Step 9.

Door skin, meet door frame. Clamps can be useful at this stage—just make sure they don’t damage the door. Pieces of wooden paint stirrer sticks sandwiched between the clamps will help protect your work.

Step 10.

To fully attach the skin, we used a special door-skin hammer and dolly designed to get into the awkward areas that this job produces. These tools are available online or at any auto body supply house. We source this kind of stuff from Eastwood.

We started at the top and gently hammered our way around the door, tapping just hard enough to fold the skin around the frame. Then we went around the door again, making sure the skin was perfectly flat against the frame.

Step 11.

That’s it: Our door is as good as new. We checked the fit on the car before the glue dried to make sure none of the pieces had shifted. From here the door could be primed, cured of any slight imperfections, then sanded and painted.