Sheet Metal – New, Used or Reproduction

DynacornDoorRussoDoes it make a difference if you restore your Mustang with imported or U.S. reproduction sheet metal? Should you purchase Ford Licensed or products produced with Ford tooling? I think in some cases yes, but it really depends on your budget, your goal and whether or not you are concerned about receiving a part that’s not quite up to spec.

 

There is always the option of going used, 492b_1[4]but finding good used parts can be time consuming and your definition off “good used” can differ greatly from that of the sellers view; an experience I wish I could have avoided entirely.

Project Playboy needed a replacement driver door and I was hesitant to get a reproduction fearing that it wouldn’t line up or needed a lot of work to get it aligned, so I chose to start looking for a good used driver door.

G2SM57800e0c-321d-47cb-8ea3-56c6560b11d7-5821I looked at a lot of Mustang doors, drove a lot of miles and only found one door that was good enough to use but it was for a deluxe interior car and had holes in the lower interior portion where the door grills mount.

Other doors I looked at were described as being perfect and ready to install and paint, well my definition of perfect was apparently way out of scope when it came to these doors. They all had something welded, replaced or bondo’d, one of them even had a heavy coat of fresh primer on it and it looked perfect, except that the primer was still very wet and running… my quest continued.


 Dynacorn Mustang Door – A near perfect fit

DynacornDoor2After weeks of searching, ten doors and two full tanks of gas; I finally came to the realization that going for a reproduction door would have been the most productive path to take.

I had been told that the Dynacorn Mustang door shell was pretty nice, and I also knew that Dynacorn was now producing brand new complete body shells and they included the doors, this was probably the best reproduction door out there so I put one on order.

DSCF0015The Dynacorn door shell arrived at the body shop a few days later. I didn’t get a chance to look at the packaging but I was told it was the best the body shop had ever seen, they were impressed.

I took one of my weekly trips up to the body shop to hang the new Dynacorn door shell myself, I have to say that it fit really well. This wasn’t a precision fit procedure, I was just after a preliminary look to see if it was way off base or was indeed what I had been expecting.

Before fitting the door to the hinges a tap was ran through the door mount plates to clean up the threads. The door lined up exceptionally well without any adjustment. There was just a large gap between the door and the quarter panel that was adjusted out. I don’t think there will be any complaining about the quality of this Dynacorn door shell.

1 thought on “Sheet Metal – New, Used or Reproduction

  1. how about some help? if I have a 69 mach 1 428 supercobra jet car, and it has a destroyed fender, no one would fault me for replacing said fender, correct? Now, assume said scj car was driven 3800 miles in 69, and then turned into a drag car by the orig owner. fast forward to 08 and a look at the car devastates a mustang lover. it has been extensively modified (chassis and body & interior). Now, enter another car; a plain vanilla sportsroof that has been stored indoors since 1988. 88k orig miles. extremely little rust. my question is: where does one draw the line on sheet metal replacement? the above scenario could be a switcheroo of all the pertinent “stuff” and voila! you have a non-molested 428 super cobra jet mach one-would it be moral to call the newly created car an original 428scj car? I just do not know, and yes, this situation is real. what would you do?
    thanks for listening. ol’ bill
    bill marshall — October 18, 2008 7:17 PM

    I would call it a re-body. From a buyers perspective a re-body may not be the most desirable, however if you intend to keep the vehicle you may want to go the re-body route.
    If this drag car has a nice history behind it you may consider restoring it to its modified drag race era.
    JoeResto — November 2, 2008 10:38 AM

    1971 convertible mustang. Restoring my mustang.
    A couple of things:
    My car is disassembled. Rust was cut out everywhere, underneath and in cab, sand blasted, inspected & treated with rust proving.
    Ready to paint
    I removed doors (left hinges on car), hood, trunk removed. All rubber removed and inside gutted. Seats, carpet interior pieces. All chrome, lights and other items have been removed. Rust out inspected and treated
    Engine still in, dash still in.
    HELP!
    Strip paint using _______________
    Prime paint car with______________
    Do I sand after this___________What grades of sand paper?
    Wait how long for paint to dry?_________
    Should I paint with everything off? Doors, trunk & hood
    Should I paint them individually?________
    I GUESS I NEED STEP BY STEP.
    Thanks for Help
    John Morrissey — August 25, 2009 4:13 AM

    You should also pick up Project Mustang from Larry Lyles books.google.com/…/books , it covers a lot of the prep and paint methods for today’s paint finishes.
    You can also follow some of the methods that I use throughout the body and paint section, although I’ve been a bit behind on posting information in this section; averagejoerestoration.com/…/3-body-work-and
    How you paint the car is an open argument: some people say put all the panels on and paint, others paint with the doors off; I prefer to paint with the doors on and then set up all the other panels to be painted separately.
    JoeResto — August 27, 2009 9:28 AM

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