drivers door replacement. vin#?

[1971ford]

i have a bad dent in the drivers door of my 69 and want to replace it. but i want to keep the original vin#. how do i do this?

[bluef250]

One way would be to replace the door skin?

[1971ford]

?
the vin is on the door skin though

[ezernut9mm]

you can buy the factory style rivets

[1971ford]

so drill out the rivits on the old door and the rivits on the new door, then put new rivits on the new door with old vin.
doesnt sound hard
thanks

[ezernut9mm]

if you have adobe pdf reader. at the bottom of the page in the middle.

http://amkproducts.com/Catalog_PDF/158-169.pdf

[1971ford]

awsome thanks

[fordman]

or you can remove the original rivets and save them to put back on your new door. i did it. i have a set i saved from this last parts truck. they arent even punched out in the center is why i kept them.

[1971ford]

how do you remove them to re-use?

[fordman]

i used some pliers from inside the door and slightly squeezed them all the way around and then tapped on them from the inside and they came out. the ones that have the centers out of them you could do the same thing. just bend the outer edges in and tap them out. to reinstall put a srewdriver through the center of the little rivet and swirl it around to enlarge the rivet to the door again. if it doesnt work real good you could get inside the door and tap the edges flater against the inside of the door.

[1971ford]

thanks!

[FORDification]

Remove the doorpanel so that you can access the rivets from the back side. They're rough enough that you can straighten them out with a pair of pliers and remove them intact.

Here's how I removed a set on one of my first parts trucks. Here's a 'before' shot of the VIN tag:



...and here's a shot of the back side of that door area (I stuck the camera inside the door to get this shot). You can see the factory rivets here, and they're pretty rough, so removing them is a breeze. All you have to do is reach inside the door and use a pair of pliers to carefully pinch the edges back together to allow them to be pushed out the holes:



...and here's a shot of the removed tag and rivets. To reinstall, simply insert the rivets back into their holes and then flatten out the backside of each from inside the door.

[1971ford]

great! thanks!
you just had to be better than fordman didnt you?

[fordman]

he is . he has all the good pics.

[69twotone]

Ryan,
I am glad that you are doing this if you ever sell the truck the next owner will be able to trace its history. The person who owned mine previously changed out the door and did not put the original tag back on. It says my truck is green and white with an automatic. The truck I have is royal marroon and wimbledon white with a manual transimission. I have looked for the frame stamps and can not find them. So I have no way of knowing if my truck is really a 69 or not.