85-86 door body moldings on 87-93

GT86MSTG

New Member
Jun 8, 2020
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Medford, MA
Hello,
First time Fox body owner. I’m having trouble hunting down clean doors for my 86 GT hatch. Mine are rotted. I know they had the same body moldings for 85-86 and changed them in 87. Is it possible to install the 85-86 body moldings on the newer doors? I know they wouldn’t fit directly, but I’m sure there would have to be some drilling involved if it did work. I don’t want to convert to the newer style bumpers, I like the four eyes.
 
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The body side moldings are applied with adhesive tape. No drilling required. You should be able to interchange body moldings from any 79-93 car, knowing that they may not line up with the bumper cover molding profile.
 
The door skins are the same, there can be some differences on the inner frames with regard to how interior pieces bolt on. Very early model doors have a different mechanism with regard to how the door lock is actuated, but I believe they are very similiar around 82 onward. Going from 87 to 86 SHOULD work without issue on a hatchback, other than possibly having to make some extra holes for interior bits.
 
The one issue I see is the window beltline trim. The 86 and earlier clip on the door edge, while the 87-93 use plastic discs riveted to holes in the doors so the trim can slide in place. Just something to think about if you want to keep the 86 beltline trim.
 
Just for reference, my '84 has '91 doors on it. The beltline trim holes were welded up. That's all that was necessary. The '91 doors even still had the correct holes for the older inner door handles and unlatching rods for opening the door (uses 2 metal clips instead of the single plastic one). And by using newer doors, you can put door speakers in easier because they had the holes in them. The body lines match up perfectly to the fenders and quarters too.