[rhenry01]

What you didn't see!

What I didn't show you was this. Since this is my door panel and I'm not pressed for time, I clamped the corners so that I know I got good contact. Don't get in too much of a hurry.

Remember this. While it has taken me three or four days to do this up to this point, it should only take you one day. I have to stop at each step to take pictures and let glue dry and things like that (and my wife keeps interupting me and the kids need help with their calculus!) You can cut all your vinyl at the same time, top and bottom for both sides and glue them all at the same time.

 

[rhenry01]

Speaking of the top panel!

While we're waiting for the glue to dry we can disassemble the top panel and get ready to cover it! I really wanted to wait to do this until after I did the bottom panel so that I could show you each step but it is getting kind of hard to stop at each step. So If you're not going to do the top panel you can skip these steps.

To get the top panel off you have to remove these 6 nut type fasteners.

 

[rhenry01]

Lefty Loosey

Pry up at the edges of the fasteners so that you can get a little bite with your needle nose pliers then unscrew them. The needle nose plliers are going to slip off and snap shut so don't let any of your skin get in there or you will be yelling multiple nasty words! You have to approach the fasteners from directly over top of them to grab the edges. The picture doesn't show this, just where to grab and with what tool!

 

[rhenry01]

Remove the staples

Remove the staples from the back of the door panel. Mine had 4 in it, yours may have more. Pry up one side of the staple with a small flat blade (see picture) and pull it the rest of the way out with a pair of pliers.

 

[rhenry01]

That's it, it's off

Here you are, one really naked door panel!

 

[rhenry01]

Remove the fabric from the top panel

This fabric should come off easily. Take care not to destroy the padding underneath the fabric as we will leave is on and just add more foam to it. Also take care not to seperate the cardboard portion of the panel from the metal portion. If that happens try some 5 min epoxy to glue them back together.

 

[rhenry01]

And here is the back side

The back side.

 

[rhenry01]

Look Mom......No Vent

OK! With the bottom panel semi-complete I wanted to show you what the dor panel would look like. I put the pieces back on the door panel but didn't attach anything so you could see the results. I like the look but I'm going to cut out the vent opening in the vinyl so that the vent is operational. I'm not going to show the steps involved because you can probably do them yourself. The easiest way to open the vent is to lay it on a work surface and cut out the opening from the back with a box knife or X-Acto, leaving yourself 1" of vinyl to work with. Trim the foam up flush with the backing piece. Cut the corners straight (not sawtooth) and glue the sides down..really easy stuff now that you know how to do it.....right?

 

[92S10LB]

man that looks sweet with no ugly useless pocket!

 

[rhenry01]

Now the trim panel

Here is the trim panel off the door panel. I cut the end of the retainer clips with a set of diagonal cutters. This is the safest way to do it. In the pic I opened up the clips to show you how to cut them.

 

[rhenry01]

Sand the trim panel

I sanded the trim panel with a 3-M SandBlaster 180 grit sanding pad. They make the job a lot easier than trying it with regular sand paper. Sand the trim panel until you are satisified with it. Wipe it down good with a tac cloth and get ready to paint!

 

[rhenry01]

The paint I used

HEre are the paints that I used. Auto Primer, Hammered Light Blue and a clear! I really like the results I get with the HAmmered paints and they come in a variety of colors.

 

[rhenry01]

Prime the panel

Spray the inside of the window and handle openings first followed by the edges and finally the top surface. When you do it this way you can see the spots you miss better. Here is a pic of the primered trim panel.

 

[rhenry01]

Drying the paint

I put a desk lamp right over the painted piece to help the drying process along. This lamp has a high intensity bulb that throws off the heat.

 

[rhenry01]

The Hammered finish

This is really different paint. I love the effect and it seems that no one else has discovered it yet......so keep it under your hat! All your friends will be asking how you did that!

 

[rhenry01]

Complete the trim Panel

Once the trim panel has dried (about 48 hours unless you use a lamp) give it two or three coats of clear about 10 min apart and let it dry again for at least 24 hours (unless you use the lamp.) The pic below is our door panel with two of the three parts complete. It is really starting to take shape now. I wish I had a slightly blue-er vinyl to install but this was a budget project so I'm gonna have to live with it! But when I do the speaker pods I'm going to paint them so I won't have to live with the silver vinyl on the lower portion on the door for long. Anyway here is what we have so far.

 

[rhenry01]

Another pic of the completed trim panel

I like it! Now it's on to putting the vinyl on the upper panel and we will be done with the non-poded door panel.

 

[fetuss10]

amn dude did u know hwo to do that or just figure it out on your own?

 

[rhenry01]

I learned most of this stuff from disassembling the door panels of my other trucks. When I pulled the door panel off of this truck I had no idea what I would find. I knew that I would destroy the retainers so I just went out and bought them so that I could put the door back together if I decided to do nothing. If you notice, there is no "before" shot of the door panel because I didn't know I was going to do anything to it until I had it off and apart. I looked at the construction and decided that I could do something nice with it. Speaker pods are a different story, I've been installing stereos for about 20 years and I learned a lot of tricks over the years. Everything I have done so far has been one-off custom work but the next set of pods I do I want to make a jig so that I can get reproducable results. If I can get a jig that is easy enough to use and I can get the material costs down I'll do door pods to sell to other S-10ers. I know that some of those Q-forms can cost $200... that is ridiculous. And the guys that want something really custom can follow my steps and do their own doors and hopefully come up with something even more exciting that I can copy! It's a two way street.

 

[fetuss10]

right on thanks man I may find myself using this thread