classic kev
Well-Known Member
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Just for a giggle and being bored yesterday I decided I would investigate how easy it is to remove a door skin. I had a damaged rear door to practice on and thought it might be useful for when I eventually get around to trying to repair the rear doors for the basket case LSE I have in bits in my shed.
The damaged door was already stripped down, window frame and glass removed, seals removed etc. Looking at the inside it looks quite simple, the edges of the door skin are just folded over the steel shell apparently separated and glued in place with seam sealer.
I started on the bottom edge of the door carefully removing the seam sealer with a combination of a small screwdriver and a scraper with the occasional help from Land Rover tool No.1 (a hammer for the uninitiated). After opening the fold along the bottom I started up the sides and it was actually quite easy, a couple of places the fold is small and the profile of the door makes opening the folded metal tricky but with patience it opens up.
At the top of the door skin there is a line of spot welds, I thought that would be a nuisance to have to drill them out but you can ignore them, they don't hold the skin to the shell but do attach a stiffener along the top edge. Also, don't bend back the two small folds at the top corners, the skin will just slide off the top once the rest of the skin has been released.
The only thing I am not sure about is that there is some rough looking hard material between the skin and the shell along the middle rail, on this door, it did not prevent removal of the skin but I suspect it may be a bit of a problem if the skin is stuck fast as it would be difficult to separate skin and shell without damage if it is firmly stuck but that said, if only the bottom of the door needs repair then once the bottom and sides have been released there is enough movement to be able to get at the steel at the bottom to be able to cut out any rot and patch in with new steel.
I'm guessing it is the same for a Discovery and that in theory, if you need to replace a door, it should be possible to acquire a discovery door with a decent shell to be able to re-skin it with a Range Rover Classic skin and vice versa. It took me a little over an hour of faffing abut to remove the door skin so I would guess something like 3 hours starting from scratch from a door on the car but remember to be careful removing doors from the car they are quite heavy and a bit of a handful.
The damaged door was already stripped down, window frame and glass removed, seals removed etc. Looking at the inside it looks quite simple, the edges of the door skin are just folded over the steel shell apparently separated and glued in place with seam sealer.
I started on the bottom edge of the door carefully removing the seam sealer with a combination of a small screwdriver and a scraper with the occasional help from Land Rover tool No.1 (a hammer for the uninitiated). After opening the fold along the bottom I started up the sides and it was actually quite easy, a couple of places the fold is small and the profile of the door makes opening the folded metal tricky but with patience it opens up.
At the top of the door skin there is a line of spot welds, I thought that would be a nuisance to have to drill them out but you can ignore them, they don't hold the skin to the shell but do attach a stiffener along the top edge. Also, don't bend back the two small folds at the top corners, the skin will just slide off the top once the rest of the skin has been released.
The only thing I am not sure about is that there is some rough looking hard material between the skin and the shell along the middle rail, on this door, it did not prevent removal of the skin but I suspect it may be a bit of a problem if the skin is stuck fast as it would be difficult to separate skin and shell without damage if it is firmly stuck but that said, if only the bottom of the door needs repair then once the bottom and sides have been released there is enough movement to be able to get at the steel at the bottom to be able to cut out any rot and patch in with new steel.
I'm guessing it is the same for a Discovery and that in theory, if you need to replace a door, it should be possible to acquire a discovery door with a decent shell to be able to re-skin it with a Range Rover Classic skin and vice versa. It took me a little over an hour of faffing abut to remove the door skin so I would guess something like 3 hours starting from scratch from a door on the car but remember to be careful removing doors from the car they are quite heavy and a bit of a handful.
