f you’ve ever dealt with aftermarket sheetmetal, you know there’s a vast difference in both price and quality/fitment between your no-name generic reproduction, or “crash”-type (automotive collision repair), and the OE replacement panels. Generally speaking, you can attain decent-quality repop parts from most reputable suppliers that won’t require a ton of additional work to fit and finish—but if you want the best fit with the minimal amount of finishing effort, you’re going to pay a lot more for that convenience. At least until now, that is.

Golden Star Classic Auto Parts has just released their all-new OE-quality replacement doors for the 1977-1987 Chevy/GMC C10 pickups (also fits 1977-1991 Suburban/Jimmy). Having installed the previously mentioned Squarebody crash doors in the past, I was at first a bit skeptical about the actual quality and, more importantly, fit and finish of Golden Star’s latest offering. Confident they could easily dispel my skepticism, they offered to provide a set of their new doors if I were willing to find a decent candidate and install them for myself. Challenge accepted.

Fortunately, I had just the pseudo guinea pig in mind: my go-to Harley parts painter, Andrew “Bondo” Babish, who by pure coincidence was in the process of repainting his 1985 Silverado and, as luck would have it, was more than willing to forgo the necessary repair and prepwork his original driver door required and agreed to try Golden Star’s new shells out. For comparison’s sake, we went out and obtained an eBay crash door to install as well, ultimately hoping that if Golden Star’s claims were true, we’d immediately see the difference.

Along with a pair of new door shells, we were also supplied with a set of their new replacement hinges. As with any vehicle of this particular vintage, chances are, if the pins/bushings haven’t already been replaced in recent years, there’s no point in replacing a door and expecting it to fit/function properly without addressing that. Plus, in the long run, it’s often easier to replace the entire hinge (which has new springs to boot) than it is to repair.

So, with doors and hinges in hand and my son along to add an additional set of those hands, we dedicated one afternoon to put Golden Star’s new Squarebody doors to the test-fit test. You’ll have to read through to the end of all the photo captions to see how they/we fared!

13. As mentioned, the original door was already fit, gapped, and semi-bodyworked; the crash door would require significantly more of all of the above, but with the thickness of its sheetmetal being what it is, in our opinion it’s not worth the cheap investment.

14. Now it’s time to put the Golden Star door shell to the test—but first, Babish not only has to remove his old original door but the failing door hinges as well.

15. In the process of pulling the door off, Babish caught a minor snag—that being the OE power window harness, which routes from the forward jamb via rubber insulation boot to the door with a riveted collar. The rivets simply need to be drilled out for the harness to be pulled from inside the door.

16-17. So, while the actual R&R of the passenger side was straightforward and not complicated whatsoever, because we’re replacing the hinges, the driver side takes a bit more effort and time. In order to fully access ALL the hinge mounting hardware in the jamb, the following must be done: remove the front fender, gauge bezel, and instrument cluster (the dashpad does not require removal; we did because it was junk!).

18. Even though the old hinges typically leave a “footprint,” for good measure the old ones were marked for position (since the OE door fit well) prior to the new Golden Star hinges being installed.

19-20. Again, with the aid of my resourceful son, Babish bolted up and subsequently eyeball-adjusted the new Squarebody door shell onto the new hinges. Unlike the passenger-side door, the driver side definitely required two sets of hands, as well as a milk crate for positioning, due to its increased weight.

21-22. Even with the new hinges and the spot adjusting, the new door not only opened and closed as an OE door should, when closed the gaps were right on the money (a consistent 1/8 inch) with no bowing, no overlaps, none of that nonsense!

23. Granted, Babish still has to install weatherstripping/seals as well as the door latches and the front fender—but what he doesn’t have to do is major aligning, hole filling, or bodywork! Golden Star’s replacement Squarebody door passed the test—and we haven’t even mentioned the fact that it’s only a couple hundred bucks more than most crash doors!