CircleW -
There was not a real changeover on dryer doors, not during the platinum colored belt-drive washer days.
This dryer appears to be a standard capacity, and they retained this full-width door well into the 1990s, well beyond the days of the Platinum color. Eventually, they were simply phased out completely. The same happened to the other two WP standard dryer doors, the original plug-size side swing, and the plug drop-down hamper door. All three of these gave way one by one to the current larger side swing, so now all 5.9 size drums have one door type.
That said, there was a change on the large capacity dryers; there were two changes in fact, and both were made simultaneously. The 6.9 cubic foot drum lost a ridge on the bottom, and thus became a 6.8 cubic foot. Also, large dryers which previously had the full-width door got the wide-mouth door. This change happened in mid 1983, before Platinum was introduced (it came out in the fall 1983).
Thus, during the availability of the platinum color, both dryer doors were available, standard capacity with the full-width door, and the large door large capacity machines.
Oldskool's machines are actually one model year newer than Ben's. The control panel they have is the 1984/1985 panel which some of us refer to here as the panel without the lip on top. Ben's machines have a panel which debuted in the later 1970s, with their specific font styling first appearing on 1982 models. Oddly, models from both styling eras were in production up to or very near the end of the belt-drive era.
Gordon
