The Stovebolt Forums Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Doors 47-54 door part interchange

Can anyone point me somewhere or tell me what parts are interchangeable between the 2 styles of doors? I have a set of early doors on my burb with no mechanisms in them and I have a set of later doors that have all of the parts but I don't know if any of them are interchangeable. Thanks in advance!

Window regulators changed with the addition of wing windows in ‘51. The inside trim changed at the same time. Door latches changed in 52 along with the push button handles.

Kevin is right.
I just wanted to mention that 51 doors were only made one year and are rare.
They have the 51-54 style vent windows with 47-51 door latches (pull down handles).
The 51 body needs 47-51 door latches to work without some serious modification to the body.
Identify what year doors you have.

So I don’t really know what year it is, it’s titled as a 50 but there’s nothing on it to confirm that.

That looks like a 47-51 Striker, but it's hard to tell on the door. You can check inside and above the lower access for a bracket where the bottom of the wing window frame would be. If there's one there, that makes it a 51 or later. That bracket is where the lower end of the window track bolts to.

The 1951 - 54 (55 1st) vent window assembly is held by 5 sheet metal screws in the top section. I circled 2 of the 5 screw holes in the picture. The vent window assembly is also held by 2 screws that are accessible by removing the panel at the bottom of the door and reach inside (hard to see). 1947 to 50 doors would not have the vent window support and screw holes.

The 1951 - 54 (55 1st) door window trim will be notched to clear the vent window.

Compare your door latch area with the 1950 door (picture).

Compare your door strikers with the picture of new strikers.

A 1951 and later VIN tag is riveted to the driver's side doorpost (picture).
A 1950 and earlier VIN tag may be held by screws.
Compare your VIN tag with your title.
https://www.stovebolt.com/techtips/VIN.html

I'd go look at my doors, but they're currently kind of buried, but I don't think there are the screw holes on the bottom of the window opening that buoymaker circled (I could be wrong), but there are two tabs on the bottom of the window frame that I recall take bolts and nuts that fit below the door window opening flange. There are screw holes on the front of the window opening that correspond with the tabs on the vent window frame (see pic). And there's one hex screw that holds the bottom of the channel to the lower bracket. The frame has a nut welded on it to receive that screw.

I suspect you are correct on the 2 screw holes I circled.
Also I said 2 screws for the lower support and I only see one.
Regardless, using your picture of the vent window assembly, I can see 5 tabs mounts for screws.
The poster should be able to look for corresponding holes in the door.
If none, then the doors are 1950 and older.

Looks like every '51 door I have ever seen.
Access hole for swing down outer door handle, and notched out area for the wing vent bottom leg to fit through.

I think you're right, Carl. But doesn't the pushbutton door handle have an attachment screw from behind the weatherstrip as well?
Here's the best pic I have of the upper portion of my '51 doors. One of the lower wing vent tab holes has a captive nut and the other uses a nut and bolt. Those holes looked too small in the OP's picture, but they are there for the wing vent attachment. There's also a reinforcement just forward of the division bar where the roll-up window goes.

View of notch and screw/bolt holes for vent windows assembly from 1954 door.

I have a similar dilemma - I have a 51 Chevy 3100 with the unique single year combo of Vent Windows and Turn Down Handles

I'm looking at the available complete door replacements from Brothers as they are quite attractively priced vs a patch panel with associated repair
Their options are listed as the 47-50 and 52-54 for the reasons we know - early is turn-down handles with full windows, 52+ is push button handles with vent windows

The Handle drilling for the 52+ Door would be different, so imagine that is non-starter?

My main question is - can I fit the 51-54 Vent Window parts in the 47-50 door? Or would I have to get 47-50 Window parts if I went with the early door?

I could go with a bottom outer skin patch panel, but the full doors are quite attractively priced

Thanks for any guidance

You MIGHT be able to convert the early doors to fit vent windows into them, but there's some brackets and other things that would need to be installed inside that would be difficult without removing the door skin. You'd also need to get the correct interior window molding. And I'm not sure that the window regulator mounting holes are the same (the regulators are definitely different.)
An easier approach would be to get 52-54 doors with pushbutton handles and install the correct latch strickers on the door pillar to match the different latches.

If your original doors just need patching on the lower portion, I would do that. Mine were not rusted on the outer part, but needed patching on the bottom inside. Patch panels for those weren't that expensive, and fit pretty well.

Thank you!
I found a post from another forum in a search earlier -
https://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/showthread.php?t=708027
It doesn't appear that swapping the strikers is a trivial exercise

I didn't say putting the strikers on would be a piece of cake, but it wouldn't involve tearing the door apart. You might need to weld in the portion of the door post where the strickers mount if you got them from a 52 or later cab.

Your easiest two options without question would be to find decent original '51 doors, or fix the doors that you currently have.
Any other option will require a lot of high end fabrication, and/or require you to buy a lot of extra internal parts.

The factory latches whether for push button or turn down are among the most dangerous and biggest POS ever installed on a vehicle. For $350 you can keep from killing your kid by installing an Altman Trique Latch kit that is the first thing that should ever be done on an AD.

I have to agree with you on POS design of our latches. The thing that kills me is that they are not a simple design. Some idiot train pilot had to put a lot of hours into this design. And they all fail over time.