DIY door panels

[daddyo23]

Besides "borrowing" signs from my neighbors yards what's another good source for the coroplast?

Got a friend with a sign shop. How much ya want?

[Young Ed]

Wayne you are the best. I need enough to make the 4 door panels. How does it come? 4x8 sheets or?

[daddyo23]

I'll swing by his shop, see what he has and let you know.

[Norm's Coupe]

Wayne you are the best. I need enough to make the 4 door panels. How does it come? 4x8 sheets or?

Ed,

You will need at least one 4 x 8 sheet, not allowing for any mistakes in cutting. I used two 4 x 4 sheets for my coupe. I used a different material for the kick panels, so add some more for those.

[Young Ed]

Thanks Norm 1 4x8 sheet it is -I don't make mistakes

[Norm's Coupe]

Thanks Norm 1 4x8 sheet it is -I don't make mistakes

Ed, read that post again. Had to add the fact that I made my kick panels out of a different material. There was not enough to do the kick panels left out of the two 4 x 4 sheets I used.

[Young Ed]

Thanks. The kick panels for my car are a little complicated. They are part of a heat duct for the dual heaters and are curved! I only have 1 side to go by but they look a little more difficult then a flat one

[Norm's Coupe]

Ed,

I have the heater duct in the kick panels too. Like you said, they are harder to do because of that. If you pull one of those ducts off, you'll see you can't use a thick material. I used a thin flexible poly material that is used to make poly washers. That works great. However, don't know where you would buy that. I know the owner of a company that makes gaskets and washers, etc., saw it in the bin one day while visiting him. They had it left over from a customers run of washers. Was just the right thickness and bends easily, yet firm enough for the kick panels. When I tried to buy it from him, he said take as much as I needed and didn't charge me for it.

I used the old kick panel to make a new cardboard pattern with. Then just to be safe, I made the pattern a little larger than the panels are. Then fitted the pattern again, and trimmed a little more. Then I cut the poly panels slightly larger again, then fitted those during the installation before covering them.

If you don't have a kick panel to make a pattern with, I'm pretty sure I still have the cardboard pattern over the rafters in the garage. If you need it, I'll give it to you when you come down for the show in June. Again, it is slightly larger than the panels are, so you'll still have to do a little final fitting when installing your panels.

[Young Ed]

I've got 2 of the ducts but I believe they are both drivers side ones! So probably can just reverse the direction to come up with the passenger side one. Not sure though if that metal opening piece can be swapped side to side.

[Norm's Coupe]

If I recall correctly, the metal part can be swapped. It's just the ducts that can't be swapped. I know I did not mark mine when I cleaned and painted them.

That said, You can use one side to make both sides. However, the cutout for the heater is a little different on each side. If you make a pattern, you can then fit the pattern around each duct separately. That's what I did. Just didn't cut the heater slot until fitting the panels. I only made the one cardboard pattern. By the way, you will need the duct installed on the heater to fit the panel on each side. Then slide the new panel top first up under the dash and around the duct. I also remember they are a real pain to fit and get in there right. You have to first get the panel in around the duct, then get the metal part installed over both the duct and new panel. That's what holds the panel and duct together. Mine were a little harder to do I guess because I used a pleated stuffed covering for the panels, making them thicker. Had to go back in and remove some of the stuffing out of the pleated area that went under the metal duct openings.

[randroid]

Gents,

No wonder the name of that stuff has plum evaded me! I thought "Coroplast" was the name of a procedure used in heart surgery. Damn!

-Randy

[Young Ed]

I was describing it to someone as plastic stuff that looks like corogated cardboard. Suddenly the name made sense.....

[Norm's Coupe]

The stuff I have is solid poly material.

I have a couple of those corrugated plastic political signs in the shed. Don't think they would be big enough for the coupe door panels though.

[Young Ed]

Another question. My car is 120 miles away. Did you find your old panels to be a reliable enough pattern or am I tempting fate trying to do this without the car present for test fits?

[Norm's Coupe]

Ed,

The problem using the old panel to make a pattern is it will be automatically too big when you make it. That's because to make the old pattern you have to remove it from the duct and lay it flat. Then of course your tracing line will make it bigger too. Add that to the fact the original panel was just painted, not covered with material. When you roll the material over the edges, that adds to the over all size too, making the panel a little larger. Now, if you have added carpet to the front floor, that's thicker than the old original rubber mat, so that will throw the size off a little too.

That's why I said fit the pattern before cutting the panels. So, you can go ahead and make the initial pattern with what you have, but I wouldn't attempt making the actual panels until you have the car to make the fit with. I really don't know how much time I spent fitting mine since it was spread out a little each day. But.........I'd say it was several hours at least.

[Young Ed]

Norm I wasn't talking specifically about the heat panels. All the panels in general

[Norm's Coupe]

The rest of the panels are pretty straight forward. As long as you have one side of each, you can make all four panels. You just flip it to make the pattern for the other side. Actually, I didn't even make a pattern for the door and side panels, just used the old panel as a pattern. Just don't forget to make the clip holes for around the edges of the door and side panels. You should be able to trace those too. But.........here again, I did have to do a little minor trimming of those panels. That is primarily due to the tracing. So........if you make the door and side panels, don't cover them until you fit them in the car first. Fitting the door and side panels was a piece of cake and didn't take much trimming at all.

I used a fine point gold paint pen to trace mine with. Of course my panels were the black board. The gold paint line made it easy to follow the lines and doesn't come off while working with the new panel. Why gold instead of white. I raided the wife's craft supplies and she didn't have white.

[Young Ed]

We'll see how far I get. If I make good progress in a short time I might double check against the old ones and then call it good. If its closer to spring I might wait. Waiting is of course probably the smart way to go

[Norm's Coupe]

If you do it ahead of time, just don't cut the holes in the cloth material for the handles, stainless and arm rest. You can do that after you mount it in the car. Then if everything is lined up right you can cut small slits in the cloth for the handle post and the arm rest holes, and ashtrays etc. with a craft knife. That's what I did when I made mine, even though I knew everything was aligned properly. Glad I did it that way. After getting my rear side panels in I decided I liked the smooth look better in the rear. So, left the ashtrays out and the rear arm rest. They are packed away in a box.

[Young Ed]

Did you recover the rear armrests before not using them? Looks like that might be the only actual sewing involved with the door panels.

[Norm's Coupe]

Did not waste the material to recover the rear arm rest after I decided not to use them. They still have the original covering on them and are actually in good shape, except a little dusty. No rips or tears in them, but I don't want to get rid of them or the ashtrays. If I ever sell the car, the new owner may want to use them again. I even left the rear window cranks off. No one ever rides back there anyway, and again, it gives it a smoother custom look. No big thing, you can't roll the windows down in a business coupe either.

They don't look like they would be hard to sew new covers for though if you had to. If you are going for original type door and rear side panels, there shouldn't be any sewing on those. I had to sew mine because I was using both flat and pleated material on mine. The seam is under the stainless door trim. The front arm rest covers can be just cut and folded under. The metal piece under the arm rest will hold those in place. You just have to cut the material so it doesn't wrinkle when folded under.

[Young Ed]

I have to relocate my front arm rests to see how they are done. The back ones are for sure 3 pieces sewn together and are then stapled to the back. Mine look to be a different material then the rest of the door panels which seems kinda odd

[BobT-47P15]

Probably one of the trickiest parts of re-covering a door panel or anything

else is the corners. At least it was for me. All you need to know really is

how to clip the material on those corners to make it lay flat and not be

folded over itself. If you know any upholstry shop guys, or anyone who

is good at upholstry, they can probably tell and show you. Mine is not so

neat since I don't know the right way to do that. I just did whatever I

could figure out at the time.

I had an upholstry guy recover my arm rests and sun visors. I think they sew the

material inside out for the rests, then pull it thru to be right side out......and slip it on.

I think Norm has later model arm rests (54 Plym, maybe) on his car. No chrome trim on

P15 rests.......all material except the metal loops that hold them on.

[Norm's Coupe]

Bob, you are correct. I replaced my original door armrest and put in ones out of a 53/54 Plymouth. You are also correct about how to sew the front arm rest covers. But.......you can cover them by simply folding them under, then using the metal bar under them to hold the cover on. But.......as you mentioned, you do have to cut the slots at the curves of the arm rest to do that so they don't wrinkle. I was originally going to recover my original arm rest that way until I found the neat ones from the 53/54 Plymouth.

[Captain Neon]

The stuff I have is solid poly material.

I have a couple of those corrugated plastic political signs in the shed. Don't think they would be big enough for the coupe door panels though.

Go for a little cruise out into the country during the summer and early fall. Lots of 3' x 5' corruplast signs with enough material to make door panels.