Fixing Rust in Doors

[Bronco648]

Ranger: 2011 Oxford White RCSB XL 2.3 with 5R55E

I bought an '11 Ranger a couple of weeks ago with the knowledge that both doors had some (typical) rust in them; at the bottom of the doors including the seam. The driver's side is worse than the passenger side. However, there is no perforation, just bubbling.

I am not a fan of bodywork and prefer to let a pro do that and the paint.

That said, what might be the best course of action? Should I....

• Look for rust-free, white doors and just swap them out?
• Look for rust-free door shells and let a body shop use what's required to fix my truck's doors?
• Have a body shop source door skins and fix the doors in that manner?

I've been searching for white doors and see that they're priced between $250-300 for "insurance quality" doors. That seems to indicate that they're rust free and the paint may be pretty good (with a minimum number of chips/dents/dings). Rust free door shells are much cheaper (~$65) but then I would need to price out bodywork and paint. Door skins are about the same price as the entire shells but I'm not sure if the skin includes the door bottoms or not. Obviously, they'll need paint/bodywork as well. I'm not a big fan of the skins due to the unknown nature of the metal from which they're stamped (proper metal gauge).

Am I missing anything? I'm sure a lot of you have been thru the same thing. What did you end up doing?

TIA, Dave.

 

[2011Supercab]

Swapping out the doors will be the least expensive.

A body shop will probably charge a minimum of $500 probably closer to $1,000 for each door to fix and paint.

 

[JoshT]

what he said, and white is the #1 fleet truck color. I doubt the white Ford used on the Ranger changed in over a decade before, so that color should be plentiful and cheap if you're patient.

 

[Bronco648]

Thanks guys, looks like I'll be hunting for doors!