Custom Interior Door Panels

[Rustyfish]

So I thought I would take a page from @Oldschoolcuda and more or less copy what he did to replace the very sad door panels (cards) on my '66. Here is a picture of what it looked like to start. Originally, the car war dark red poly paint and black interior, I think. Later painted black and a funky silverish interior job installed.

So these were painted a kind of silver and may have looked decent when first done, but I doubt it.

 

[Rustyfish]

First I took the handles off. My arm rest has long since died a brittle plastic death so that's a project for another day. Once all that was off, I set to pry out all the clips. Amazingly only one was missing. Although in the end I didn't use them anyway. I may down the road buy some new repops, but for now these will do. The backer board had seen way to much moisture over the years, so it was wrinkled, bent and warped. Interesting documentation on the back however.

 

[Rustyfish]

Once the panels were out I thought I'd use the piece as a template for the new ones. I wanted to separate the vinyl from the backer so I could mark all the clip hole positions, but as it turned out I didn't use those holes anyway.

 

[Rustyfish]

Once I had the pieces separated, I got a piece of hardboard at Home Depot for I think about $7. I traced the pattern and cut it out as close as I could to the lines on my cheap band saw.

 

[Rustyfish]

Originally I was going to wrap it in vinyl, but I found it way too expensive and also I wasn't sure how I was going to cut out the clip holes. Plus I wanted this to be cheap and easy. So instead I decided to use some bed liner from Rustoleum which was about $8. Then I screwed it along the bottom with self tapping screws. I think it came out pretty good for about $17-18 all in plus a little sweat.

 

[Rustyfish]

Not sure what I'll do for an arm rest at this point, if anyone has any good ideas. I'm not really an arm rest user as I'm a fair weather driver and hang my arm out the window so any ideas would be welcome.

 

[Wagon of Death]

Shape a piece of timber ?? Seen it done, doesnt look too bad

 

[Oldschoolcuda]

Awesome. Very nice work. Like you i just dont use armrests.
Going to just use 90 degree aluminum stock to fab some up if i ever go that route.
Cut to length, cut out small area for hand to grab,round off all sharp corners and drill holes to match original mouting points. Paint, cover with vinyl or just polish em up & they will pop with the door panels. Probably cost $10 in material.

 

[Rustyfish]

Awesome. Very nice work. Like you i just dont use armrests.
Going to just use 90 degree aluminum stock to fab some up if i ever go that route.
Cut to length, cut out small area for hand to grab,round off all sharp corners and drill holes to match original mouting points. Paint, cover with vinyl or just polish em up & they will pop with the door panels. Probably cost $10 in material.

View attachment 1715219772

Love to see them when you’re done

 

[j par]

Not sure what I'll do for an arm rest at this point, if anyone has any good ideas. I'm not really an arm rest user as I'm a fair weather driver and hang my arm out the window so any ideas would be welcome.

Cut the holes out for the armrest screws and put an armrest on there?

 

[j par]

Maybe take some of that 3M adhesive glue and put Maybe the black headliner material? Kind of make it soft.

 

[Rustyfish]

Maybe take some of that 3M adhesive glue and put Maybe the black headliner material? Kind of make it soft.

Hard to see I suppose, but I did make the holes for the stock armrest. I'd have put mine back in but the plastic screw holes broke out. Haven't looked at the price of repops yet.

 

[j par]

Hard to see I suppose, but I did make the holes for the stock armrest. I'd have put mine back in but the plastic screw holes broke out. Haven't looked at the price of repops yet.

The plastic screw holes broke out of the armrest themselves?

 

[Rustyfish]

The plastic screw holes broke out of the armrest themselves?

Yep the armrests are toast. Holes in the door are intact.

 

[j par]

Yep the armrests are toast. Holes in the door are intact.

cool maybe you can just keep a good eye out here on the for sale and try and find a a couple on the cheap. Maybe even some mismatched colors that you can paint?

 

[MOPAR4Me]

Your new panels look way better than before. Very cost effective solution, cool simple quick fix.

For your next version, and some inspiration, check younggun2’s handy work out here.Building custom door panels

 

[Rustyfish]

Your new panels look way better than before. Very cost effective solution, cool simple quick fix.

For your next version, and some inspiration, check younggun2’s handy work out here.Building custom door panels

Yep, read through all the threads on the subject including that one. Super nice but way more custom than I was looking to do.