The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Replacement Door Panel Woes

I have recently ordered and received a nice set of the door panels and frames from our good friends at Chevy Duty. I noticed when fitting them onto the door that they will not fit flush. The problem seems to be the bar that goes from the inner handle out to the door latch. The bar does not follow the recess in the inner door. There is a pad just after the handle mechanism that sets between the door and the bar, making me thing it was designed to be routed this way. I have seen many photos showing this same configuration, and it's also this way in a photo in my 48 - 51 Chevy shop manual. Anyone else run across this problem when installing the replacement door panels? My truck was without them when I got it so I do not have a reference.

Thanks!

Sorry, Should of mentioned This is a 1950 3100.

Thanks again!
JoeQC

huh. Dont know why it would do this, except maybe the doors had been replaced at sometime, so your panels dont clear the linkage. This is the only thing I can think of that could be wrong.

My 52 was the same way. It looks to me like they changed the linkage but left the sheetmetal alone - "close enough" - because those door skin tools would be expensive to change. Fig 31 in the Cab&Body section of the 48-51 book shows the linkage the way I think it should be. Fig 28 shows it the way mine was, with the link above the handle (Fig 7 in the 52 Supplement is the same way). I was unsucessful in my attempts to reorient it so the link laid in the recess. The door panel does fit OK, but I had to put a slight kink in the frame on both sides about 3" from the top so it would follow the contour of the door. DON'T try to just pull it in with the screw - all that does is foul up the cardboard panel. Once it's all together, it looks and works just fine.

Yes, it needs the angle to follow the door frame so things will work properly.

I'm currently struggling with this issue as well; I have not installed inner trim panels yet, but in looking ahead, felt that the link arm should run in the embossed "indention" of the inner door shell surface so that it would not rub against the door trim panel when installed. I may have solved this problem by installing the left inside door handle mechanism on the right side door, and vise-versa. This allows the mechanism link to be at the bottom of the mounting plate (under the inside handle instead of over it) and also allows this link to run in the indention in the inner door shell so that there may be clearance when installing the inner trim panel. I'm not sure how they were originally installed, as well as which way (originally) you were supposed to pull or push the inside handle to unlatch the door or to lock it. So far this seems to work OK, including the detent position of the mech to lock the doors from the inside. Comments/ideas? Thanks - Steve

I was gonna mention the right and left linkages may have been switched too. I've never really looked at any of mine yet. Never got that far!