Firebird Door Skin - Reskin Your Door

Hey, sometimes stuff happens, especially to doors. Years of dorks parking their "useful transportation" too close and just plain drilling their car directly into your panels requires a new skill set, namely, doorskin repair. It's a lot easier than you think, so follow along as we cut and weld our way to a straight body using a brand-new '67 Firebird panel from Goodmark.

We began by removing the interior parts from the door, including the handle, window crank, armrest, and the door panel itself. This allows access to the inside of the door where you can remove the window glass, lock, and handle.	A track assembly retains the window glass. Remove the two window stops, then unscrew the flange from the track at the bottom. The glass (with the flange still attached) can now be removed.	Pulling door-hinge bolts can be impossible with conventional box-end wrenches and ratchets. You can purchase a set of S-shaped wrenches from your local auto parts store for $10-$20. Now's a great time to rebuild or replace bad hinges. Both Goodmark and Rick's First Generation offer replacement and rebuild components.
The doorskin comes off next. Remove the flanges on the sides and bottom of the door using an electric angle grinder or an air-powered rotary sander/die grinder.	Grind with a back and forth motion until you see a separation between the skin and the door flange. Eventually some areas will start to pop up and the skin will separate from the frame.	Now remove the concealed spot-weld on the inside of the door near the latch assembly with a metal chisel or a drill. You might have to also remove the spot-welded braces at the top of the door using a flat cutoff wheel or the edge of your grinder. Cut the outermost skin side of the braces to allow the most material to work with when you attach the new skin.
With the old doorskin shed, inspect the frame for rust. A wire wheel and a good rust-adhering coating like POR-15 and some paint works well for repairs. Now remove the remaining flange strips. You can break the spot welds with a metal chisel. If you run into a stubborn weld, you can drill it out. Be careful not to distort the perimeter of the doorframe, which will make finishing the doorskin tough.	Place the new doorskin on a clean shop blanket and inspect it for damage. Most mail-order companies will not take something back once you've signed for it.	Center the skin over the doorframe and begin folding the new flange around it by using a hammer and dolly. It helps to pad the dolly or to use one made of rubber. Start in the center of each side and work toward the outside in each direction. Don't hammer the flange flat in one pass. Instead, gradually flatten the flange with three or four passes.