Door Panel ideas

[motorbreath53]

I've got broken door panels. The P/O must have been a short fella, and used the storage pockets as handles. They are also dry rotted and cracked at the top.

I'm having trouble locating someone that makes them. Seems like LMC truck only has them for the pre-93 trucks.

Better yet, has anyone covered their old door panels with vinyl, leather or somthing of the like? (of course, i'd at least structurally fix the cracks first.)

 

[The Warden]

The easiest answer is, is there a Pick n' Pull or similar wrecking yard nearby? Depending on what part of the country you're in, you may find a set of used door panels in good shape. The further south you are, the less likely you will be to find panels that haven't been sun-damaged...

 

[motorbreath53]

San Diego is pretty far south...

All the panels i've found in the pickyer parts have been worse off than mine.

 

[typ4]

still got that bus trans?

 

[motorbreath53]

negative on the bus box...

 

[88IDITurbo]

Better yet, has anyone covered their old door panels with vinyl, leather or somthing of the like? (of course, i'd at least structurally fix the cracks first.)

Anyone ever cover their door panels in vinyl or leather? I have recently been thinking about this for similar reasons that motorbreath53 has. The PO of my truck got wild with wood screws and speaker installs and I would like to repair the panels and cover in black vinyl.

Any examples out there of this being done?

 

[bayou]

take it to a upholstery shop and tell them what you want. thats what we do on the hot rods.

 

[88IDITurbo]

take it to a upholstery shop and tell them what you want. thats what we do on the hot rods.

I got an estimate for $350 per panel for covering and $185 for dyeing. For that kind of price I can figure out how to do it on my own. Just want to see if anyone here has done this and what the final product looks like.

 

[bike-maker]

Not door panels, but I covered my stock dash and headliner in Ultraleather. Didn't turn out as nice as I wold have liked, but considering my experience in upholstery work (none) it's not bad. And my dash pad took some serious stretching to get around some of the curves. I think vinyl would be easier to work with.

 

[91idi]

My door handles are solid oak.

 

[88IDITurbo]

Not door panels, but I covered my stock dash and headliner in Ultraleather. Didn't turn out as nice as I wold have liked, but considering my experience in upholstery work (none) it's not bad. And my dash pad took some serious stretching to get around some of the curves. I think vinyl would be easier to work with.

Do you have any other photos of this? Side shot maybe?

 

[bike-maker]

Here's the thread from when I got the dash put together.
http://www.oilburners.net/forums/showthread.php?t=50742
All the photos I have are right there in the first post. I was concentrating more on the dash inserts at the time, so let me know if you want more pics.
It took 2 attempts to wrap it; the first attempt I only used 1 coat of contact adhesive, and the glue just wasn't holding. The second try I used 2 coats and it stuck just fine. Of course I had already trimmed part of it at that point, so to make it work, I ended up with a seam right down the middle (you can spot it in the middle right under the clock). Not what I would expect out of a professional job, but it's good enough for now.

 

[RLDSL]

Not door panels, but I covered my stock dash and headliner in Ultraleather. Didn't turn out as nice as I wold have liked, but considering my experience in upholstery work (none) it's not bad. And my dash pad took some serious stretching to get around some of the curves. I think vinyl would be easier to work with.

You can always get leather wet and stretch it around things. Vinyl pretty much is limited to bending. I've been studying what you did and scoping out the stock at the local Tandy leather supply and they have some pretty nice supplies of large stuff that is not too thick to work with, they're REAL proud of it though

 

[bike-maker]

The Ultraleather I used was really stiff. It took a lot of muscle, a heat gun, and beating the hell out of it with my hand to get it to conform. The vinyl I've seen feels like it would stretch easier, but I don't really have any experience working with it.