My truck needed some new window sweeps (window felts) and the orignal door panels were damaged where they mount. Overall, the door panels were in great condition, but where the felts mount the panels were cracked and missing some of the clip engagement areas. I started by disassembling the door panels and cleaning them, then assessed the damage. I found that some of the clip areas were missing and would not hold the new felts. I also noted several cracks where the door panels fold over the top of the door.






I went to Home depot and bought a piece if 1/2x3/4 aluminum angle that I can back this 'lip' with for support. I then cut them to fit and made the square notches with a die grinder to accept the clips. I also roughed up the smooth surface to allow the glue something to adhere to.



Then, I was able to glue them into the corner with some Gorilla Glue before clamping to allow them to dry. I glued both sides of the angle, the top where it meets the bottom of the door panel and the inside where it meets the mounting area for the felts.




After they dried overnight, I was able to remove the clamps. You cannot use too many clamps, I actually needed a couple of more.



This allowed me to snap the new felts in place and for extra security, I added a few small rivets to make sure it was nice and seated flat.

After this, I installed the door side of the sweeps and reinstalled the door panels. Windows now roll up and down smooth eliminating the rattles from before.



These door panels are expensive to replace and this may help someone restore their panels if this is the only place in need of repair. I removed all of the interior panels to give them a really good scrub down and clean the cab completely, and redo the headliner. I was going to replace all of the hardware, but it is really expensive. I let all of the screws and bolts sit in Evaporust for a couple of days and it cleaned it all up like new. If you are not using this stuff to remove rust from parts, you need to be. Its cheap and reusable.

 

I bet it smells better inside too!

Evaporust is also great for a cooling system flush

 

Great write-up!

 

It does. I used Superior Products from Oreilly's. Scrub N Suds for the carpet and Muscle Magic for the plastic and door panels.

Thanks!

 

I will be trying something like this then! I have the same problem with broke spots, but also my
replacement sweeps didn’t have all the clips in the same spots…

Thanks for the idea!

 

I got a and thought the same thing. The outers are different than the inners, so double check to see if you have the correct ones in the correct places. Two of them have 4 clips and 2 of them have 5.

 

I ordered mine from lmc, had both skins on the truck bed moving the sweeps to each spot until it matched, well as close as possible. I will double check that though, thanks!

 

Oh you're fancy. The door panels in the F450 were worn right out worst than yours. I simply screwed my felts right into the plastic. Can't see them anyway. I suffered for a few years in that truck with them falling off all the time haha.