[DeTomaso] door skins

[JDeRyke at aol.com]

In a message dated 1/11/08 11:20:53 AM, ehpantera at yahoo.com writes:

> Has anyone had experience with door skins from the various vendors? Quality 
> and fit? How do the Aluminum ones compare....
> 
Dunno anyone who's done this except Hall. The fit should be OK assuming not 
much warpage of the Pantera body & door frames has occurred, since the skins 
are so oversized as-received. 
The interesting procedure is simple in concept for nearly any car- after 
cutting off the stock skin, the oversized new skin is aligned on a new or good 
used door frame (methods vary) and the overlapping edges of the skin are bent 
around to clamp it in place- no screws or welding used due to the uisual 
heat-distortion. Bigger bodyshops have giant clinchers to cinch the bent-around 
skin-edges & corners. Much trimming and aligning will be needed. 
The only aluminum Pantera skins I've seen were at Hall Pantera many years ago 
and may have been 'factory' Gr-4. He had aluminum front hood skins too, which 
are mounted to their frame the same way; Hall's famous racer 'Big Red' used 
the aluminum skins, I believe. Also dunno how much weight was saved- 
undoubtably less than using real carbon fiber doors. Good luck & let us know how this 
goes if you decide to do it- J DeRyke



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