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