After- Market Body Panels..... Any BODY men there?

   / After- Market Body Panels..... Any BODY men there? #1  

Boeing

Platinum Member
Joined
Sep 14, 2010
Messages
615
Location
Botetourt, Va
Tractor
kubota L3010
Guys,
My old trusty '75 Blazer had some serious rust....rear quarter panels, doors, tailgate...... I ordered new replacement doors and quarters from LMC Truck. The TAILGATE was located in a salvage yard in Nevada (no rust)
The REPLACEMENT panels/doors are extremely THIN, so thin that a firm THUMB would make a dent. You can see a dent on the drivers door top just from pulling the door closed by the top....Not much I can do for the doors 'cause there is a windup glass inside.
I'm thinking about adding "tubes" of steel, (pipes?) between the outer skin and the inner panel of the QUARTER panels. That would transfer an external blow to the tube and onto the inner panel making to much less susceptible to a dent..........or so my devious mind thinks.
Anyone have any suggestions.....before I spend money for the paint job?
Thanks
 

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   / After- Market Body Panels..... Any BODY men there? #2  
I wonder if you can add fiber reinforced fiber glass to the backside of the panels
 
   / After- Market Body Panels..... Any BODY men there? #3  
That is a fact of life. The skins are all thin now to save cost,and to improve fuel mileage. My old pick up trucks you could bounce firewood off the sides when loading and no damage done. you could put a 2x6 on the tailgate and ride your motorcycle into the truck bed. No longer. If I was doing it I would lay chopped fiberglass mat full of resin,and back that up with a door panel insert made out of another old door or car hood. Rustproof as needed. Looked at the pictures and it looks like a very nice unit in the making. Congrats.
 
   / After- Market Body Panels..... Any BODY men there? #4  
First thing I would do is leave a one star review for those panels.

It's hard to imagine that much damage from just closing the door, even slamming it hard for that matter.
 
   / After- Market Body Panels..... Any BODY men there?
  • Thread Starter
#5  
I was shocked, DT.......The inner door panels are not installed yet....I wanted to paint the doors to match the truck BEFORE I put the panels back on (window winders, armrests, speakers etc) so I had been guilty of just pulling the door closed by grasping the top center of the door......as you can see, it's too thin. I thought and thought about how to strengthen that section.....a rod run fore and aft on the inside, an additional metal angle welded and smoothed with bondo on the outside, etc......none of my ideas are good. bummer
 
   / After- Market Body Panels..... Any BODY men there? #6  
spray foam or some sort of 2 part expandable close cell foam. might work. it would fill in the entire void. the only issue, is applying to much foam. and causing the panels to bulge out.

fiberglass / resin might work. but find yourself a thicker rubber balloon maybe. to slide in, and inflate it. so it puts positive pressure to sandwich the fiberglass/resin against the paneling as it cures.
 
   / After- Market Body Panels..... Any BODY men there? #7  
If that door buckled from pulling it shut (which I don't believe) then throw them in the scrap bin & get decent ones.
 
   / After- Market Body Panels..... Any BODY men there? #8  
I did a lot of work on an '89 a few years back and got all my panels from a local shop. The all seemed pretty decent and I didn't have any problems with them; but dont recall what brand. For doors I looked for a good setof used because I did read up on horror stories of aftermarkets. I did have to put new lower skins on the ones I got, but that wasn't too bad. I removed the everything behind the firewall including the tailpan. Maybe check with one of your local suppliers??
 
   / After- Market Body Panels..... Any BODY men there? #9  
I used aftermarket GM parts for years, The edges were sharp and the metal thinner than OEM but I never had any serious problems with them denting as you describe...That door has to be seriously out of adjustment to require that kind of closing force.

If memory serves, the brand was Dundee (I think)
 
   / After- Market Body Panels..... Any BODY men there? #10  
All the aftermarket pieces are going to be thinner than OEM. Cheaper to produce, ship, and sell. A OEM door ( if you can find one will be 5-600.00. Made in China maybe 2-300.00
 
 
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