I was wondering if anybody has ever made aluminum sheet metal door panels for a 85 rx7 before. I wanting to make some for my rx7 and I have never done aluminum door panels before and was wondering if anybody could help me out with what I need and how to do it.

Much thanks Adam

 

I'm getting ready to that very thing. I'll post pics when I do. A lot of my interior will be aluminum

 

Awesome that's sounds good man if you can do pictures of the whole process how to make the door panels that would be great as well mate. Cause I definitely want to make aluminum door panels for my 85 rx7 to cut weight down. How thick should the thickness of the aluminum paneling should be. 0.040"?

 

I'm not sure on the thickness you need, but I'd just look into a good set of drill bits, self-tapping screws, metal shears, and a Dremel for the small holes for the door handles and such.

I've always like the simple look of metal door panels and interior pieces as well - good luck on the project!

 

Piece of cake mate,
I didn't make mine from aluminum so i dont know what thickness you need but i would say no more then 2mm at the absolute most. But what i did was find a busted (trim falling apart) door card, and remove the trim from the wood (cardboard) inside without breaking the wood. Then place that done on your aluminum and trace around it. I think tin snips would bend then edges to much so its up to you what you cut it out with.
By now im guessing you have finished the job so if you have post some pictures up.

Oh btw when you attach it to the door panel you will have to put some sticka-flex or heavy duty double sided tape on the door to stop the panel from rattling

Hope this helped

 

I would consider using something like 1/8 inch or 3/16 inch plywood. I used 3/16 inch plywood for the door panels on a small truck, stained them and coated with urethane varnish. Each panel is fastened with about 5 screws. This would be about as light as, for example, .032 inch aluminum, but stiffer and much more quiet, less tendency to rattle.

If you use aluminum, you will need a larger number of screws. If you don't care about waviness, you could get by with about .025 aluminum. I used sheet aluminum for all the external body panels on my Stiletto, with thickness of .025 on the lower body, .040 on the doors and hood, and .032 on the upper body, but all these panels had some curvature, which adds stiffness. This is all 2024-t3 or-t4 aircraft alloy. Something soft, (condition "O") would be useless. Most of these have rivets on 2 1/2 to 3 inch centers. Unfortunately, with interior panels you must make them removable.

 

The weight savings won't be worth the work. I would use the time and effort elsewhere.