dennis carpenter door skins

[rhyne]

trying to make a decision on buying door skins, or removing the skins from a donor. I purchased some from LMC but found them to be lacking the pronounced curvature of the “bump”. it had no definition. has anyone purchased skins from DC and is the shape well defined or would i do better using an original skin?

[cep62]

If you're talking about the half door skin ? , I haven't seen that particular part , but I've seen similar.

Those are one step better than making your own patch. if you only need the bottom you can trim them down and make them work.
if you plan on splicing in above the bump , you'll probably have a layer of filler over the whole door any way, so you can make the "Bump"
as defined as you want.
As for finding a used skin, look for a good used door. skins aren't made to come off and go back on.

Post some pictures of your doors so we can see how bad (or good) they are.

[jzjames]

Unless you have damage all over the “bump” part of the door skin, you can use doorskin bottoms - the bottom curvature of the door that goes about 9” up from the bottom. That takes care of the rot that forms in the bottom door corners.
Those would be easier to install and cheaper. I got a pair from Blue Oval Truck Parts and they were pretty good.

[rhyne]

i have ‘67 doors that i want to keep true to the truck. i’ll spare the details but as they sit now, outer skin cut off at the bump. the rest is rust free. i had picked up another set of doors i believed to be in better condition to use but we’re later found to have the same lower corner rot. weighing my options out, i am not satisfied with LMCs outer skins, thought DC may be higher quality because i know the cab mounts they offer are. I saw a thread here on the sight where a gentleman used a donor door and removed the outer skin from it. Cant go wrong with OEM right? in short i’d use the DC if it’s equal to the OEM and save the trouble of skinning the doors myself.

[rhyne]

jzjames yes if i use the skin off the donor doors i will have to use the 9” skin or possibly a section from the original doors. but again the patch panels i’ve received are a bit flimsy.

[jzjames]

So is the horizontal “bump” on your doors shot?
I totally get your wanting to keep the original doors and restoring them. Just do your best job on them and you’ll be satisfied. Don’t be too fussy. As I said, the BOTP doorskin bottoms I got were totally acceptable. There was some fitting to do on the overall width of the things as it looked like they were stamped to fit right OVER the original sheet metal - and I needed them to have the exact width.
Otherwise the flaps just folded over the inner frame of the door. Good luck with it.

Edit; ok I see you’ve already cut off your lower sheet metal so, you’re locked into full doorskins now?
Can you put up pics?

[rhyne]

yeah i’ll try to get some pics up tomorrow. there was no damage to the bump, i started out with a 9” patch, warped the panel petty good, decided on a full skin to avoid more warpage, thinking any imperfection would be better hid behind the trim for the bump. plus i would have better access to coat for rust. maybe not the best idea but made sense at the time. looking over one of the doors from the extra set i have, the door made it’s own decision for me ...there is so much rot in the lower skin i would just be making a Frankenstein panel i’m afraid. so i’m going to order DC skins and hope they are better than the LMC.

[rhyne]

here’s the doors as they sit today

C7C7191A-79B2-4A21-AE7F-9B857B6AD6A5.jpeg

[jzjames]

Good. Let us know how DCs doorskins work out.

[rhyne]

ok so i got the skins from DC today. very disappointed they are identical to the ones from LMC. attached is the profile of an OEM door and then the skin. i guess i’m back to skinning a oem door or coming off big bucks for a rust free set if they can be found.

F534AD84-24D3-4C9C-B771-6225DEF11EEB.jpeg

EAD9AF13-93F0-43D4-9E6C-DD09FB7A3E39.jpeg

[jzjames]

Baaah!
Not surprising. If your fabricating skills are good looks like you’ll be using original sheet metal.