Hey guys,

As promised here are the pictures of the new door panels that I made. As usual the old ones were wrinkled and cracking. I was going to recover the old cardboard panels, but they were pretty rotten too, so I decided to start from scratch. I ended up with sort of a volkswagen style door panel, as you can see the painted door above. I was originally going to paint the top of the door black to match, but the red has sort of grown on me. Anyway, here is what I went out and purchased....

1) I 8'X4' sheet of 5mm underlayment at lowes = $8
2) 2 yards of black marine vinyl at Joann Fabrics for half price = $13
3) Roll of black cargo carpet from Autozone = $10
4) Washers/screws/staples/misc = $4

I skinned the old door panel so that it was just the cardboard left over. Pulled of the curved metal piece at the top and threw it out. There is no way that I was going to try and recover that stupid thing and have it look halfway decent at the end. Use the old door panel as a pattern and trace it onto the sheet of underlayment. Cut out the new door panel with a jigsaw. Cover the bottom of the new panel with carpet about 6 inches up. Use a staple gun to attach. Cover the top half with vinyl. I did it in four inch sections so that I could have some nice creases that run the length of the door panel. This gives your eyes something to follow, instead of having the whole panel just covered with vinyl.

Pics are attached. I thought about doing a how to if anyone is interested. Enjoy!

Jamie

 

Man, if I wasn't going for the OEM looking interior, I'd be all over this.

 

Did you not use those stupid clips to attach the panels to the door?
How did you do that?

 

I like it Jamie. Simple, clean, classic look.

 

Nope, didn't use them. I HATE those stupid things. You can't get the door panels off without them ruining everything. They never go back on the way they came off. They bend when you try to put the doors back on.

Basically what I did was, pick all of the locations where I new I could put a screw without interfering with the existing holes in the door. This is much easier when the door panel is off. Then after I made my panel I bolted it up to the door using the bolt holes for the door pull. Drilled my new holes all the way around, and attached the new panel with some 3/4" sheet metal screws. Never have to mess with those dumb pop in clips again!

 

Honestly i really expected to see another poorly done interior door panel, but truly it looks very nice, well done!

 

Thanks Mike,

I wanted to make sure when I started this project that I didn't end up on that list of crappy door panels. This is my 2nd/3rd attempt at this project, and my previous failures really helped me in my design. The first time I thought that I could just recover the stock panel. It looked like crap and wouldn't fit back on right because I didn't use the paper thin factory vinyl. The second time I tried to make my own door panel and re-use all of the pieces from the factory panel, including the curved metal piece at the top. It just didn't work out, and again, crappy fitment and mediocre appearance were the result.

This time I decided to put the door panels on a diet, and remove the stupid dust collecting pockets at the bottom of the doors. I actually have more room inside the car now since I removed about 3/4" of stuff at the top of the door, and about 2" of junk at the bottom. I definitely have more leg and elbow room (which I need at 6'4"). I am a skinny guy, but I've still gotta have somewhere to put my monkey arms and stork legs.

The pictures don't do the door panels justice. The flash makes them look kinda bad. I'll see if I can get some better pictures today when I get home...

Jamie

 

looks very nice and sounds fairly simple to boot. great job. just out of curiosity, did you get a chance to weigh the old vs. the new?

 

I like it, nice and clean looking. What did you do about the lock since the stock panel kind of holds that in place.

 

I'm still working on that. I think that I'm going to make some aluminum covers that have a space for the lock to come through. I can screw those into the metal at the top. They should still look nice, but will keep that lock from wobbling around all the time. I thought about changing the lock pulls also, but I didn't know what the thread on those rods was after you take them off. Could I get some different ones from Autozone you think? It would be a lot easier if they were just round instead of ovaled....

Jamie

 

I did that to my old TE71 Corolla, but I used black screws instead.
You could have made pattern cutouts in the underlayment and used sprayglue to attach the vinyl in one piece.

I like the look of it.

 

Thanks! I thought about using 3M adhesive to attach the vinyl, but I really don't like to use chemical methods for attaching things. It always seems like rolling the dice to me. I think that chemicals are too sensitive about what they will and won't work with, so I generally just prefer to avoid them. Case in point. Plus, I thought it would look weird to have one giant piece of vinyl covering the door panel. I put it on in 4 inch sections so that I could make some cosmetic creases that run down the panels. This helps break up the large sections of vinyl, and also allowed me to pull it tighter than I would've been able to with one big piece.

Just out of curiousity, where did you get black sheet metal screws at? Would they have them in a #12x3/4" or a #10x3/4"?? Thanks!

Jamie

 

very nice ham!!!

 

 

Not sure what the thread is exactly but you could unscrew the plastic lock button and test it with some dies if you have them. I'm sure if you find lock buttons made out of plastic you would make them work pretty easily. Agreed that round ones would be easier to use in your situation.

 

looks realy nice

 

Auto Zone, Pep Boys, etc... they should have a fastener section that should carry some trim screws and the like that are black in color. Or, get some velcro dots with sticky backing and put them on the screws and then black cloth onto the velco.

Either way, I like that look. While I myself would be wanting a more restored look, it carries a nice racer's edge. That's pretty cool, it came out good.

 

those door panels look damn GOOD!

 

Thanks for the compliments fellas. It means a lot. I worked really hard trying to get these panels to come out nice.

 

works good..
nice job mate.

 

Just a heads-up:

www.mcmaster.com

P/N 90935A245 - #10x3/4"
P/N 90935A305 - #12x3/4"

That site carries practically every doodad from a mechanical standpoint out there.

 

the chrome screws?

 

Looks really nice. Now paint the screws.

I was thinking of doing a similarly simple door panel out of a sheet of aluminum ala old school hot rod, but that looks a bit better.....

 

Sorry to be the party pooper ... but me no like ... I would rather have a stock door panel made in CF. That would be more desirable to me. And as soon as I get my carbon fiber stuff going ... I hope on working on this.

 

Yeah carbon fibre is cool, but remember the crowd. I did something similar with an FB I had and it turned out pretty good. These are often $500 finds that someone is making into a jewel on a budget. So for the most part, carbon fibre is out. I say, good effort! But, that's just my opinion. Now if this way a $20,000 FD that someone was trying to fab door panels for from the fabric store, it would be a different story.