New Doors or Not New Doors, that is the question!! Opinions PLEASE!!!

[gumbudah]

I have a pair of doors that have a small bit of rust on the inner lower door section. Here are a couple pics of the poorer of the two.




And one of the better one, which also has a few dents at the bottom.

Sooo, my thoughts:
patch panels for the one door will be about $50. I've got a fella to put them in for me which I figure will cost about $200... Totaling about $250. New doors from classic industries are $270. I'm thinking the cost will be a wash on fixing the door (s) as opposed to buying new ones (I've got an order with classic industries which I think I could have these added to so there'd be minimal extra shipping). The thing that I fear is that the reproduction doors won't fit correctly and will need to be thoroughly massaged in order to work. as well as be of generally lower quality. I'm ready to pull the trigger on ordering new doors, but I just envision having doors show up that are crap and of a poor fitment where it'll take a bunch more time to get them to fit. Pleeease comment!!!
While I'm at it, what is the difference between 67-71 doors and 72 doors...?

[Sinister]

Word is that the repop doors suck. '72 doors have a screw by the vent window to keep them together. Also the window regulator and door mechanism are different on '72 doors.

[Tim Christian]

I would use those doors you have. I like good orginal doors better than aftermarket but If they are beyond repair aftermarket is just fine.

[metalman1968]

Original sheet metal for sure. I would search for another set. Rust never dies.

[gumbudah]

Daaaang I was hoping for more votes for new doors!!! hehe... The thought of finding another set of "rust free" doors scares me... Lots of work to find them, and then no guarantee that they are "rust free" when they get here. any suggestions for online "rust free" parts?

[Number98]

As much time as you would spend "fitting" the new doors you could have repaired yours I would think.

[67_C-30]

I agree with Number98. I'd cut out that rust, weld it up and POR15 the inside and out side of the bottom of the doors and forget it. POR is good stuff. You can get it formulated that it can be painted over.

[fatboys69]

Fix the originals, put a set of repops on mine and they dont fit that great so I am going to fix my originals and put them back on.

[1970cstblazer]

The new doors are lighter gauge steel, and dent easier.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Originally Posted by Tim Christian

I would use those doors you have. I like good orginal doors better than aftermarket but If they are beyond repair aftermarket is just fine.

If you hadn't noticed... this fella is a vendor

Originally Posted by fatboys69

Fix the originals, put a set of repops on mine and they dont fit that great so I am going to fix my originals and put them back on.

Same here.

[R.L.]

Keep the originals. Just my opinion. The glass crank rubber all is made to fit or at least come close to fitting the orginal "factory" pieces.

[gumbudah]

It's decided. I'm keeping the originals. Thanks yall for the input!

[gumbudah]

Grrrr. I just dropped my tools and went in the house.

I was working on my "other" door. The one not shown above in this thread. I thought I had found all of the rust spots, made a new patch panel, put it in.... then noticed some other spots of pinhole rust!!! GRRRRR....
I really can't see a good solution here... My problem is on the inner door, so I'd like to replace that, but the repop panel I got is sooo thin I'll loose sleep over that too. It sure would be nice if they made OEM spec replacements.

The other part of my door saga is that the ones I have each have no less than 7 holes each in them from different mirrors in the past. Not tooo terrible, but man I'm gonna loose sleep over the fact that once I've welded them up, I've got to use some filler, even worse, there's a weld there, that can rust... from the back side, because I don't have good access to it.

So my options are:
1. Continue to do small patches on my doors until I've replaced all the cancerous metal. Pros:I'll have mostly new metal in the lower inner part of the door. Cons: Lots of weld that can't easily be ground and coated. Rust still continues to live between the inner door panel and the folded over door skin.

2. Replace the lower portion of the inner door, keep the door skin. Pros:New metal on the bottom inner door. While I have this panel out, I can sandblast the door skin and coat. Cons: After being put back together, I'll have a lot of weld that can't be ground on the inside of the door.

3. Replace the lower portion of the inner door and door skin. Pros. same pros as above, except now I've got new door skins, so less mud work. Cons. Will be flimsier than oem door, and it seems like a bunch of work.

4. Find other doors. This would be nice!!! One order of Pristine no rust doors please.

5. Pay someone to repair the doors I have. I don't even know if there is such an animal around here.

bleh. my brain is just sick of stewing on these doors.

[72BBB]

If your patchs are small enough just fix them i bought two new doors and one side didnt even fit because it was so screwed up. I sent the aftermarket back and using the old doors on mine