Home made Door Panels-1964 Comet

[joswald]

My brothers I am in need of suggestions on making door panels for my four door 64 Comet. The fronts are OK but I would like to try to make something nicer. The back panels are basically garbage. They originally are made with some kind of thin cardboard and covered with a vinyl. Is this board material still available? I thought maybe to use aluminum sheeting. I would cover it with some type of vinyl. My car wont be a stock restoration so accuracy is not important to me. I want to make it presentable. I'm all about making this car to my specs.

[lavron]

I think that thin cardboard is masonite and you should still be able to find some thin enough to build your own, I am thinking of making mine out of the same stuff they make cutting boards out of, the plastic kind, but I will have to find out if it will take heat.

See Ya,
Mike

[popscomet]

ALUMN sounds good,,but can you not go to an upholster shop and get the new panels ?? I would put a sheet of plastic on the door 1st,,,,you might get a low vibration ,,JMO....good luck.....pop

[Kingspeedy2]

Another option for door panels is to use "Door Skin" which is the thin plywood Veneer used on doors for your house. When they were real wood anyway .Any place that modifies doors or fine wood work place will have or know where to get it
Its usually 2 or thin layers of plywood veneer laid at a an angle to each other which makes it stiff i would guess 1/8 thick .you can coat it with varnish or anything like that to make it water resistant . Being dense wood ,it will take a staple or adhesive for the upholstery
if you do go with aluminum you can use "mounting tape " its thin foam with adhesive both sides to hold it on and to reduce vibration. Even a couple spots between screws if thats the way your going . Its sticks like you know what to a blanket but because of the foam you can separate the panel from the door with a putty knife.its cheap from the dollar store

[SASSY]

I just built new ones, used a product called puck board.
Its 1/8 inch thick vinyl sheet.
Was recomended by the upholstery shop that redid seats. Be sure to clean and roughen surface for gluing, I used standard contact cement, worked great.
Ordered from our local hardware store.
Doesn't take much to makem look good!
Fred

[Joe Travers]

Like new, Fred. Very nice job!

JT

[SASSY]

Thanks Joe.
To get the shape of the backer panel I picked up some heavy
clear plastic and taped it to the door. Then with a felt marker drew out the shape and marked where opening were.
Then transferred it to the puck board,,, but still mistakes!
The stitching adds a lot and was inexpensive.
A bit of foam backing adds shape as well.
Hit a few Youtube vids snd have fun with it
Fred

[tomb22]

Nice looking doors Fred.
tom

[SASSY]

Thanks Tom, I was trying to pickup the XR7 factory pattern in the seats.,,, Close.
Fred