Interactive Custom Door Panels

94337 Views 86 Replies 15 Participants Last post by rhenry01, 5 mo ago

rhenry01

Discussion Starter · Mar 21, 2002 (Edited)

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.

See less See more

61 - 80 of 87 Posts

kbirdjr

· #61 · Mar 25, 2002

Looks like my most recent project.

Great looking project. I am in the middle of the same thing. I have the inserts cut out ( I used 1/4" MDF ) and eleminated the vent but I cut a hole in the front (where the map pocket was) and droped in a 6.5" speaker. I had to get out the grinder to enlarge the square opening behind the door panel. I am real pleased with the results so far, they look good and sound great but I am anxious to see how your speaker pods work out since you have years of exp. doing that kind of stuff, maybe I'll find something that'll work even better than what I did.

BTW I have a set of Audioforms that do about the same thing but take up some leg room. If you wawt a pic for ideas for the speaker pods they are in the swap meet section or I'll e-mail 'em to ya.

DimebagDarrell

· #62 · Mar 25, 2002

yeah i redid mine, put a 7" and 2" tweeter in the doors, i just redid the front of my truck this last weekend and then am puttin my new air dam on this weekend, so ill provide pics of the inside too

Hadley Hellhound

· #63 · Mar 25, 2002

This all looks familiar!!

See less See more

rhenry01

Discussion Starter · #64 · Mar 25, 2002

kbird: Send the pics....always looking for new ideas.

Hadley: Are you following along with the thread or had you already started your project?

rhenry01

Discussion Starter · #65 · Mar 25, 2002

Cover the Upper Panel

Cut some foam to fit the upper panel. It should cover the original foam and not extend past it.

See less See more

rhenry01

Discussion Starter · #66 · Mar 25, 2002

Cut the Vinyl for the upper panel

Use the old fabric as a template and leave an inch to work with!

See less See more

SpencemanMMA

· #67 · Mar 25, 2002

Hey, I finished my lower door pannel project last weekend. I modified the pannels to house my 6x9s and covered it over with an automotive kind of fabric. I also embossed a bowtie design kinda thing in it....kinda hard to explain what it looks like, you'd have to see it. I've got some pics of it, but I have no idea how to get them up on here. If someone does, drop me a line at [email protected] and i'll send the pics to ya. Thanks, good luck with the mods....later,
Spence

rhenry01

Discussion Starter · #68 · Mar 25, 2002

Glue the upper panel

Glue this edge first. Then glue down the other sides. You know how to do this so I'm not going to post pictures. This is the last step, we're almost done!

See less See more

rhenry01

Discussion Starter · #69 · Mar 25, 2002

A before shot of the door panel!

Here is my drivers side door panel, it actually looks better than the passenger side did before I started! How ratty!

:barf:

See less See more

rhenry01

Discussion Starter · #70 · Mar 25, 2002 (Edited)

Here is our complete Door Panel!

Here is the door panel. I am still going to open up the vent but basically we are done. I really like how it turned out and it looks a lot better. I have a few more things to do to the door before I mount the panel (fix the power lock switch and clean up the backing piece for the switches and the handle) Then I am done too!

I hope this helps you get rid of your ratty door panels. Of course I am now going to do a custom speaker pod so you may want to wait to do the bottom panel until we do that. But go ahead and do the upper panel and the trim piece. Have fun and be safe....always wear eye protection!

I'll Start a new thread for the pods in a few days.....I'm doing the initial design work like measuring the clearance in back of the panel I also have to find dimensions on some speakers. Keep checking the 1st Gen forum!

See less See more

PisOnCavalier

· #71 · Mar 25, 2002

Wow, thats fockin nice man! This is a really great "how to"

Hadley Hellhound

· #72 · Mar 25, 2002

I already had the door panels off to install my power locks and ran across your thread. Then I went nuts with the cordless drill and just happened to have a sheet of plywood and some aluminum (which I haven't put on yet)

I'm thinking of a graphite tweed and maybe some flames :evilg:

xtremer-pxl

· #73 · Mar 25, 2002

That does look really awesome..now I am going to have to try it!!!
:angel:

SpencemanMMA

· #74 · Mar 25, 2002

I put up a quick page on AOL showing how mine came out. Check it out at:

http://members.aol.com/_ht_a/stevii/doorpannels.html?mtbrand=AOL_US

I did the lower pannels modified to fit 6X9's covered in fabric with an embossed design. Some notes for doing this: Fabric doesn't hide imperfections as well as you might think...make sure what you are covering is smooth. If you emboss a design, work from the middle of the design out. Thats about it all I can think of. Anyway, have fun and good luck...later,
Spence

92S10LB

· #75 · Mar 25, 2002

damn all you guys have some really great ideas for changing the doorpanels from ugly stock to a nice custom look. now i think one of these days i may have to try it myself lol

Nates93sTEN

· #76 · Mar 26, 2002

I've been following along. Great work. :bowdown:

rhenry01

Discussion Starter · #77 · Mar 26, 2002

Thanx Nate!

Hadley Hellhound

· #78 · Mar 26, 2002

Spence those panels are cool!! I like bowtie on the back it. What kind of matterial is that?

G

· #79 · Mar 26, 2002

Hey Nate, would yo mind telling me what wheels ou have on your truck? Sorry to get off track from the thread but I am looking and am not having much luck finding ones I like.

SpencemanMMA

· #80 · Mar 26, 2002

Thanks Hadley....they're not perfect, but they came out alright. I really want to fiberglass those, my box, and a custom center console (not yet built) this summer. When painted and done right, fiberglass looks amazing....i'm going to practice on some old pannels I have first though....it doesn't look easy to get that effect. The fabric I used is a heavy automotive-type fabric....its not tweed, but its about the same stiffness. I got it for a dollar a yard at Wal Mart and I actually intended to use it under another fabric I got, but ended up liking it better. Later,
Spence

61 - 80 of 87 Posts