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

[carboncrew]

Thats a good write up. It's a bummer when your spending good money on something and be disappointed. I ran across that with repop'd stuff too.

They look really good intalled though.

[motornut]

good info,they look really good

[dieseldawg142]

i almost bought some door panels from lmc, but their crazy shipping charges deterred me.
they look nice even if it was a pia to get there. those map pockets look real clean too, they new or you just clean them? it's amazing what a diff putting some sound deadner in these doors make! nice euro sounding clunk when you shut the door

[DirtyLarry]

Originally Posted by dieseldawg142

i almost bought some door panels from lmc, but their crazy shipping charges deterred me.
they look nice even if it was a pia to get there. those map pockets look real clean too, they new or you just clean them? it's amazing what a diff putting some sound deadner in these doors make! nice euro sounding clunk when you shut the door

Oh, about those map pockets and door panel trim pieces. Those are not included with the LMC door panel kit. Those items came off of my old door panels and I cleaned them up and repainted them. The map pockets themselves I got back in the 90’s at an old dime store parts store chain called Western Auto, which become Advance Auto. They were in the HELP section back then. The passengers door pocket actually has a little hole in it but you can’t see it although you can hear pocket change hit the floor every now and then

[walkerb]

Thanks for the write up. You made them look good.

[1774btcrew]

I would like to know how these are holding up after all of this time.

[tucsonjwt]

I cleaned up my original 83 Silverado door panels and sprayed them with SEM paint for a cheap conversion to a new color. The paint does tend to rub off around the wear areas, but touch up is easy with leftover paint. The cost was aabout $40. Good used panels are available on Ebay or CL.

[1774btcrew]

I need the correct year for my truck. I have several nice newer style pairs but want to keep it looking original

[DirtyLarry]

Originally Posted by 1774btcrew

I would like to know how these are holding up after all of this time.

So far so good but if I ever need to remove the door panels for any reason they'll have to go in the trash as they are pretty much onetime use only. Cheap LMC Taiwanese garbage built so cheaply they will get detroyed trying to come off the first time. I would not buy these again. They are noisy too with itches and creaks even if you as much as look at them. I'll just refurb my originals when I get some time

[1774btcrew]

Have they seemed to warp or get waves? I know some of the first ones they sold ended up looking really bad pretty quickly with the AZ heat. I appreciate your input!

[DirtyLarry]

Originally Posted by 1774btcrew

Have they seemed to warp or get waves? I know some of the first ones they sold ended up looking really bad pretty quickly with the AZ heat. I appreciate your input!

No, mine is garaged all the time except when its roaming around the AZ/UT deserts or CO mountains so no warping or anything like that. They still look great, just make a lot of cheap noises

[DirtyLarry]

Well, it’s been a solid 6 years since I installed these LMC door panels and wanted to give an update.

So, a couple years ago I noticed some cracking appearing in the door panels then before long more cracks appeared and they began making even more ugly cheap plasticy itching noises than usual. As I looked closer at them it was obvious they just needed to be replaced.

Here are the panels before I tore them off. And as I suspected back in 2016, these panels definitely would be a once time use only kind of thing because they break even further when removing them from the doors. Keep in mind, this truck lives in a temperature controlled garage year around aside from when it makes its journeys out for the yearly Desert Trip, Fishing trip, etc. I would imagine LMC’s door panels would have held up even worse on a truck that lives out in the elements year around. In the end, I took them off and threw them in the trash. Of course, I peeled off all the original trim I moved from my original door panels to these before these went into the dumpster.














In true LMC fashion, they really try to do a good job with customer service to make things right but the reality is, I just didn’t want anymore of the garbage they sell. I’d rather comb the junkyards and restore OEM bits than use any of their Taiwaneseium garbage.


To be continued….

[DirtyLarry]

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

[dieseldawg142]

wow...what a big-ass waste of money the aftermarkets were...
here i thought i was cheaping out spraying my OEM's with SEM, cause $1500 for new panels was a little tuff to swallow (crewcab)
after 5 or 6 yrs, the only thing i have noticed is some small rings around the window crank escutcheons if you look at it from the right angle.
i'm really digging your re-textured idea, my front panels are also a little smooth, and got a few minor screwdriver scratches when my son was peeling off the old winda seals.
be curious to see how it holds up, as i'm considering re-spraying mine maybe this summer.
and un-belivable that they would crack all up wit your rig in a garage- wonder what would happen to them on a rig that sits outside 24/7 365...

[Katrina/10]

I have been hoping that someone was making a decent aftermarket door panel. i guess not.

[blazer2007]

I cleaned up my old panels and made my own door pockets, super easy and took a hour. A piece of 1/8 plywood and some material sew a couple pleats with some elastic anf stapled and glued to the wood after wrapping the wood with material

[truckin 79]

I thought my USA 1 panels were pretty nice and fitment was right on. I do think they are kind of expensive for black panels that are just painted the color you want. Sorry to hear about your experience

[hatzie]

If the door pocket vinyl is in good condition with stretched out elastic you can replace the elastic cord.
Low temp high grade vinyl is definitely available from a fabric store. The girls working there may be able to help you track down the elastic cord. You can find flat and round elastic cord.