Interior door panels

[Mertz]

I have been working on building interior door panels for my truck out of mahogany plywood. These are fairly stiff and am wondering if I need the springs behind the handles. It would be a real pane to put them in. Are they there to apply pressure to hold the handle pins in place?

[Robert Harrison]

They are used to keep the trim bezzels up tight instead of flop around on the handles.  They are not to hold the pin in place.  If it were me I would put a little bit of lock tite on the pins.  

[Mertz]

I thought that might be the case. The pins are loose so maybe it does both. 

[Los_Control]

I think that looks pretty cool .... I might do something similar myself .... I wonder if using a larger hole so the wood panel did not interfere with the spring .... but the escutcheon does still cover the hole?

That may not work and may need to make the hole large enough for the escutcheon to be countersunk into the wood .... just ideas.

Dark stains would cover the exposed paneling.

 

I picture that door panel with a arm rest and a leather pouch/pocket on the bottom to store crap .... it will look really nice.

All sorts of ideas for edging around the paneling .... or again just dark stain.

 

Keep us posted on your progress 

 

[Mertz]

I wanted to make it look more like a woodie so I used mahogany since it doesn’t have a pronounced grain like oak. The trick was to get something thin enough to slide under the metal tracks in the door. I started with tempered hardboard but it was slightly too thick. I was going add the strips like the original with pin striping tape and use texture paint in black to give it some grain. You could also do it with the mahogany plywood, route in the stripes and paint it black or what ever color your interior is. A CNC machine would be great for making the stripes. 
 

The escutcheons do have pins that stick into the wood that might be enough so I don’t have to use the springs. 
 

I have the door and kick panels complete and am working on the pieces at the windshield.  I have to bend some the panel so it conforms to the curve of the windshield which I have done. I’m thinking about using some fender welting on the edge to give it a more finished look. The rear panels require a pretty good curve so I’m making them out of some rubber roofing I have. I also am using it for the floor mat. 

[Mertz]

I just tried putting the handles back on and I have a pretty good gap between the escutcheon and the wood panel. I didn’t use the springs because the wood panel is not flexible enough to work as they did with the cardboard. I will be using lighter springs and building a wood surround around the escutcheons to hide the gap between the panel and the escutcheons. Two hole saws should do the trick and they should look pretty good. I’ll send pictures when complete. 

[Mertz]

I built a trim piece above the doors and installed my handle trim rings.