70-74 Dodge Challenger Doors

As I recall the 70 also has more lower door panel clips and the upper inner bracing is not as robust.

As far as I know, all the doors had the same # of door panel clip holes which would be 7 holes towards the bottom of the door. It's very possible that the 70 door panels used all of these holes, while the later door panels may have only used some of those holes, I'm not sure.

As far as the upper inner bracing not being as robust, I agree totally. On the 70 doors it is a single layer of sheetmetal, while the later doors use a double layer. No big deal as far as interchange goes, both would work.

The easiest way to spot a 70 door is by the oval holes the cat whiskars clips go into. The later doors use screws to hold the cat whiskars on. If you try to put a 70 door on a non 70 car, you'll need two sets of cat whiskars because the oval holes for the clips are right where the round screw holes should be, and you won't have anything to screw into. On my own car, I had a non 70 door on my 70 and used a dremel to make the screw holes oval so they would accept the 70 style clips so that I wouldn't have to buy two sets of cat whiskars.

I've heard that At some point, 73-74ish I think, the window regulators were changed from a plastic slider in the track, to some kind of roller bearing in the track, and that this new setup required a few more holes in the door for access to bolts for adjustments, etc. It seems there would be at least 3 different doors then. 70 only. 71-whenever the regulator change happened. After the regulator change.

I'll try to write more later. Still looking for those pics.

Tav

'73-4 doors are heavier and have extra bracing to protect occupants from side-impact crashes.

'70s (and early '71s) have provisions for the clip-in style catwhiskers as mentioned.

While I'm sure that there are a host of year-year changes from '70-'74 - external dimensions/appearance are all the same and they are fully interchangeable.

Hardware, latches and regulators will work in all, though as mentioned early regulators & glass are different. (11 hole v. 9 hole). This may have something to do with power windows....)

The door mirrors are different so are the mounting holes differently spaced or the same?

Spacing for the mirror holes (Rivnuts) are the same for all years - only the base is longer from '71-up.

On B-bodies, they went to a 'wide stance' in '73-4, which is not correct for E-bodies (though the shape/size of the mirror is the same

Thanks.

Found some pics, here we go...

First off, some info. This car is a 1970 Challenger with a scheduled production date of August 26, 1969. An early car, but well into regular production. The drivers door is original. The car was T boned on the passenger side sometime, and that passenger door was replaced with a non-1970 door. Due to other parts that were replaced at the same time, I'm guessing that the passenger door is off of a 71, but I'm not positive. I only know for sure that it's not from 1970.

Keep in mind that this is a comparison of a Drivers door to a Passenger door, so it's not exactly an apples to apples comparison. Still, as far as I know, the only real difference in mounting holes between the driver and passenger door is the provisions for the remote mirror cable on the drivers side. As far as I know, the sheetmetal on all drivers doors came with provisions for this remote mirror cable, even if the car came with a non-remote drivers mirror.

Ideally I plan on going to a mopar junkyard I know of and comparing only drivers doors. The drivers doors have the VIN decal showing build date, which will help me track differences. Until then, this is what I have so far.

That I can tell, the door skin did not change from 70-74.

The rivnut spacing is the same on 70 non remote oval mirrors, 70 remote short base mirrors, 71-74 non remote round mirrors, & 71-74 remote long base mirrors. Not all cars had passenger side mirrors, so if you're swapping a passenger door, you may need to fill or drill mirror holes as needed. I've looked into the subject of passenger side mirror location quite a bit, and near as I can tell, the passenger mirror location measurements are supposed to match the drivers side measurements, although a lot of people adding a mirror have just eyeballed it.

Although earlier Challenger exterior door handles are concave to match the body of the car, while later handles were flat to be universal with the barracuda models, the sheetmetal of the door itself remained concave in this area and did not change 70-74. For this reason, the earlier concave handles will fit best, even though they are not "correct" for a later car.

I think the stainless steel trim that goes on top of the door on some cars is held on with metal clips. A door with this trim would have holes for the metal clips. Adding or deleting this trim on a donor door for your car may take a little work, but could be done.

I haven't had a chance to investigate body side molding on many doors yet. Info is appreciated.

Tav

That I can tell, there were no changes to the rear end of the door from 70-74.

The door latch mechanism itself had a (somewhat inconvenient) anti-lockout feature in 1970, while 71-74 cars did not have this. Either latch will bolt up and work without problems.

If you had them, Door edge protectors just clip on, no mounting holes required.

Tav

Here's the front end of the door.

Power Windows were an option on the 70-71 cars. It's pretty easy to drill the wiring grommet hole in the door, but it would be more difficult to fill the hole if you didn't need it, so watch out for that if you're door hunting.

The thick threaded metal plate that the hinge bolts screw into inside the door is retained in place by bending metal tabs over its edges on the early doors. I suspect that the late doors changed to a welded in cage to retain the thick threaded metal plate, but I haven't seen this on a door yet. (I have seen it on the other side of the door hinge behind the kick panel.) This would be a minor difference that doesn't affect fit or function and is not visible after assembly.

Tav

This is a picture of the inside of the 1970 door.

Tav

This is a picture of the inside of the non-1970 door.

(The cat whiskar holes are oval on this door because I used a dremel to make them match my 1970 door so that my cat whiskars would go on.)

Tav

2nd pic of the same non-1970 door.

Tav

The 1970 door has a round hole here. It is not a slotted oval for adjustment like later doors have.

Tav

This non-1970 door has an oval hole to allow the guide some in/out adjustment.

There are also some extra holes. Any idea what they're for?

You can see in this picture where the round cat whiskar holes were at before I made them oval like the 1970 door.

Tav

The 1970 door has an access hole here by the window crank. If I remember correctly, it adjusts something on the manual window regulator. This hole isn't in the later doors. I guess they decided it wasn't necessary.

Tav

This non-1970 door doesn't have the access hole you saw in the last picture.

It does have an extra hole that is not on the 1970 door though. I'm not sure what this hole is for. It is not used for either the manual or power window regulators. Any ideas?

Tav

Here's the 1970 door again, showing the oval cat whiskar holes.

Tav

Here is the same area on the non-1970 door. Compare it to the picture above.

Again, you can see where I made the round cat whiskar holes oval shaped to accept the clips on my 1970 cat whiskar set. My cat whiskar set is reproduction, and doesn't have a clip in one of the factory locations, so I didn't bother to make the unused hole oval shaped.

There is an oval hole for an extra window guide that was added after 1970.

There are also some other extra holes, and part of the door is actually stamped a different shape.

Tav

Looking down inside the 1970 door.

Tav

Looking down inside the non-1970 door, you can see the double thick sheetmetal.

Tav

Well, that's about all I've got so far. Hope that helps.

Tav

Cool detailed posts Tav!

My only comment would be the 'top of door trim' (belt moulding).

For a 'Cuda - '70 used a series of plastic clips to hold it (with one metal on the end), whereas later years had the little studs welded to the top of the door.

For Challengers, which used stainless steel for their moulding, IIRC all of the clips were metal of one description or another and would've been drilled into the door. I'll see if I have any SE moulding at the house that I can check.


If the post is still going in a few months, I'll take some photos of my door collection which includes '70s, '71s and later years....

Thanks for correcting me YYZ, I've edited my post above.

I have 1 set of the 'cuda belt moldings & clips off a 1970 'cuda, and 2 sets of the Challenger belt moldings off of unknown Challengers.

I totally agree with what you said about the 'cuda moldings.

Yes, the Challenger moldings are stainless instead of aluminum. (I just checked.) Unfortunately I don't have much in the way of clips for the Challenger pieces. I have one metal clip for each side of the car. (I got the set with 2 clips from Ken Mosier at The Finer Details.) I'm not sure what clips would be used on Challengers. Info appreciated

P.S. Just to make sure no one is confused, The molding on the top of the doors is called belt molding, and on Challengers it is commonly referred to as SE molding. The reason is that this molding came standard on the SE cars. However, it Was Also available as an option on other Challengers in 70 & 71.

Thanks
Tav

I saw in another thread that the 70-71 doors have dimples where the screws go for the convertible door wedges, and that the 72-74 doors don't have these dimples.

Just thought I should add that info to this thread.

Tav

Hi peeps,

found this very interesting topic and like to add some questions.

Looking down inside the above 70 door, does not show the attached bracket on the drivers side, that I have in my car. As I remembered I saw this bracket already.

I cannot see what the bracket is for in my car. Any ideas?

Many thanks.
Thomas

Here the pic that I downloaded for comparison. But I think it is shown on the wrong place.

Thomas

And here too, advertised as "NOS mirror attachment kit for driver's side remote mirrors".

Thomas

Tav,

The 2 extra holes below where the cat whiskers go are for a small metal bracket that has a hair-like appearance (anti-rattle clip). There are 2 small Phillips screws that retain the the bracket.

Chuck

Anyone have a picture of those anti rattle clips installed on a '70 door? Also did '70 come with 2 anti rattle clips and 2 window stop bumps at the top of the doors for the glass?