Rusted Doors - Cheaper to fix rust or swap doors?

[sdaughtry]

My '73 (being an Illinois car originally) has rust bubbles on the bottom of each door - I have no idea how deep the rust actually is. An additional problem with each door is a previous owner installed the horizontal exterior metal door guards (the ones that would accept the brunt of a car door smacking your car door) - instead of properly filling in the holes when he/she removed those protective strips, one can clearly see (when standing at angle facing the car) where the holes were. One last problem is where the window crank handles are attached into each door panel - I purchased NOS window crank handles to replace the crummy wood handled/chrome plated abominations (that fasten with an allen head set screw) - the clips that hold the NOS handles on won't stay fastened and I had to keep the aftermarket window crank handles in place. Not 100% sure what is going on there, but the mechanic said something about the window components being stripped and the clips wouldn't stay in place, and I'm unsure what parts need swapped internally to allow me to use my NOS window crank handles.

Several years ago I purchased two gutted doors (i.e. the complete door, minus the door "guts") that stumbled across my path that were 100% dent and rust free.

The $1,000,000 question is this: is it gonna be cheaper to have the doors swapped / the door guts transferred from the old doors to the new door shells OR will it be cheaper to have the body shop repair the bottom of each door with fresh metal? Thoughts anyone?

[Carl Beck]

In or around Albuquerque - you should be able to find good rust free doors with good guts.. Even at $250.00 per door, it would be far better than keeping/fixing yours.

FWIW,

Carl B.

[5thhorsemann]

In or around Albuquerque - you should be able to find good rust free doors with good guts.. Even at $250.00 per door, it would be far better than keeping/fixing yours.

FWIW,

Carl B.

Thats a good point, buy a set complete locall and have them installed and painted. Sell your shells and rusted complete doors and you may walk away with what you want on your car and come close to a brake even point money wise. Or at least go a long way to funding the swap.

[EScanlon]

Using what you have:

Transfer the guts from your existing doors to the rust-free shells you have. You'll have to continue using the window mechanisms you have with the stripped out stems. The stems get stripped due to people forcing the window mechanism instead of adjusting/lubricating it.

Alternatively you could search for a new window crank assembly and replace your old one at the time you swap the door guts.

Or if you want to spend the money, go buy a new set of doors WITH internals and do the swap.

First option above is the least expensive.

Second option is the next highest in cost.

Last option is the most expensive... until and IF you find someone to buy the junk you're disposing of.

2¢

E

[ZCurves]

Why don't you have a body shop see what the extent of the rust is and determine if it can be stopped. If you are lucky, you'll only have to service/replace the regulators.

[Richard Oben]

Not all doors swap easily they need to be similar vintage. For example late 280 doors are different from 75 to 78 I think, we ran into this during a group project with HAZCC. HTH, Richard.