replace doors or replace door skins?

[bobby hill]

all 4 of my doors have dents or rust. i could replace the door skins. i know how but would it just be easier and cheaper to just go out and find 4 doors and relace them. and im gonna paint my jeep in the next couple of months any way. its a 4 door cheokee duh but if you were wondering

 

[cassio]

i guess it just depends on how valuable ur time is...

i would just get new doors...
save time..and the price diference in a junkyard wouldnt be much

cas

 

[ju$tice720]

skins are kinda a pain.. you'll want to go with some junk doors the same color if you can...

 

[XJawgi]

im curious to see where you can get skins from...im in the same boat, i have 2 solid doors though, i just dont feel like changing over all the power window stuff.

 

[XJourney]

The ONLY place I am aware of to get new skins is the Dealer. But unless you know how to do it, just get junkyard doors and paint them. Because even if you only do skins you still have to repaint the inside anyway.

 

[Darthrider]

I got Skins from JC Whitney, took forever to come in, am selling one for a 2 door to another member here, I ended up buying a replacement door because the rust went further than the skin. You will need some good torque bits to get the old doors off, they used lock tight on the bolts at the factory, unless you have a torch to really heat them suckers up, you might have to grind them off and buy replacment bolts from the dealer, at least that has been my experience

 

[dizzymac]

Full door skins, if you can find them will cost you a bundle per door. You are better off looking around junkyards,online forums, etc. and try to find some doors in real good shape,no rust.
You can get a lower 2dr skin from JCW and fulls from rockauto.com (if they still have them)
To do a full skin properly will take you 4-6 hours per door, less time if you have a "skinner", still tedious work.

 

[JeepZJlover]

Where in the hell are you getting 4-6 hours to do full doorskins. Comon i'm a bodyguy there not that hard to do grind the edges off the old one, put new one on position, glue/weld whatever, hammer and dolly edges. And run seamsealer around. whole process shouldnt take more than 3 hours.

 

[mcnamaag]

I dont know about you but to do door skins right, more work is required than that. You have to grind the edges of the old door, remove the old skin, clean up the shell, apply seam sealer, line up the new skin, weld if needed being carefull not to warp the new skin, then comes the fun part. You need to SLOWLY and GENTLY fold the door skin lip over the shell. Being carefull not to dent and ding up the new skin. Either way it usualy takes a little filler to repair any dents around the edge. then you are talking about a whole other chunk of time. I dont care how good you are or what you use to do it (hammer/dolly,edge tool,hammer and lead bean bag it all does the same thing) to make it right which is the reason you are doing it anyway it take about 4.5-5.5 hours start to finish. If you do it TAKE YOUR TIME. I have been doing body work for years and I dread doing door skins. Then you still need to prime and paint. A good solid used door would be your best bet.

 

[dizzymac]

I guess "in the hell" I got this from doing a few XJ "full" door skins. If you can do one in three hours and have it come out so as not to look like it was done as Maaco, then my hats off to you.

 

[1985xjlaredo]

Do the whole door! I just called my auto panel guy and he says that nobody aftermarket will carry the whole door. I find that hard to believe but maybe so. Good Luck

 

[Ted Young]

If new doors are comparably priced to new skins, get whole doors.

If you door frames are solid and straight and the new doors are way more expensive than skins - skin them. (Assuming you are doing this yourself and not paying for the labor).

Repairing the door frames is tough if you want them to look good in addition to being strong again. I had to fix some pretty nasty doors frames and skin them on a unit body mustang before they started reproducing the whole door assemblys for that year car.

Watch out for quality on the aftermarket body panels, though.

It may be worth trying to hunt down some nice used doors. You never know what will pop up.

 

[tommyheathers]

Like window replacement Brisbane you should hire professional to just change the door to better quality ones.