Lower door skin panels

[5spdCab]

LOL...my apologies! Actually, I'm one in that category...73 😊

Currently, the door is on the car but I am going to remove it to do welding of the shell patches and skin. Because my car is outside, I need to fashion some kind of barrier to keep culprits--2- and 4-legged out of the cab. While I have the door removed, I am going to switch from manual crank to power windows. I'm getting too old to reach across the cab to either open or close the windows.

The more immediate task is to build a metal brake. I have a design in mind...just need to go shopping for the parts.

I just finished a power window and door lock conversion just yesterday, although I will be going back into the passenger door to add speaker wire and speakers. It has been something that I have been wanting for a very long time. It wasn't very hard really, although it took longer than I expected. I used junkyard find parts, although brand new power window kits are available which include switches and wiring harness. Instead, I chose to create my own wiring harness, and center mounted switch panel, rather than installing stock type switches and harness. Funny thing, I still reached for the old crank handle when I drove the car today. Hopefully I will get over that quickly enough.
I will show a pic of the manual vs electric mounting points and what I did to hold the 1/4x20 1/2inch bolts that I used on the lock actuators.

The red circles show the manual crank mounting points, the green circles are where the electric regulator mounts to. You can ignore the blue and the orange, they are where I added a junction block for the wiring and an insulated clamp to keep the wiring out of the way of moving parts.

Because of the tight space inside the door, I was unable to insert the bolts without using some duct tape to hold my small bolts to the lock actuator. Trim the tape before installing so that they don't get in the way while tightening the bolts.
I hope this will be helpful to you.

 

[57 Handyman]

Doug, thanks for your recommendation. I haven't removed door from car yet and haven't decided if I will or will not. It depends of how I intend to address creating lower edge body lines. Although, it is not a significant body line, but because I know there is one, it will bother me if I don't address it properly. Right now, my plan is to leave the door on the car and finalize panel fit up to make sure my gaps are okay, especially lower edge to door frame. Then, I will likely do a few tack-welds while holding the panel in-place with butt weld clamps before final crimping of the door edges.

5spd, thanks for your tips and, especially, pictures. That will help me out a lot and save me a lot to time and frustration, as I won't be fumbling around and guessing. Interestingly enough, my door frames are also maroon. A friend of mine had also suggested relocating the switches for both the door locks as well as the windows to a centralized location. However, my '87 has bench seats and does not have a console so no place to mount them. I have a set of '87 Monte Carlo bucket seats so eventually may end up relocation of the switches in the future. Again, thanks for your tips.

 

[5spdCab]

Doug, thanks for your recommendation. I haven't removed door from car yet and haven't decided if I will or will not. It depends of how I intend to address creating lower edge body lines. Although, it is not a significant body line, but because I know there is one, it will bother me if I don't address it properly. Right now, my plan is to leave the door on the car and finalize panel fit up to make sure my gaps are okay, especially lower edge to door frame. Then, I will likely do a few tack-welds while holding the panel in-place with butt weld clamps before final crimping of the door edges.

5spd, thanks for your tips and, especially, pictures. That will help me out a lot and save me a lot to time and frustration, as I won't be fumbling around and guessing. Interestingly enough, my door frames are also maroon. A friend of mine had also suggested relocating the switches for both the door locks as well as the windows to a centralized location. However, my '87 has bench seats and does not have a console so no place to mount them. I have a set of '87 Monte Carlo bucket seats so eventually may end up relocation of the switches in the future. Again, thanks for your tips.

If you go the "what have you done to your gbody today" thread for Mon 4-27, I have a pic of the panel that I made for the lock and window switches. It uses the two screws at the bottom of the radio face plate. The switches themselves are DPDT because both windows and locks are voltage reversing motors.
I am just getting ready to go home from work, but I will setup a schematic drawing of how to wire the switches if you would like.

 

[565bbchevy]

The factory power window switch can also be mounted on the lower door panel with only having to cut the hole, factory wiring works fine.

 

[57 Handyman]

Nice clean door panels. Are they aftermarket or custom shop made?

 

[565bbchevy]

Nice clean door panels. Are they aftermarket or custom shop made?

The upper ones I made with a simple design to incorporate the 6.5" speaker, I made a similar set up for my Regal.

 

[pontiacgp]

The upper ones I made with a simple design to incorporate the 6.5" speaker, I made a similar set up for my Regal.

View attachment 144459

offtopic but how deep are those speakers in the door...if you are not sure if you give me the brand I can look up with dimensions...thanks... 🙂

 

[565bbchevy]

offtopic but how deep are those speakers in the door...if you are not sure if you give me the brand I can look up with dimensions...thanks... 🙂

They are both Pioneers I believe, the Monte's are component speakers that are pretty deep with the tweeters where the original 3.5" speakers were.
The Regal has a shallow mount speaker that made installation a lot easier even though I like the flush look of the component style and both needed metal removed from the door to fit, but clearance for the Monte was very tight.

 

[pontiacgp]

They are both Pioneers I believe, the Monte's are components speakers that are pretty deep with the tweeters where the original 3.5" speakers were.
The Regal has a shallow mount speaker that made installation a lot easier even though I like the flush look of the component style and both needed metal removed from the door to fit, but clearance for the Monte was very tight.

I build spacers to mount the speakers at the bottom of the door and I still have to customise the lower panel to make it look right, your idea is much simpler. I have my tweeters in same place you put yours

 

[565bbchevy]

I build spacers to mount the speakers at the bottom of the door and I still have to customise the lower panel to make it look right, your idea is much simpler. I have my tweeters in same place you put yours

I didn't want mine on the lower door panel since my roll bar is right there plus it sounds better up high.
I didn't want them in the kick panels either.