Door panel repair Part I

    I finally had a couple hours to myself to work on the car. First, I have some business to take care of. Many people have e-mailed me and requested me to post a picture of my cellar workshop. They were curious to see what kind of mess I mentioned in my last post. I must warn you ahead of time that this picture is not for the faint of heart with weak stomachs. Yes, I am quite embarrassed for neglecting my inner sanctum for so long. I will definitely be spending some quality time down here this week.

*Notice that I have four doors for a two door sedan. Long story short, two are spares.

    On to the door panels…as you can see, the old particle board panels are in nasty condition. The one on the bottom was far from perfect but it was intact enough to be used as a template for the new ones.

    Since the panels need to be matched to the doors for fitting, I did not cut the holes for the window crank and the door opener handle until I had the exact positioning for them. Here are the new panels cut out of ¼” Masonite. They were just cut with a jigsaw and drilled with a 5/16th" wood bit.

    Before putting the vinyl back on to the Masonite, the panel had to be fitted with the clips to make sure that it fit the door correctly and all the holes were drilled in the right positions. This was a tedious job! Notice that the two holes are now cut for the crank and handle.

     More than half of the fasteners broke during disassembly because they were so rusty and fragile. I do not have enough to finish even one panel. I found a source for the fasteners and ordered more fasteners along with a few other parts.

    But now one panel is at least halfway complete. The vinyl skins are in very good condition. They just need a good cleaning. A couple spots need to be touched up with contact cement to re-adhere the the loose ends but other than that they are salvagable.

    All the handles have been cleaned and are ready for installation. At least I have all the original correct screws which are in reusable condition.

    Once the fasteners arrive I can finish the panels. Until then I have many other things to keep me occupied…like cleaning my workshop. Who knows? Hopefully I will find some more lost parts! Maybe now you can understand the color scheme for the blog...black (exterior), red (interior), and grey (accents). Yeah, I know...not that cleaver or original.

Thank you for visiting.

Toddy