LMC Door Panel Review (I think they are new)

Unless I can't recall properly (which is entirely possible), it seems LMC has a new vendor for replacement door panels. If these have been discussed, I apologize. https://www.lmctruck.com/1980-96-ford/door-parts/fd-1980-86-door-panel-sets

Has anyone tried these?  They look identical as far as I can tell to original panels or those made at Dennis Carpenter that are made with the original tooling.  They look better than some others I have seen where the speaker grille looks to be a separate panel that they place onto the main door panel.  Or, I have seen others with holes for the speakers rather than slots.

I have been holding out for the ones from Dennis Carpenter but they have been out of stock for months and months, I have emailed them and have just been told "keep checking every couple weeks" which I have dutifully been doing with no luck yet...

I will probably hold out for the Dennis Carpenter ones a bit more, but these LMC ones are the best I have seen so far that haven't been made with the original tooling.  I have no idea regarding the quality/thickness of the ABS though...

I can't speak to the quality but I just ordered a set from LMC. They were backordered so they should be in in about a week or 2 (according to them). I went with them for 1 reason only... Price. At $180 a set I couldn't pass on them. Others are $300 plus. I am going to make my own armrests from Walnut. $40 for a set of armrests is highway robbery if you ask me. As soon as they come in, I'll post something about the quality and install.

I also know that they do not come with the holes for locks. You must cut/drill them out based on the type you have. They are marked on the back side where you should cut.

ckuske wrote

Unless I can't recall properly (which is entirely possible), it seems LMC has a new vendor for replacement door panels. If these have been discussed, I apologize. https://www.lmctruck.com/1980-96-ford/door-parts/fd-1980-86-door-panel-sets

Has anyone tried these?  They look identical as far as I can tell to original panels or those made at Dennis Carpenter that are made with the original tooling.  They look better than some others I have seen where the speaker grille looks to be a separate panel that they place onto the main door panel.  Or, I have seen others with holes for the speakers rather than slots.

I have been holding out for the ones from Dennis Carpenter but they have been out of stock for months and months, I have emailed them and have just been told "keep checking every couple weeks" which I have dutifully been doing with no luck yet...

I will probably hold out for the Dennis Carpenter ones a bit more, but these LMC ones are the best I have seen so far that haven't been made with the original tooling.  I have no idea regarding the quality/thickness of the ABS though...

Nope those are Dennis-Carpenter panels.  Their panels dont have the black felt for the door handle, I had to source NOS gromets to put on mine and paint them with SEM to color match them.

It states they are made from new molds and the ones Dennis Carpenter has are the original Ford toolings as they sport the original part number on the back of the door panels.

Powerman5K wrote

I can't speak to the quality but I just ordered a set from LMC. They were backordered so they should be in in about a week or 2 (according to them). I went with them for 1 reason only... Price. At $180 a set I couldn't pass on them. Others are $300 plus. I am going to make my own armrests from Walnut. $40 for a set of armrests is highway robbery if you ask me. As soon as they come in, I'll post something about the quality and install.

Dennis Carpenter`s are $150 a pair as of now, when I got mine a few years ago they were $120.

Hopefully the ones from LMC are better quality than the ones they had before that were flimsy.

Please post your opinion of the quality if you get a chance... thanks!

Yep, I'd prefer to get the Dennis Carpenter ones.  I've emailed them twice over the past six months or so.  Initially the person indicated the issue was due to COVID, and them not having enough staff to build the products being asked for.   The last time I emailed them, I just got "check back" and that's it.  I understand their predicament - I'm not upset with them.  At my work, we have processors and other electronics that we are getting 52 week lead times for. Things are just crazy out in the world right now.

But, I would like the Dennis Carpenter ones as they would look like the originals down to the part numbers on the back of the panels as you mention.  I will try to exercise my patience and waiting, but its getting hard to wait!

ckuske wrote

Yep, I'd prefer to get the Dennis Carpenter ones.  I've emailed them twice over the past six months or so.  Initially the person indicated the issue was due to COVID, and them not having enough staff to build the products being asked for.   The last time I emailed them, I just got "check back" and that's it.  I understand their predicament - I'm not upset with them.  At my work, we have processors and other electronics that we are getting 52 week lead times for. Things are just crazy out in the world right now.

But, I would like the Dennis Carpenter ones as they would look like the originals down to the part numbers on the back of the panels as you mention.  I will try to exercise my patience and waiting, but its getting hard to wait!

I know what you mean.  I am fighting with D.U.I. myself, ordered my custom built DSII Distributor from them March 20 and I still havent gotten it.  I keep getting the run around and shaking my head that it would be nice if they would just level with me and tell me honestly whats going on.  July 1 they told me that they were waiting on parts should ship in 3 weeks.  Waited 5 weeks emailed them no reply.  Waited 7 more weeks called them said it was shipped in april and they dont know what happened but would build me another one and ship it by end of week.  End of week nothing, called the following Thursday morning was told they would put my order to the front of the line and ship it early this week.  Nothing as of this morning so I called them after lunch, goes back to July 1 where I am told that they just got their shipment of cores in and will start building mine tomorrow hopefully and ship it by middle of next week.  I am over here shaking my head, if it was a core issue and they would have told me that back in July, I would have mailed them my original distributor I pulled out of my truck a few years ago for a new unit and have them build that one.

Its also like Jet-Hot took me a year and a half to finally get a price quote on my headers which I am not too impressed with the $101 shipping from Houston to Oklahoma City which puts the total cost at almost $700 to ceramic coat a pair of $280 Hedman shorty street headers.

Its really a huge screw up since 2020 and I dont see things straightening out any time soon.  Just today the dealership online I bought the alternator adjustment arm for my 302 build to modify for my 3G conversion that I bought earlier this year, they emailed me that they are refunding my $35.80 order and canceling it since it is now listed as discontinued.  I dont know how they can be refunding my money when they took nothing out of my account.  I checked and thats why I didnt concern myself with that order cause they never took a penny out.  Now they are supposedly putting $35.80 back into my account in a couple days.

Powerman5K, have they come in?

I had a set of panels I bought used at the very beginning of my project... didn't open them until about 6 months ago.  Turns out the plastic on the top of the panels (near the window) is very weak and is basically turning to dust.  I tried to fix them up but when I tried to fill in holes etc, sanding around the areas would have plastic get lifted up and flake off - they just would be so fragile it's not worth trying to use my SEM paint to get them the right color at this point.

So, I am in the market for replacement panels.  I just looked on eBay and there are a few nice used sets but they are going for almost $800   I noticed the Coverlay ones are around $450 now...

I just called LMC last yesterday and they said they just came back in stock. They are processing the order now and should be shipped within 2-3 days. I'll give you an update after I get them in/install. I'm also planning to custom fabricate handles for them from Oak or Ash. I refuse to pay at additionally $40 for the handles.  

Nice, thanks for the update!  Fingers crossed for good quality on these, they look better than the older ones.

The LMC panels just came in. So far so good. I don't see any noticeable difference in the thickness of the plastic molding. They seem to be identical replicas. You can see how they are blank and require you to cut out the openings for your door locks. They are easily marked on the back side for cut out.

Not sure if I'll get around to installing them tomorrow. I want to fabricate new handles first. Once I do that and install them, I'll update this post with photos and how the process went.

Those actually look really good.

Gary, I wonder if Keith had anything to do with this?

 

salans7 wrote

Those actually look really good.

Gary, I wonder if Keith had anything to do with this?

Good question, Shaun.  Let's ask him.

Do they come with the rubber/soft vinyl grommet for the door handle?

It has the same setup as the original but the grommet is foam. This is the only major difference I see. It also comes with the velvet window sweep.

Installed the LMC door panels today and they installed well as they should. Once on, they are solid and nice. They came with the plastic retaining clips. All in all, I'm very pleased. When I cut out the place for the door locks, it fit exactly with their pre-marked holes.

those look very nice. i cannot tell. is it a painted black poly core or is it laminated?

It looks like they are all made black and then they paint them the color they want them to be.

most now are painted but i noticed a very clean line at the window crank opening and wondered if they might be better than painted.