aluminum door skins for street car?

[jmsteen]

I have continual problems with the door panels on my 86 ss and am sick of it. New uppers and lowers are not cheap, and mine are shot. Has anyone used the aluminum skins like these ones? http://scottrodfab.com/gbody.html I like the look and idea of these but this is a street car and the biggest problem i see is what i would do with the power switches and mirror controls. Is it worth it or just more of a hassle?

 

[-83MONTESS-]

For a daily driver I wouldnt use them only for the practicality fact. Think of a scorching hot day or a freezing cold day and accidentally leaning your arm on it. If this is a car that your only cruising around in and its more for looks then I would consider it if I couldnt find any stock door panels anywhere. The switches wouldnt be so bad because you could always mount them in that side of the dash without too much troubles. I did consider getting the lower half aluminum from scottrod's but decided against it.

 

[Burnhard]

This was big in the late 70's and through the 80's.Very hot on summer days and its dated look on a street car.

 

[Chris Van]

I have just the lowers (from scottrod) on my car and love em. I'll try to find a link to the pics and post em.
You can always mount the switches anywhere you want in the aluminum door panels.

Here is a link to the post. Couldn't figure out how to post pictures directly from my phone so this will have to do. Mine are towards the end of the thread.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=25760&start=15

I might add too that my reason for going with the aluminum lowers was because after upgrading my 6 point roll bar to an 8.50 legal cage, the arm rest and the front part of the lower door panels would hit the door bars and the down bars at the front.

 

[ssbrewskyaz]

Can you be more specific on what the continual problems you have with the door panels are?

Not sure why your door panels are getting trashed but the aluminum on the bottom may do well with weather. I think the lowers only used with factory uppers is a good compromise. I'm just thinking that the inside of your car will be unbearably loud if you used all aluminum front and rear, top and bottom. With no fabric/vinyl to buffer the sound, it’s gonna be similar to what a race car sounds like on the inside. You'd still have the seats and the headliner but the doors, at least the left door, is right next to where you sit and could be irritating. You might be surprised at how much noise those fancy vinyl and carpet covered pieces of fiberboard keep out. ...