend to use more peanuts in a single box than Jiffy uses in any given year in millions of peanut butter jars. Anyway, I noticed the rivets on weather strip on LH panel had fallen off in the box but I figured, no problem I’ll just rerivet it back on after throwing a coat of my matching interior paint on the panel. So after I get it all painted I get to looking and there isn’t a rivet in the world that will work for this spot (other than the rivets factory workers in Taiwan use) without causing a fitment issue due to the tail of the rivet not going over the top of the door. Then I get to looking at the RH panel and it has a ¼ crack at the top by the door lock hole. 2 goofed up door panels!

With that I called LMC first thing the next morning and spoke with a real nice lady (LMC has always been treated me right with customer service, no complaints there) where she said no problem they will send a fresh set of panels out right away. That was on Monday morning and by Friday still no door panels so I called back and the next nice lady said they just shipped the day before (Thursday). Okay, that irked me as that was the entire reason why I called them at 8 AM on Monday morning so they would ship THAT day, if not even the next day in order to reach CO by Friday. Well, they finally arrived this past Monday.

On to the panels themselves. These panels look great! I am very impressed with their reproduction effort of the original uplevel 77-80 panels. They really look spot on. Okay, that is where the astonishment stops. The downside is they are hard plastic which can crack easy (as noticed on the first set). The hard plastic is also loud whereas the original panels were very dense without sounding “plasticy” when you tap your finger nails on them. The next disappointment is how hard they are to install. They don’t just pop on like the originals. You must really work at the top of the door panel near the vent wing to get it to snap into place and I highly doubt these panels will ever come off in one piece. I am about 99% sure these panels are 1 time use only then will need to go in the trash.

On with the pictures….

My solution to address the “plasticy” sound of the panels was to load up the large surfaces with dense foam. I cannot remember where I got this thin dense foam but it really worked out well and made a huge difference in how the panel sounds when you tap on it. I actually added more of this foam after taking the picture. 3M spray adhesive did the job to hold the foam onto the door panel.


Also sealed up the doors with heavy plastic to help keep the dust out and also help with sound. I can’t stand the sound of tinny/hollow doors when you shut them. I also drive a lot of dusty roads with this truck and keeping the door sealed really helps cut down on interior dust intrusion.


Ta, da! They did turn out nice. I wish I would have ordered a new arm rest too to complement how nice everything else looks. I found another disappointment while installing the RH panel where 3 of the screw hole bottoms at the bottom of the panel broke which allowed the screw to pull right through the panel. It did not take any effort at all to break them. It’s not like I was really cranking on the screws knowing how fragile these panels look. Luckily, I had a few tiny washers that could be put in the holes to hold it but I have my doubts on long term durability of these things. The good news is the door go thud when you shut the door. The doors sound TIGHT, just like a brand new truck (just a week prior I spent a few days adjusting the doors so between the padded, sealed door panels and perfectly aligned doors it shuts and sounds nice! I had the LH door on and off twice while adjusting the hinges and the RH door came on and off at least 4 times….what a PITA!)



So, with all that, I think these new tooled LMC 77-80 uplevel door panels are really nice looking, but that is about it. They “look” nice. Aside from the looks they are consistent with most other LMC stuff. I do appreciate the fact suppliers are trying to build the goods to keep our trucks running and looking nice and I also understand it is not always possible for them to use the same exact materials, etc. as the originals due to cost, tooling, or whatever but dang, I would like to see the people selling these panels look you straight in the eye and say they are built of high quality materials and really worth $200! I looked at a few other suppliers of door panels and it sure looks like other suppliers such as The Truck Shop are selling the exact same Taiwanese panels so these panels may not but just a LMC exclusive thing. In a pinch these panels work fine but I recommend loading up the back sides with some kind of dense material to help with the cheap “plasticy” sound to them. The foam weather stripping around the edges helps too. Without the foam and weather stripping you would hear a lot of creaking, and typical plastic itch/squeak noises. I hate noises in the interior that are not supposed to be there! OR better yet, find a decent set of OEM panels and refurbish them. I tucked my old panels away as I am almost certain they will be going back on the truck at some point. On a scale of 1 to 10… these panels are an 11 in appearance but are a 2 in quality