Jump to content

DIY door panels


anthropoidape

Recommended Posts

Happy new year all.

Did a little job the last two days.

The old door panels (I failed to take a photo of them prior to dismantling them) had the effects of years of moisture and unreplaced window seals (probably the top left open a few times too) so they were hideously warped and distorted.

Unlike some other cars I've had from that era, it wasn't possible just to replace the backboard as the moulded shape of the door was glued to it with much better glue than they should have used. Plus, the original door panels have a map pocket where there should be a front speaker.

I wanted to reproduce the "embossed" style of the original door panel, which had moulded foam to create an indented area for the armrest and quarter window winder.

So...

A foam shape for the raised part of the door panel:



Metal parts were recovered from the original door panel.



A piece of ply to clamp down the next layer of foam and force the indented shape.



A separate piece for the carpeted section, which will cover the bottom of the vinyl and keep it neat:



Laying the vinyl... note there is a second layer of foam under that vinyl (didn't get a photo) which makes the indented shape smooth and makes the whole door panel soft and padded, both layers are 6mm so there is a 12mm section and a 6mm section of the panel:



Testing the locations of things. The chrome circle is from the plumbing section of bunnings; I haven't decided whether to use it or not yet.





The photos make it look less smooth than it does in real life. These are the hardest door panels I've done, even the Jag ones were simpler to copy despite being a more expensive car originally. The challenge was just the moulded shape but it has turned out really well.

I've also added central locking while I had the doors off.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

stag_ste wrote:
What did you use for the central locking, and does it work from both doors?


I just used one of those generic two-door kits that come with a remote... mainly because I'm so used to having a remote now that using a key seems odd (it should save on scratches around the keyhole too).

It works from the driver's door but you can make it work from both if you buy two master solenoids; most of the kits come with just one master and one (or three) slaves. It was a fairly straightforward installation.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

:)

Hi Swizz, I really wanted to do the dashboard and looked at it for a loooooong time. But it has too many tight bends for the vinyl, and it would end up with scrunched up vinyl or cuts and joins (which would look stupid). So I paid  http://dashboarddoctor.com.au/ to do it. It came back looking very good, well worth the cost to me. They use a vacuum method.



(That's the vinyl redone, not the wood).

I used to have an XJ-S and reskinned the dash with vinyl, it looked like new but I had to peel the cloth backing off the vinyl in some places to get enough stretch to make it work. It was too much work and the Stag shape is harder; I don't think you could do around the instrument panel without some kind of butchery of the vinyl that you just couldn't hide.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...