Door skin removal (72 Duster)

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howco4

howco4

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The door skin on my 72 Duster needs replacing. I have a good door from a 73 to use as a donor skin. The main obsticle seems to be : how to get the skin off at the top of the old door. The 73 door has a plastic piece of decorative trim that can be removed, exposing the folded lip of the skin. The 72 uses part of the inner door structure as the upper trim, (no room for the chisel). I could cut and do a butt weld at the top, but would rather not weld if I didn't have to. Anyone?
Howard
 
Without welding? IMO that's not going to happen.

If it were me doing it, I'd take a cut off wheel and slice the doors in half, legnthwise, trying to cut under where the door weatherstrip goes. Use a marker, draw lines. Do it exactly the same on both doors keeping in mind to add one blade width to one side when cutting/marking. Then reassemble the good pieces n tack/butt weld away.

Hope this helps. Eric
 
I,m going to go out and stare at the doors for a while today. Your concept seems to be a logical one. Taking this further, might be able to cut out the inner top portion down to below the door handle and armrest, and then cut across the inner middle part of the door leaving much of the weld hidden under the door panel. Thanks for the good input. Howard
( I'm really trying to finish my Swinger, but I can't seem to leave this project sit).
 
there is only welds in the corners on the top of the skin. there is no welds across the top.grind the inside lip to find the spot weld and drill them out. you will have to peel the lip on the skin over very carefully so you dont crease the outside of the skin. it takes some time but its not that hard.i skinned both my doors one with a used skin and one with a nos skin they both came out real nice.

RIM00004.JPG


nosdoor.jpg
 
I'll remove the skin from the 73 door first. This should give me a better prespective of of how Chrysler attached the skins. Then I will tackle removing the skin from the 72 door. I'm sure it will get interesting, ( will probably invent some new cuss words).
Howard
 
i would do the 72 skin first since you have to replace it anyway if ya screw that one up it won't be so bad
 
Looking at the 73 skin, it doesn't have the same obticles to taking it off as, as with the 72, that has the top lip concealed by the door inner structure. I'm usually pretty careful about these things. Howard
 
This is likey a dumb question but why dont you just switch doors ,if your donar door is good isn't it easier to just change you trim
 
Included pic's of doors. Note difference in door from 72 vs 73. Top of 72 door is part of the formed inner shell. Top of the 73 door is part of the removable door panel. (Hope the pic's work???)

Duster Door (647 x 342).jpg


Duster Door 73 (610 x 306).jpg
 
greg340 had the best info.
I looked at a wrecked door I have, and the top appears to simply hang. There were a couple of welds near the top.
Production body shops would grind the edges off of the door of the door that is getting the new skin. then the folded over lip could be easily removed. As for getting the salvage skin off the donor door(assuming that you are throwing away the rest), you could chisel around the inside(or use a cut off tool) making sure you don't bang into or cut through the skin you're saving(cut into the door parallel to the skin). Then trim the leftover metal. You could gently bend one of the "new" skin edges and put over the original door frame.
 
I have one last ace in the hole. I've located a parts car on Craig's List, and will be going after it tomorrow. I'm hoping it has a good door, (got the car pretty cheap???). I will skin the door, if the car doesn't have a good one. The duster has very little bondo, so I'm trying to keep it that way. The only welding I will have to do is at the bottom of the qtr pnls, and drivers side floor pan.
Howard
 
I need a part off your 73 door window set up. It is a small bracket that holds the white nylon roller the attaches the window to the door track. Can you help me?
 
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