Door Stay Reinforcements Now?

[randywebb]

The doors are off my car for painting right now. They look fine with no cracks. I'm wondering if I should reinforce the door stays anyway with the kit Pelican sells just to avoid future trouble.

Thoughts?

[Halm]

Probably good insurance. Go ahead and do it.

[tangerine911e]

I'd say to do it - cheap insurance and a good time to do it.

Ash

[david914]

One of the first things I did when I brought my '86 home. I'm much more confident when letting the door swing open now. Highly recommended.

[Drdogface]

Just had my '78 SC painted. These door stays were first on my list of improvements while it was apart. Big difference. Definitely go for it.

[mmasse]

Why go with the reinforcement kit??

I am about to do this this weekend and after some investigation on my door it seems pretty straight forward in terms of drilling a couple of holes on a rather strong piece of sheet metal.

Is there any hidden advantage on the reinforcement kit against two plain strong sheet metal pieces (one in and one out).?? It blows me to pay more than $60 for the kit. Or am I missing something?

[Formerly Steve Wilkinson]

It's really not relevant whether the doors are on or off the car in terms of mounting the standard reinforcement kit, so you needn't figure that into the equation. Not that the reinforcement isn't a good idea--I have one on the driver-side door--but if you want to figure "I'd rather do it in three months" or "when the sheetmetal starts to crack" (not that I'm recommending that), go right ahead.

Stephan

[Chris Lovell]

I've used these reinforcement in recovery of a sprung door. Do it now. Especially if you live in an area where you have wind gusts.

[randywebb]

Thanks Stephan - that's my idea -- do I save any work really by doing it now with the doors off...?

[Formerly Steve Wilkinson]

The only thing you'll do twice--once when you put the door back on the car an donce when you install the door-stay kit--is removing and re-installing the little interference-fit pin that holds the stay to its door-jamb bracket, so maybe just put it in moderately loosely the first time rather than pounding it all the way home. Accessibility to the mechanism for the rest of the installation is slightly more cramped with the door on the car, but nothing that ever made me think, "Gee, I wish I had this thing sitting on the kitchen table..."

Stephan

[randywebb]

thanks - for $60 bucks (each) I now know what not to do...

[Evans, Marv]

Randy:
Don't remember what year your car is, but on my '69 the kits won't work because the bolt spacing is narrower than on later cars. I asked about this at Pelican, and they said they didn't have them with the smaller spacing. They suggested I make my own out of lock plates for doors. So, I'm going to do that. I'll have to gofer for bolts, etc., but I think it'll work out OK.

[Johnathan]

Is this a particually hard kit to install? The description on one of the listings says that "professional installation recommended" I was thinking to myself, how hard can this really be? Am I missing something.

[jyl]

It is not hard. The directions are good.