[fordguy40]

Finally got around to tackling the doors; all new weatherstripping, springs, and hinge pins. The doors rattled like crazy and the driver's side door in particular had to be slammed pretty hard to get it to latch.

The new pins and bushings made the most difference in how the doors closed. The plastic bushings I pulled out of there didn't look too bad given their age, but the new bronze bushings made a huge difference and made closing the doors a one-finger-push deal.

The driver's side hinge spring had broken a long time ago and was probably the single best thing fixed this time around; not having the door constantly fall closed is really underappreciated. Replacing this spring was easily done with the door off, body-side hinge mounted to the truck, a long flathead screwdriver and hammer to tap them home.

Luckily, I didn't have to replace any of the more costly door mechanisms. The regulators and latches were in good shape, so I soaked them in diesel for a week and they cleaned up pretty nice.

The most involved task here was rebuilding the vent windows. I will say that the Precision weatherstripping exactly duplicated the original parts and fit perfectly. They'll be who I look to first when I get around to the wife's '79 Camaro and my '70 Mach 1. I did end up using the LMC rivet and tool kit to put everything back together and it wasn't as bad as I'd typically read it was going to be. I think this was because I shortened the rivet tool to about 1" long and used a vise in order to squeeze the rivets instead of trying to pound them with a hammer. The rivets are so hard and the window parts so awkwardly-shaped that getting the driver and hammer in place with the parts somehow held still is nearly impossible and will surely result in partially-squeezed rivets and/or bent vent window frames. It's still a PITA to be sure, but the tool does work and an extra set of hands to hold everything in place on the vise makes things a lot easier.

A note about LMC's vent window setting rubber; for my '80, it was too thin. Ended up ordering a roll of 5/64" tape from Bob Drake which seems to be the right stuff.

Replaced the wobbly window cranks and floppy interior door handles with LMC pieces. Other than having to modify the window crank retaining clip slots slightly and the knobs having a chrome cap instead of brushed, they were good reproductions of the originals and bolted right up.

Finished up by putting the faded original door panels back on since they do the job and fit the look the truck's going to have for a while. Can't really do anything about the speaker holes in the doors, so I cleaned up the hacked edges of the holes and put the speakers back in until I decide what I'm going to do there. Bought the bellows from LMC to run the speaker wires properly into the doors, but I'm going to have to loosen the front clip so I can slide the fenders forward enough to drill the holes in the factory spot on the body. Going to leave that for when I actually get a radio in this thing.

Only thing I wish I'd done different is maybe adding acoustical tiles to the inside of the doors to tune out some of the hollow "tinny-ness" when they're closed. But at least they're solid, rattle-free, and close super easy now....to this point, rebuilding the doors has made the most difference in how comfortable the truck is. We'll see how I feel after I fix the spectacularly duct-taped bench...