Swapping Doors.

[Lon]

I'm swapping the front end on my 93 Astro to a 96 front end. My donor van's door locks, and windows work perfect and the the newer door panels have a place for speakers. I had planned on swapping just the door panels and the brackets when my wife asked why dont I just swap the entire door. So how much work will be inolved with swapping the entire door. I know the wiring harness plugs are different, but can I expect the door gaps to line up. The big advantge for me is not have to disassemble the doors and there not being any holes under the door emblems.

Here's a couple pics of my 93. And the donor. You can see why I'm swapping sheetmetal.
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.c ... D=13431911
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.c ... D=13431927

[Smiliesafari]

The hinges are welded to the body. If your doors are in good shape I'd swap all of the internals and door panels. It can be very difficult to bolt the hinges in place and get everything to line up perfectly.

[SoCalli V8]

I tried to swap a pair of `97 doors onto my `86 Cargo and all the gaps were very uneven all round. It`s because the whole door and hinges are held up against the frame, gaps aligned, and then the hinges are welded.

However all the interior door parts will swap over, there is a long black brace which has to be drilled and bolted onto the skin of the door because it provides an anchor point for the updated door panel handle mount. Even all the new-style door panel push clips around the edge will fit, so becareful not too break them when removing the new-style panel.

[Lon]

Yeah those welded hinges were my big road block. I have looked at the hinges and pulled the passenger side door panel and decided I will just swap all of the brackets and door guts.

I actually at one point wanted to swap the entire interior. The 96 has rear air. I dont even want to think of tackling that swap. I'll stay with the seat and door panel swap.

[Rvamobiledetailing]

blast from the past lol, I was just thinking about doing this today to my astro since i want door speakers and i have two small dents right at the front of the door on the drivers side. Guess i will be swapping the guts also

[lockdoc]

I just swapped a door recently. Like others have said it is hard to get them to line up without drilling the hinges off and bolting them back on. I was able to use shims at the pivots to get my door straight.

[Smiliesafari]

Good job, Bill. Looks great. I wouldn't have tried it. My sheet metal skills are "0".

[Rebel]

Strange,,I've swapped all my doors and had no issues with any of them. In fact, I'd rather swap a complete door than swap internals. The slider was a little hard to handle by byself but put the replacement in same location as old door and it lined up correctly also. Did replace all the door hinges and bushings on both driver, passenger and rear doors.

Are the later models different than my 89 as far as location of hinges ? Guess I must of been lucky,,right ??

[Rvamobiledetailing]

Yeah i would think it would be easier to do the whole door vs swapping guts

[lockdoc]

It IS easier. IF they just happen to line up. Which isn't the norm. It has nothing to do with the years of the vans, it's just the variances between each van. You also have to take off the fenders if you need to move the actual hinges. GM had a kit to drill out the old hinges and replace them with bolt ons.

[Lon]

Lockdco glad to see you had some luck swapping doors. I sold my 96 donor van to finance a V-8 S-10 Blazer, so now I'm on the hunt for just front sheetmetal.

[SoCalli V8]

I think that the ill-fitting problem arises when you swap from old style to new style doors and visa-versa.

I recommend just swapping over all the electrics, which is easy.