Interactive Custom Door Panels

[rhenry01]

OK First Gen'ers, when I bought my truck used there was an unidentifiable substance in the bottom of the map pockets that had successfully chemically bonded some pennies to the bottom of the pockets. Since they have that fuzzy stuff on them cleaning them was almost out of the question. Besided, my wife think that they make excellent junk collectors! Well I'm doing away with the pockets and I'm going to be doing it as inexpensively as possible. I am going to be taking lots of pictures so I'll post them here so you all can follow along. This is interactive so if you have any questions or comments, fire away.

The first thing that you will need is 18 (9 each side) of the plastic panel retainers as you are going to break them taking the door panel off. I paid $.35 each for them at a local auto upholstery place.

[92S10LB]

Quote:

The first thing that you will need is 18 (9 each side) of the plastic panel retainers as you are going to break them taking the door panel off. I paid $.35 each for them at a local auto upholstery place.

HAHAHAA! but yea id like to know mine are useless and have pennies stuck in them too (hmmmm factory option maybe?) so keep us posted

[rhenry01]

Take the two screws out of the door handle. If you have manual windows you have to get the window cranks off too, this requires a special tool, but while your at the upholstery shop ask them if they would pop them off for you real quick....don't forget to tip the guy is he doesn't charge you! (tips count, you'd be suprised how fast I get helped at the shop I go to!!!) Now just pull the panel away from the door frame. If you have power windows be careful of the up/dn switch wire the wire is attached to the door and the switch is attached to the door panel. Once you have poped all the plastic retainers lift up on the panel and it comes right off.....remember there 9 per door.

[rhenry01]

LAy your door panel on a solid work surface. Grab that nasty carpet that covers the map pocket at one corner and pull it off the door. You'll notice that there is a black plastic backing that is under the carpet. This plastic backer is attached to the door panel by melt-down plastic rivets, about 18 of them. Take a center punch and punch a small dimpel in each one of the rivet heads, you may have to rub off the carpet fibers to find all of them. DO NOT DESTROY THIS PLASTIC BACKING PIECE!!! We will use it later. Once you have the heads dimpeled drill them out with a 3/8 drill bit(or as big as you have.) It's no necessary to go all the way through.

[rhenry01]

Unlike what is shown in the picture above, the pocket doesn't come off with the plastic carpet backing. There are 4 more Melt points to drill out to get the pocket off. Drill these from the back side.

[rhenry01]

Here is a pic of the pocket that is removed with the rivet locations indicated.

[rhenry01]

OK, the nasty pocket and the ratty looking carpet are off. In the next series of pics I'm going to cut a melamine backing piece. Mark and attach some tee nuts to the backing piece. Pad the backing piece. Stretch some left over silver vinyl over the padded backing piece. Attach the covered piece to the door panel then reinstall the panel on the door with our new retainers. I'll have these pictures up as soon as I get the work done, I am out of glue at the moment but I may go get some tonight. This is just the passengers side, if you guys are interested I'll do a custom speaker pod on the drivers side. Let me know!

[xtremer-pxl]

Looks Good So Far!!

Lets See ya do a Custom Speaker Pod!!

[Basic]

sweet i hate those pockets, and it also makes your truck look custom somewhat, hehehee

[rhenry01]

With the door panel naked I decided to give it some clean-up and paint the plastic piece around the door handle and switches. So I used a lot of 409 to clean up the panel then removed a plastic hump where our new backing piece will lay. Here is the hump.

[rhenry01]

Here is a shot of the hump removed. You'll notice that the panel is upside down in the picture, as it was in the last picture. Sorry if this was confusing.

[rhenry01]

Now remove the arm rest so that you can clean under it. All you have to do is push it in the direction of the arrow on the picture. Mine was snug but a pop on the front with the palm of my hand in the direction of the arrow made it come right off. It was nasty behind there!

[rhenry01]

Edited!!!!!!

To remove the trim panel to paint it you have to remove the 6 metal retainers. After having struggled with mine for about half an hour I have decided that the only way to get the retainers off safely is to snip the ends with a pair of diagonal cutters and put new ones on to reattach the trim piece. After their off, pop out the trim panel, sand it, spray it the color you want then put on a couple coats of clear to help protect the color coat. Here is a pic of the retainers. I will have more to say about this later in the thread I just don't want to be hopping around different subjects.

[rhenry01]

This is why I wanted to get rid of the nasty things! YUK!

[kropelin]

For those of you that do use your door pocket, but you want it to look like new or custom paint it red or something unique, there is interior car paint.

[rhenry01]

Kropelin, on first Gens the pocket is lined with this fuzzy crap and you would probably have to use fiberglass resin to smooth it out before you could paint it. And we will be using the area where the pocket is to put a speaker pod to hold something a little more exciting than a map of Detroit! Maybe some lights too....who knows...we're just having fun here and we'll see where it takes us. Your input is always welcome! Stop back often.

[rhenry01]

This is the left over vinyl from a project my wife did. She picked up a yard of the stuff from the fabric store for $4.00 as a remnant but you only need a yard and the normal cost was about $8.00.

[rhenry01]

I had to buy a 4'X8' sheet of 1/4" hardboard because my local Home Depot was out of the smaller pieces. If you can find a 2'X4' piece, it will work fine. The cost for my piece was $10.00. You don't really have to use hardboard, if you have a piece of 1/4 plywood it will also work. We will also use some of this when we build our speaker pods so try to waste as little as possible.

[rhenry01]

Remember me telling you not to destroy the plastic carpet backing piece? This is where we use it again. Lay the backing piece on the hardboard. I lined mine up in the corner to minimize the cutting that I had to do. Trace the outline of the plastic backing piece onto the hardboard. You will have to make up for the missing piece where the pocket use to be but that is easy, trace as much as you can then connect the missing part of the line with a straight edge. I just used the flat part of the backing piece to draw my straight line! Don't forget to trace the inside vent opening if you are keeping the useless vent. If you want to get rid of the vent just cut the vent off of the door panel and don't cut out the opening in the hardboard and it's gone!!

[rhenry01]

Here are the tools you need to cut out the new backing piece. A scroll saw with a fine tooth blade, a drill with the biggest bit you have (not shown), safety glasses and a dust mask. The hardboard makes lots of dust when you cut it and you haven't lived until you have had to hack up a lung after breathing that crap! Use the safety equipment! You can also see part of the traced line on the hardboard in this shot.

[rhenry01]

Now cut out the new backing piece. To get you started on the vent opening use the drill to drill a hole (inside the lines) to make an opening for the blade of the scroll saw. Be careful and cut right on the line.

[rhenry01]

Clamp the new backing piece in place on the door panel. (your girlfriends hands do count as clamps!) Clamp it lightly at first and align the backing as evenly as you can in the opening. Pay attention to the vent opening if you have kept the vent. When it is aligned to your liking, tighten up on the clamps.

[rhenry01]

With the backing piece clamped to the door panel, flip the door pane over and mark the holes in the door panel onto the back of the backing piece. The picture I used below shows the holes with bolts and washers in them. I used this picture because it is clearer which holes I used. Use a pencil and trace the holes onto the backing piece as these will show us where to position our hardware.

[rhenry01]

Here is a pic of the hardware we will be using to mount the backing piece to the door panel. The hardware is

#6-32 x 3/8" Machine screws
#6-32 x 1/4" Tee Nuts
1/8" x 1" fender washers

I bought sixteen of each, eight per door. But we may use fewer than that....looks like we'll only use 7 per door.

[rhenry01]

Unclamp the backing piece and put it on a working surface. You should now have six or so circles drawn on the back side of the backing piece (remember you are now working on the back side!) . Use your center punch and dimple each circle as close to the center as possible. Drill a 7/32" hole in each circle. Flip the piece over so the front side is up and place a tee nut in each hole and firmly tap it down with a hammer to get it as flush as possible.

[rhenry01]

Now test fit the backing piece to the door panel. Run a machine screw with a washer in from the back side of the door panel. I had to trim one of my washers with a hack saw to get a good fit. At this point if you think it is necessary you may want to put another tee nut and screw in if the piece isn't laying flat enough. I am going to put another on in on mine. It's a little cold to work with contact cement today so the vinyl install will have to wait until tomorrow when the weather man says it will be warmer. We are almost done and you can tell what it's going to look like. This is a cheap mod to freshen up the interior. Here is a rundown on what we have spent so far:

Hardboard $10
Panel retainers $8
Paint $8
Hardware $7
Vinyl $4
Contact Cement $4
Foam $1

Total = $42.....That's cheap for two door panels!

Total Time it has taken me so far is 3 hours.

[rhenry01]

We have to trim the vinyl down, lay the backing piece on the vinyl and cut out around it leaving about an inch of overhang. The vinyl should be laying face down and the piece face down on it. Position the piece to minimize waste and cutting. This is easy.

[rhenry01]

Now cut a piece of foam (whatever thickness you are using, I'm using 1/4") to the exact size of the backing piece. We don't want any of the foam wraping around the edges. Remember....outside face of the piece should be laying on the foam as you cut it!

[rhenry01]

Since we are going to be stretching the vinyl, it is really important to get the first edge secured well. I like to start by taping off the area where I am applying the glue. Start you first edge on the bottom of the backing piece. Tape it off as in the picture. Position the vinyl, foam and backing piece as they will go together. Apply Contact cemement liberly to the taped off section as well as the vinyl. Follow the application directions on the can.