Thread: door skin replacement

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So im replacing the driver side door skin on my 37 chev pickup, I am learning as i go, new to body work. I plan on bonding the skin on with fusor 108b. i am having problems with the fit and alignment, How do i know if the gap between the door and cab is going be correct. I didn't want to bend the flanges around door structure yet and have to bend them back after the test fit to get the glue in. Maybe i should just weld it? Any suggestions would be appreciated by this rookie. thanks.

After you grind the inside edge of new skin ( where it will bond to the doorshell & it also should be ground ) make sure you dont have the fast dry as after you hammer the flange down , you mount the door and check the gaps as you can still move the skin around a bit for fit . you may need some paint sticks to break and use them for sticking them around the edges to hold the alignment till dry ( over night ) .

Oh and when you hammer the skin edge down use small hammer strokes and do not hold dolly flat on the back side of skin ( as it will damage the outer skin , only use the dolly on the edge of the skin as you hammer ( oh and they make a door skin hammer that works better in my opinion ) . Do not try to pound the flange down all in one hammer blow , go around it in small amounts as this will help prevent damaging the outer skin edge as you go .

There is a wonderful air tool the bends the flange down after you have the edge bent down to a certain height , but its $300.00 . One of my bodymen friends I work with has one and man he does NO damage to the outside edge of skin !

thanks, appreciate the advise.

so im still test fitting the panel, havn't had much spare time lately. I have noticed that in order for me to make this door skin fit properly i ll have to alter the flanges to keep the door gaps correct, and the skin doesn't have as much crown as the pas side. i am wondering where i could order another door skin from, that will fit better? a little bit better quality? thanks.