Repair or replace doors - 55/59

[Lowlyfe]

So with these trucks we find that most of our doors have rotted around the hinge pocket area leaving the door in serious repair.
As I see it, to fix the damage a guy has to cut the inner and outer door skins off and weld reproduction pieces back in place.
While I do have all the tools and have some sheet metal experience I almost feel like this job would be near impossible to get the doors to look perfect when I'm done.
On top of that, the cost of the reproduction parts with shipping vs. the cost of having a set of new doors shipped ($1200 is cheapest I've found?) I'm kind of torn on what to do here.
Both of my doors have other damage from hitting the fenders leaving the vertical edge wavy and creased which I see is somewhat common on some of your guy's trucks as well.

So those of you who faced this issue, what did you do? If you opted to repair the OEM doors, what is your skill level and how did they turn out?
If you replaced the doors with new ones, where did you get them and what was the best price?
I am confident that I can repair all other rusted areas on the truck but the doors have me a bit intimidated to be honest. Thanks for reading and any input would be huge!

[_Ogre]

New door prices are ridiculous and not in the budget of most builders
Unless that is the only rust on your truck, fix something else first
Floor, cab corner and steps are simple 2d repairs. Doors are more 3d repairs
When you do the doors make a template of the front and rear edge to match the shape

[SCHRUMGMC]

Thank the lord I'll have a local body shop to fix mine

[Lowlyfe]

I'm currently fixing other rotted areas now. Both sides of firewall and the toe boards are done, fresh air vents done, rear cab mounts are being fabbed up now. I've got the rear cab corners, front fenders, rear fenders, lower door hinge pockets and the doors to go. My steps look to be pretty solid still.
Did you rebuild your doors Ogre?

[SCHRUMGMC]

What does the cab mounts look like?

[mr48chev]

New doors run 475 each https://www.premierstreetrod.com/det..._Shell_LH.html Just for comparison on the cost of having your doors rebuilt. Around here 475 is about 8 hrs of body shop time.

I'd say it depends a lot on the quote the body shop gives you.
475 might be a lot of money to put out for someone who does 85% of the work on his/her own rig him/herself but if you are paying a shop to do the work they might get a bunch of hours in each door.

And no I'm not working for Premier Street rods no have any connection to them. I was just able to search their website and find the link for the door easily.

[Lowlyfe]

Caleb, it looked like this first


Now it looks like


A little more modifying this filler plate and it will look something like this


48 Chevy, after freight the total was about $1200. I could only imagine a shop would charge close to that just for labor. If I go the repair route, I'll end up doing the work myself but I'm hesitant to take it on. I'm hoping to hear from somebody who has done the repair with good results. I've got professional taste with intermediate sheet metal fab skills.

[_Ogre]

Originally Posted by Lowlyfe

Did you rebuild your doors Ogre?

only the bottoms, 9'' outer door skins, one hinge pocket and welded up the previous 20 mirror mount holes
my doors/cab were also deluxe trim, had to weld all the trim holes
and a few spot patches for cut holes

as for taking any bodywork to a shop... never crossed my mind, too costly for my tastes
i still consider my truk a low buck build