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Door panel ideas


XXL

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Here are a few quick and dirty mockups of some ideas... don't worry about the colors.  I spent about 10 minutes in pshop on them.  The colors are already set by the materials I used on the seat.  

 

"Leaf" --

 

OLY305.jpg

 

and "slate" --

 

oly120.jpg

 

 

 

 

In each of the below, I moved the lower color separation line from the horizontal as it is on the stock panel, to a slight angle that roughly matches the seat bottom angle.  I think this makes more sense visually.

 

For the green insert portion, I will likely do a very thin pleat that mimics the pleat of the seat (only no more than 1/8" padding.  I don't want a pillowy door).

 

 

doorpanel03.jpg

 

doorpanel04.jpg

 

 

On this one, I took lazy to a new level and didn't bother to work it up in pshop.  I just penciled in the arc.  the idea is to have the pencil shaded part to be one piece with the other two gray strips.  The green would look more like a typical insert in a door.  A couple of thoughts, though... 1) it seems to beg for a traditional arm rest in the green part, and 2) I'm not sure the curve fits with the design of the truck itself.  

 

Comments?  Blank stares?  Ideas?

 

doorpanel02.jpg

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I don't have any suggestions, but I will say that you should get some good money for those original panels.  I went through great trouble to preserve them and get them looking nice.  I replaced the actual masonite panel as they were warped from years and moisture.  But the skins are in remarkable shape.  Nice to watch your progress!

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I don't have any suggestions, but I will say that you should get some good money for those original panels.  I went through great trouble to preserve them and get them looking nice.  I replaced the actual masonite panel as they were warped from years and moisture.  But the skins are in remarkable shape.  Nice to watch your progress!

 

I won't be molesting the original panels.  They will be stored for posterity.

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i gota go with the stock configuration or two tone top and bottom with strait line.

 but if you look the stock door panel seems to match the body lines on the outside of door.

i think I like stock style best . the others are cool just kinda remind me of old school

vw stuff . you gotta put the  Santa Cruz sticker on it then.

I will have mine made  like your stock ones , thanks for the pic because I had no Idea

what they should look like. i also got my seat design from one  Wayno posted on your seat

design. my colors wont be stock though hunter green and black . cant wait to see how it comes out . 

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I kinda like the stock design over the other choices. Maybe some 1" pleats worked into it?

 

Thanks.  In general, I do like the angles of the 3 modified examples I posted above, but I think you're right about the stock design... it really lends itself more to the simple nature of the truck.  The angles and curves are too "progressive" for a stock truck (perhaps if I was doing buckets, console, stereo, and a bunch of gauges... but not with the stock lines).  So... I agree.  I think I need to stick with the stock panel lines.  And I was actually thinking about very thin stitched pleats to play off those on the seat.  What I'm leaning toward at the moment is, rather than go with the 3 strips, just doing 2 strips of color... combining the top strip and main body into a single color (leaf green), and then the bottom strip in the slate gray.  That will give me a little more of the green on the panel, so it will look less like a racing stripe (which is why I had contemplated the angle before-- so it wouldn't look like a racing stripe down the door).

 

Now... what about the kick panel?  Do I extend the 2-color pattern onto the kick panel, or just make it a single color?

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As stock as the overall truck is, personally, I would keep with the pseudo-stock look of similar styling on the panels.  

 

Our panels in our 521 were covered in a plain black vinyl when we got it, as well as the seat with a basic faded canvas, so I re-did them at the same dimensions of the stock panels.  My initial go-around, I did a piping seam with 1/4" foam, and it sucked.  The window roller was harder to wind, and kept hitting the piping.  So, I re-did them again with a super thin layer of foam (maybe 1/16"), just to hide any indentations from the panel clips, and it was MUCH better.  And I just did the kick panels to match the stock color, and on the 2nd go-around on the panels did the center strip to match the seat.

With padding and piping

IMG_3479.jpg

 

2nd try with less padding and no piping, just regular seams

Lila2_zpsb80cfb02.jpg

 

IMG_0194.jpg

 

But, if you do go for something different, Madness did some badass panels a while back that I really liked.  (you can see his post of how he went about them here in his first post)

100_0664.jpg

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Our panels in our 521 were covered in a plain black vinyl when we got it, as well as the seat with a basic faded canvas, so I re-did them at the same dimensions of the stock panels.  My initial go-around, I did a piping seam with 1/4" foam, and it sucked.  The window roller was harder to wind, and kept hitting the piping.  

 

Thanks for the insights and the pics.  I see where the piping (or any other "thick" material) would cause a problem with the crank.  I'll definitely keep that in mind.  I do like your second panel better as well... hmmm...

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  • 4 weeks later...

Last weekend I pulled the door panels off the truck.  I was expecting them to be original, but it looks like someone scavenged an old write-on board to make new panels, then covered them with the original material pictured above.  I was planning to use the "original" panels as a template to make new ones out of 1/8" ABS plastic sheet, then store the old ones for posterity.  However, since they're not original, I decided to reuse them.  I stripped off the material and am setting that aside in case someone is looking to restore their panels to factory look (PM me if interested :) ). 

 

For the new covers, I'm going to keep the stock lines as others have suggested.  I'm doing the leaf green on top and bottom, and the slate gray stripe through the middle, with a French seam stitch where the pieces connect to keep things flat.  That will all be backed by an 1/8" foam, and then wrapped onto the panel.  The vinyl is at the upholstery shop now.  He's got a bit of backlog, so it will be a couple of weeks before I can get them wrapped and back on the doors.  Pics to follow.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I used a 1/8" padding to keep the panels thin, but the door handles were still rubbing slightly so I relieved the back side of the handles about 3/16".

 

Before--

 

doorpanels12.jpg

 

and after--

 

doorpanels13.jpg

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WOW! That interior is turning out great! I see just one problem... if you keep making your truck look nice, we will be forced to ask you to leave. This is RATsun. We have ratty rides here! :P

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 3 years later...

XXL,

What door panel clip did you use?  (I am looking for a source for a replacement to the metal button topped clip.)

Thanks,

Keith

 

Keith,

  Like this?

 

Clip.jpg

 

If that's not it, take a look at Au-Ve-Co's site:

 

https://www.auveco.com/

 

Lots of other commonly needed items in there also. All established auto trim shops use this company's products. 

 

Steve

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XXL,

What door panel clip did you use?  (I am looking for a source for a replacement to the metal button topped clip.)

Thanks,

Keith

 

Thankfully mine were 100% intact.  I think @difrangia may have you covered above.  If you find out what specific pn# works, please update us.  At this age, I'm guessing the world of Datsun door panels is missing about 70% of all clips.

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