Door Rebuilds

[Bow Tie Scottie]

I am interested to find out from those who might have done them. What pointers can you give, what steps and in what order to do them, what materials are required and what traps you have come across?

Basically, I would like to replace the weather stripping, interior door locks, window handle and replace all moving parts. I am not concern about repainting at this time, but that could change once I get inside. I would also repair any trim; haven't decided on custom trim yet.

[lilpoindexter]

I used a hoist to hold the doors when I did the hinges. The vent window rubber can be a little frustrating because of the funky little rivets. I bought all my rubbers from Classic Parts. I think the rubber was stamped "made in india" but it fit ok. I never did get my doors aligned right after all the work...I don't remember how the doors fit before the rubber and hinge changes, but I think the door alignment probably wasn't that great to begin with. I bought door panels from Classic Industries because I thought maybe the old door panels would bust, but they didn't. I did not really like the color of the replacement door panels...more of coffee with creamer color, than tan, like the original panels.

[tucsonjwt]

I would spend the extra $$ on GM OEM rubber for your doors. I got my rubber, run channels, felts from Ebay made in Taiwan and they did not fit well. You can "restore" your interior panels with some cleaner and a couple cans of SEM interior paint for cheap - driver quality result. If you plan a show quality truck, then prepare to spend big bucks on the door panels. I got a local upholstery shop to replace the velour cloth insert with vinyl and recover the carpet panels on the bottom of the doors for about $45 - just driver quality but OK for my work truck. I used JC Whitney door pulls to replace the stock Silverado ones - actually stronger than stock with a metal reinforcement, but obviously not stock appearance, but much cheaper. See pics.
I don't have a hoist so I am planning to use a homemade 2x4 framework to hold the door to change the hinges - will post when complete.

[bucannon]

i would like to do this as well. any tips for us guys with roll up windows

[motornut]

helpfull hints
to line up/reinstall the doors that were removed
drill a small hole or two threw the hinge and into the body(before removing)
put a nail in this when reinstalling,to line it up,as it was

the newer vents have locks
older glass is thicker
older door rods have metal clips,newer plastic,they don't interchange
put a lock popper in the door while building,if you use it then you just put the rod in
make sure all the mirror/door supports are in there(hate driving with shakey mirrors)

[TDS-MN]

i know some may bag on them, but the Haynes manual has the step-by-step process, and it is not a bad reference. It's what i used when I swapped my internals into a door shell I got from the salvage yard.

I didn't need hinge pins, and was lucky enough to be able to leave my hinges in-place, so I didn't have much work required to re-align the door to the cab.

I struggled a bit to get the operable glass onto the regulator properly. Not sure I'm qualified to give any tips on this task, but after enough tries, finally got it to work. Had to muscle and twist the vent window assembly into place after, since that also sevres as the front track for the operable side glass. I ended up using the motion of the window to install the weatehrstrip down into the front channel, lots of cranking the window up and down, but every down stroke pushed the weatherstrip further along the channel quite nicely.

I utilized the latch and regulator that were in the door shell I had, so no experience installing either of those. Did swap over all glass, tracks, and lock. installed the weatherstrip channel obtained via JC Whitney, and it fit very well. My window never worked as well as it does now, not sure how much of that to attribute to the manual regulator itself, or the weatherstrip channel being new and soft.

I'd be happy to try and give answers if you have any specific questions, but overall the process was not that bad. Biggest struggle I had was getting the vent window assembly in after the side glass was in-place in the door. But it has to be done in that step, otherwise you cannot move the side glass enough to get in onto th regulator. I'll admit I almost gave up a couple times, but all of a sudden it just 'clicked' for me, and came together.

Wishing I would have taken the time to snap some pictures, but I was mostly concerned with getting it done. If I end up having to do the same on the other door, I will take some pictures to document better.