So it was finally time to replace my drivers door. When I first bought this truck, the door had a little drop to it, but it would line back up and latch and it wasn’t an issue.
Well over time, the door progressively got worse and it ended up that one of the previous owners noticed the door drop and tried to fix it by putting some washers behind the door side of the hinge. I’m pretty positive that the original owner used the door as a load bearing device to get in and out of the truck.
Anyways, I just happened to be just outside of Nashville on my way to pick up another trailer when the bottom hinge finally punched through the door. I was able to get the door closed, but this put getting a door to priority one. Luckily for me, there was a couple red doors at a salvage yard in Evansville, IN, only 120 miles out of the way.
So long story short, the two doors they had were either damaged or on the truck they crushed two days prior. However, they had a 2500HD door that was a manual door and had been stripped and was just a shell. Only $200.
So I got it home and with help of a friend, we pulled the old door off.
As you can see the door just fell apart. The backing plate is only spot welded to the door in a few spots.
It was amazing how easy the new door went back on, we hardly had to adjust it.
The next day I finished up the door by removing the decal and adding back on the door trim and Duramax/Allison emblem. I also cleaned up a dent that was covered up by the door trim.
Now, the door looks great at 20 feet, but you can see the area the decal sat on. I put some elbow grease into some rubbing compound and then some polishing compound and it looks much better, but the paint is pretty rough coming off a work truck.
I’ve now had the new door on for the last week and it’s like having a new truck. Unfortunately, the door lock actuator stopped working for some reason and after taking the door back apart, it looks like the motor just died after I unplugged it, unless someone knows something I don’t, this should just be plug and play.