door swap

hello. i need to swap my drivers door (88 gt vert) before it goes in for paint.

whatcha think about me just removing the door pins (leaving the fender side of the hinge on the car). this would keep me from messing with the front fender, front bumper/clip, etc, right.?

the new door has worn out hinges (the ones on the car now are nice and tight). im gonna order the kit from texas stang. (i assume i will destroy the existing sleeves - they mushroom at the ends). so will this work? i dont want to remove stuff if i dont have to.

also, how bad is it to get the wires through from the kick panel to the guts of the door. im considering just trying to disconnect every connection in the door (i will likely swap all motors and actuator, etc. my stuff is nice, the donor is not). looks like my wiring and rubber convoluted dealie are in much better shape.
anyhow, is it easier to undo all connectors in the door and feed them through the door (but not through the door jam) and then refeed them through the donor door (vs. just disconnecting the connectors in the kick panel and fishing them through and using the cruddy stuff with the donor door). the kick panel is a mess, as i have an armored panel containing my alarm up there.

so id like to remove pins, and keep the same wiring and fender part of the door hinge. will this work or be harder than other options?
also, i would try parts store hinge and bushing kits, but i bet they arent as good as kits from latemodel resto, etc (past experiences). true?

please let me know what you think. i really appreciate any and all thoughts and ideas. happy holidays!

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Mustang Mikey said:

I changed both doors on my 85 by removing the pins like you're talking about. It wasn't too bad, one door lined up good but one was off. I took out the plastic liner in the front fender on that side then I could get to the hinge bolts on that side to adjust it. I used new pins and bushings.

I used my old wiring, pulled it out of the door but left it attached at the jamb, then fed it into the new door. Not too bad.

I have used the parts store (help) pins and bushings, they seem to be OK. Sometimes they don't have enough of everything you need at the store. Also there are several sizes, make sure you get the ones you need.

Click to expand...

cool, thanks MM. glad to know it can be done (the way i was thinking). i didnt know there are several sizes of pins. texas stang only shows one size. hhhmmmm.
i want to do the bushings and pins right the first time, as it will be getting painted afterwards. i dont want to risk chipping paint off if it doesnt work right (if parts store pins dont fit just right).

did you swap all of your window stuff into the new door? im thinking i might, as mine is all in better shape than the donor stuff. what else is there to replace while im doing the transplant? i can think of door pins and bushings (mentioned), the bushings that attach to the bottom of the window (plastic). also, i have seen a plastic bushing for the door.it is the last item on this page (item 10)

http://www.parts123.com/PartFrame.a...asmustang.com/catalog.htm&TITLE=Texas_Mustang
(im sorry, i cant get the searched page to appear (i type in "door hinge pins" in the search box to get the page i tried to link to). sorry.

what is that? should i replace it (if you were ordering parts, what all would you get?).

good info. i really appreciate all the help i can get. thank you.