#1 |
Among the first things the TC I just bought needs, it could really use some TLC on the door panels. The dew wipes look like someone popped their fingers through them, the armrest pads are severely worn, map pockets gone, and the material is faded beyond belief.
Looking at my roomie's door panels he has waiting to go back in, it appears they're just made of cardboard material with a molded metal top that hooks onto the door.
My idea is to get a spare set of panels, remove metal stuff, and trace out a thin peice of balsa board or maybe sheet metal. The only hangup I can see is how I'm going to mount the clip retainers.. any ideas? I figure once I get a rough panel "frame" built, I can recover it with whatever material I can find that looks clean, and swap on a set of Mustang arm rests in place of the TC armrests to eliminate the door pull strap. The Mustang armrests have a handle built into them.
One idea for the door clips involves cutting out some retainers and then brazing them to the actual sheetmetal panel, but that's a crap shoot when it comes to vibration/perfect fitment... Another idea is to secure the cover material to the top of the panel and drill holes through the sheetmetal frame, push the plastic rivets through, then secure the cover material at the bottom before pushing the rivets all the way through...
I figure if I start with a clean panel, I can delete the factory speaker grilles, map pockets, door pull strap, etc and add in some nice door speakers and whatever grills they come with and it can still look clean...
Any ideas?
Looking at my roomie's door panels he has waiting to go back in, it appears they're just made of cardboard material with a molded metal top that hooks onto the door.
My idea is to get a spare set of panels, remove metal stuff, and trace out a thin peice of balsa board or maybe sheet metal. The only hangup I can see is how I'm going to mount the clip retainers.. any ideas? I figure once I get a rough panel "frame" built, I can recover it with whatever material I can find that looks clean, and swap on a set of Mustang arm rests in place of the TC armrests to eliminate the door pull strap. The Mustang armrests have a handle built into them.
One idea for the door clips involves cutting out some retainers and then brazing them to the actual sheetmetal panel, but that's a crap shoot when it comes to vibration/perfect fitment... Another idea is to secure the cover material to the top of the panel and drill holes through the sheetmetal frame, push the plastic rivets through, then secure the cover material at the bottom before pushing the rivets all the way through...
I figure if I start with a clean panel, I can delete the factory speaker grilles, map pockets, door pull strap, etc and add in some nice door speakers and whatever grills they come with and it can still look clean...
Any ideas?
'88 TC Walbro 255HP, Stinger FMIC, PIT BOV, Pro 5.0, Kirban, RR cam, FRPP strut tower brace, T3