Anyone have any experience with the door skins or whole door shells for a 68? I have some rust on the skins of my doors but the frames look to be ok or repairable. I have no experience with putting skins on so I was leaning towards the shells just for simplicity but then I am worried about fitment of the reproduction shells, and the extra cost to buy the panels that I could use elsewhere on the project. I have always heard that you are better of repairing original metal if possible and just wanted some feedback on others experiences one way or the other on the doors.

I got repo doors for my 67 and ended up sending them back. They could have been "made to fit" but I didn't want to spend the $$$ and time to get them to work. I ended up finding some really nice doors that were reskinned with NOS skins. I see NOS skins for sale from time to time.

I'm super picky and a lot of people have had more luck w/the repo doors than I did.

Often when the skin is gone, the frame has issues too. You may want someone that has reskinned doors before to give you their opinion on your door frames.

I would re-skin. I used the 68 door shells and there was alot of fitting required especially on the drivers door...pain in the $ss.

re-skinning is not a big deal. You will pay quite a bit for the shell doors anyways.

Skinning doors takes a little time. You will be drilling out spot welds. A door skin tool can be purchased at eastwood Co. which can come in handy. The main thing is to start from the front and work back. Make sure the front is pushed all the way forward to meet the old shell you are tacking the skin to. I have a friend who didn't align his door skin well and the skin had to be redone. I would say 3-4 hours per door would be the longest it would take to get the job done. You will have to do a little trimming and massaging like any other reproduction parts. I didn't use NOS skins, I just used the standard repro.

Grab a black sharpie and make markings on the shell of the car so you know where certain seams or bodylines should meet with the new skin. I wish I had some good pictures of doing this but I didn't take any.



My next camaro project will be a step by step well documented how to type pictures, that way it can help others as well as show the work done on the car.

I too would reskin if your frame is good. I just put a new Goodmark left shell on my '68 and it's not bad for a repro part. OEM is always better though.

new shell.....between the time and $ with the body shop,seemed to make more sense...but, i am not a body guy...goodluck

Skin it , if you can . i had BIG problems with both doors for my 67 , alot of cutting and welding to make fit , i thought it would be eaiser to swap out doors with new . man was i wrong , im currently talking with classic industries trying to get some kind of $$$ from them , because the doors were so bad.

I would re-skin them, hang the skin with the frame hung, make it fit the fender edge and get that gap right, or as close to 3/16's as possible. Don't worry about the rear gap as long as your rocker gap is nice and even. Once you have the front & rocker gap set and as close to perfect as possible tack the skin in place. Then shut the door, if you need to remove some skin to get the Qtr gap right tape off what you need to, and cut it off and weld the seam. If the gap is to wide or un even use a 3/16 rod and weld it to the skin edge and grind it back to get the perfect gap, it's not that hard and with most repo skins your going to have to do either or.

Skin it , if you can . i had BIG problems with both doors for my 67 , alot of cutting and welding to make fit , i thought it would be eaiser to swap out doors with new . man was i wrong , im currently talking with classic industries trying to get some kind of $$$ from them , because the doors were so bad.

I had the same issue w/my repro 67 doors. My brother was doing the body work and made me come down to look at them before he did anything to them. I took them back to the dealer I got them from and he was great about taking them back.

I went crazy chasing down NOS door skins and some good original frames. Mine weren't that bad but the car I was doing was too solid to settle. I got lucky and found the doors I ended up using.

Even w/NOS parts, there is a decent amount of fitting you need to do to get these cars to line up right.

Thanks for the help, I am leaning towards the skins. Thanks for everyones input/help here. I can always buy a complete shell if the skin doesn't work out.