Door question. Need advice.

[greasyspider]

I have one good 71 RT passenger side door. And a std. door on the drivers side.  I also have a set of 71 R/T doors that I picked up awhile back.  The body shop is telling me that the spare is not good enough to be used.  They say they can't remove the skin due to the pitting. The skins are better than most I've seen for sale with no rust holes, just heavy pitting along the bottom lip of the skin.  There is a quarter size dent in the center of the louver and a small dent near the door handle.   I sandblasted them when I bought them and rattle canned them for protection.   The shell is iffy, but I have a good shell on the car already. They want me to find a different door, to which I laughed.   (I don't think they don't understand how rare they are.)
Has anyone grafted louvers to a standard door?  How hard is it to do?  What are my options?

[FLG]

If the skins are in good shape i dont see the problem?

Are they a reputable body shop?

[greasyspider]

They are a really good body shop.  The bottom lip of the door skin is really pitted.  They say they won't be able to put it back on after they take it off?

[FLG]

Why can't they fix it?

[mikesbbody]

"Has anyone grafted louvers to a standard door?  How hard is it to do?"

Yes, it's been done before and if done right, no problem but whoever does it has to know what their doing
Don't wanna warp the door from too much heat etc I have never done it but know of 2 people that have.

[greasyspider]

Do you happen to know how much labor is involved (i.e. hours)?  I'm trying to decide if I should hunt for a better door or just graft the one I have.

[Scaregrabber]

Probably less welding to graft a new lower edge on the R/T skin. That's what I would do. Does the standard door have a nice bottom edge on it? If so I would consider splicing to it.

Sheldon

[FLG]

That's what I don't understand, there making it seem like its a huge undertaking to patch a lower half of a door.

[Scaregrabber]

What's scaring them is that it's a long weld. It will take quite awhile to weld it without warping and it will also take quite awhile to grind it without warping it. They are also afraid that if the bottom is shot, when they open the rest of the edges they will have rust in them as well. It's not so bad for a guy doing his own because his time is free, but a shop has to charge by the hour and they are afraid that once they get into it, you might not like what they have to charge you.

Sheldon

[Mike DC]

 

I see where they are coming from on the man-hours thing.  But an old car restoration demands these kinds of things sometimes.  I think this is a reasonable request to make of them.  

Or is this shop already completely bent over backwards helping you out on the price of the entire job, so you don't want to request another favor?  

In that case then maybe you need to find someone else to do just the door alone.  You might even get your main shop to tack it together and let someone else do the slow work on the long weld. 

 

[mikesbbody]

I agree with everything Frank, Sheldon, and Mike said if it were me, I'd try to keep the RT door, and use a Donor for the lower edge repair but if they think welding the louver into a regular door is a easier option then go that route.
Another option, if your not in a hurry wait and see if AMD do actually make the RT Door's or Skins if they don't THEN look into your other options (fixing your RT Door or grafting the louver into a regular Door)
I don't want to put you off the idea but one of the job's I saw was REAL BAD! the other very Professional
It comes down to the skill of the individual 

[greasyspider]

They stripped the car, are blasting, replacing 2 quarters, 2 fenders and painting. Then I was going to put it back together.  They estimated $8500.   The plain charger door is mint, shell and skin have no rust as far as we can tell.  Like I said the RT door is just rusty enough that the lip will be heavily pitted after blasting.