What can I expect to pay for lower door rust repair assuming the lower door skin needs replacement? My truck is a 1998 Quad Cab. Anybody know of a good body shop in Eastern Long Island, New York? Thanks, Glen

 

The Chop Shop in Atlanta, I have the same problem, trying to get a couple of doors from them, but shipping to Colorado is $$$, I got there number from J Lent here on the site. david @ thechop1344@earthlink.net.
Let me know how your repairs are going.

 

I had my pass door redone, the body shop made a new panel for the bottom,and repainted it, still requires the door to be removed from truck,I paid 700 but also had some scratches fixed,i'm in ne pa

 

Thanks for the info.

 

That is your best bet!

 

I'm in the same boat!! Both my doors are blistering. Took it to two places both wanted to cut out the rust and weld in new pieces. I feel that the rust will be back on either side of the weld within a few years.. They both were around 500 to 650 for that job!! I looked at LMC truck they have both pieces now to replace the bottom of the outer door skin and the inner part as well. Don't really want to replace the whole skin or door shell, I hear the new replacement parts are not as well made as oem..

 

In what way are they not as well made? There is probably something in the design that may not have been needed and was cheaper to reproduce without, if it's not a big deal I don't see any reason to bad mouth the replacement doors. Eventually I plan on getting new doors (front and rear, oiy) from LMC truck but if there is a serious problem with them I will probably look elsewhere, I haven't heard any negative feedback from people who actually purchased things through that company though.

A year or two ago I had my doors "fixed", the sheet metal wasn't completely gone so he just blasted it, filled in the low areas, used some rust inhibiting material on the inside and outside of the door, then repainted. The next spring they were already starting to rust again and at this point I'm looking towards other options outside of repairing these doors. I only paid $500 for the repair, other shops were quoting me upwards of $2K to do it properly, I should have just saved the money and put it towards a long term repair. I wouldn't cheap out on this, take it from me when the rust comes back from a cheap fix you will not be happy.

 

It shouldn't come back if it's repaired properly. I would cut out rusted piece, remove rust, put good epoxy primer on there and seam seal it.

 

My doors just have the surface rust so its just a sand, repair & paint, the body guy said before he paints it he's going to coat it with a primer that is used on bridges and has a rust warranty on it. I'm going back next week for a proper quote.

 

At LMC you can get a new door shell for about 400. You transfer the old parts and have it painted and you got a whole new door.

 

I know this thread is old, but did anybody do the lmc repair on a quad cab. The only front door skins I see are for std/club and don't look like they would work with the quad rear doors. Also, I don't see a door bottom inner for the quad rear door, only the rear door skin, lower. What can be done about the quad rear door bottom/inner part.

 

I've seen those door shells offered in the LMC catalog & am considering replacing my drivers side, but someone posted here a while back that they bought a replacement door shell from LMC for a different vehicle & the sheet metal seemed thinner than the oem door - I still might though, rust has eaten a big gaping hole on the lower section.

 

Mine wasn't rusted through so I just sanded, treated with POR15 & covered with something similar to rustoleum. The rustoleum (competitor) can be matched if you can pull a chip & take it to Lowes ~ $8/qt. It has held for 2 yrs but I don't live in the rust belt. Truck was originally a landscaping truck so will never be pristine - but small new dings don't hurt as bad as on a pretty paint job.

I'd buy a nice southern door from a yard if mine was really rusty. Many (most?) of the crash parts are cheap copies from over seas.

 

The issue is that water gets into the interior through the window channel. If you don't address that, it will keep coming back.
Mine are still solid, but the driverside is getting some rust on the seam on the lower inside of the door. I plan to pull the panels off both, clean out the interior (crud holds water, and clogs up the drain holes), paint the interior with something like POR 15, and then coat it with a heavy grease. If you don't keep the water off the metal on the inside, you will keep dealing with it.
It is well known, and no surprise, that (at least some) aftermarket body parts are thinner. The easiest comparison is a factory tailgate, and an aftermarket one. One guy told me that he had bought a tailgate off of Ebay. He was loading the truck sometime later, and when he stepped onto the tailgate with a heavy load, it folded down in half while he was standing on it. Sometimes you don't gain anything when you take the cheaper route.
Before I would buy cheap door replacements, I would exhaust my search for used ones (in good shape).

 

You can cut out the bad stuff, weld in patches and repaint, but really if its bad enough that its spread along the bottom youll want to take the whole lower doorskin off and replace it.
Theres videos on youtube of how to do it. You grind along the edge and break the crimp that way. Then tape a level line along the top, maybe a few inches below the door trim, and cut it square with a cutoff wheel.
Then get a new lower door skin, cut it to match, weld it up and use a door skinner tool on an air hammer to fold the outer edge into the crimp.
grind, paint.. all that fun stuff. Id really recommend you pre-treat any bare metal before you prime unless you use a good quality two-part etch primer. I use phosphoric acid / zinc treatment, theres tons out there.
You can also shortcut the process by just patching the lower part and leaving the corners intact. If you do this, youll want to treat the metal and use a body seam sealer like 3m. Door skinner tool may help make the crimp properly.

If you dont have an air compressor, do not use rattle can paint. You can get a disposable sprayer and mix your urethane paints that way. The rattle-can stuff is pure junk. The exception is something like that two part catalyzed urethane clear that eastwood sells. That stuff works nice.