My other project this weekend is getting the door panel trim painted and installed. After doing the horn install I only had time to paint one trim piece before dinner.

What do you guys think? The one on top was tan, and I'd just painted it maroon. The one on the bottom was a good one I found at the salvage yard for the rear door in stock Maroon.



The dye is not exactly the same color. It's close, but not a perfect match. My main complaint is that is goes on dull...like a satin, and the original one has more gloss. It'll be fine for the door handle trim, but I'm not sure about painting the large lower door panel part with this stuff. It may look...off.

We'll see tomorrow.

Oh and I've got a silver paint marker ready for the Concert Sound script...and will do that as soon as the dye is totally dry tomorrow. You know I won't forget that...

-Mike

Looks pretty good from my computer, is that the SEM? If you paint the lower panel, it's not in the line of vision, so you might not notice it as much. Try painting before you install the lower panel and give it a look see. Also, sometimes paint looks different on different types of material. I have seen some poor matches with that color paint, but that's awful close.

Tom C.

Not a bad match at all. Goes well with the '57 there too.

Looks fine to me.

Thought about it some more, paint the lower panel! Probably, 2/3 to 3/4 of the surface is carpet. satin finish won't make a difference. Very little hard plastic is painted. I think I would have grabbed that maroon panel as rare as they are.

Tom C.

mike why don't you want to fix your own door panel??
have you ever used/seen PLASTEX?? i have a few repair kits left, basically a plastic powder that gets mixed with liquid catalyst,. repairs and builds plastic,.you can sand it and paint it after it dries,. i,ve fixed all kinds of plastic interior trim with the stuff,.the black is easier to paint over for some reason,.
especially handy for the broken tabs on the door pads, where the "christmas tree" popper doohickeys are held on,.
nohwutimeen?

Nick

http://plastex.net/

My old door panel is now cracked in two pieces. I was going to try to fix it, but found that unbroken tan panel and am going to see how it looks painted. If it does not come out well I may still try to fix what I already have.

My other project is getting the Christmas Tree mounts...re-mounted. I found out why my door panels rattle when you close them. A good portion of those mounts are broken off thanks to whover fixed my windows before I bought the car.

Anyway that's my afternoon project. Will let everyone know how it comes out later.

-Mike

you can cut the pieces off one panel,and add them to yours with plastex,. it really is great stuff,.

nick

Hi Gang. Did not get as much done today as I would have liked, because as usual something came up. Did get some pics for you all though, below.

Dad came over in the 97 S-10 to see the boys, and when he went to leave he got in the truck, pushed the accelerator, and the pedal went to the floor, limp. Say what? Only 170K miles on the truck, how dare that fail! Ha!

I pulled the hush panel under the dash and the cable had snapped right at the pedal assembly, up high where it clips on. DOH! I popped the hood and figured out how the cable came off, and we ended up going to Wrench-A-Part in South Austin and pulling two cables off some junkers. One to fix the truck, and one for a spare.

Came home and the cable went on in 5-mins. Much easier to install than to remove.

Sadly that adventure cut into my Roady interior work this afternoon, but I DID get some work done. Here is the latest, with pics!

First, I'd meant to post these pics yesterday. I had to remove the speakers from the door panel trim, and did not know quite how to do that without breaking them. Trial and error, I figured it out. Pics suck on these first ones, was in my kitchen. Sorry for the quality.

Here is the broken handle trim from the passenger side front door. Notice how big the hole is around where the handle comes through the trim. It's driven me crazy for a year now!


First I used my cutting wheel to grind off the four mounting areas in the corners where the speakers are attached:



There is a black mounting plate attached to the trim itself, and I pried the speakers off between it and the speaker...carefully...with a flathead screwdriver:



Once off I re-attached my speakers the newly-painted trim panels using Epoxy. I aslo moved power lock button and slider assembly to the new trim. This is easy and straightforward, they pry off the old trim and snap on the new.

Here's some more work in progress.

I removed the tan carpet from that panel I got at the salvage yard, and then scrubbed it well. I also cleaned the other tan front door panel handle trim piece, then took both outside to SEM them.

Before:



And painting with SEM:





Next I layed them out on the driveway in the sun to bake:




While these were drying I pulled the passenger front door panel off. Sure enough, three Christmas Tree clip mounts were broken off...now I know what that panel has always rattled when the door is closed and creaks if you rest your leg on it while riding in the car! I Epoxy'd three new clips to the broken spots. I also removed the old speaker, lock switch and slider from the broken door handle trim and installed them on the freshly-painted part. I then got out the paint marker and CAREFULLY re-painted the Concert Sound II lettering.

I re-attached the door panel with new clips, and then installed the handle trim and pull strap. WOW it look great! It does not rattle, creak, or move around at all now. For the first time since I bought the car the passenger front panel is "right". The color of the SEM also matches the door panel much better than I thought when it was off the car.

Here is the finished product. Can you believe that handle trim was tan yesterday? Ha! The flash makes the panel look discolored and the chrome dull, but in person it's an even deep red and it all shines great. I'm really happy with it!




One down, three panels to go. The back ones are not broken externally, but both feel loose so I'm betting some Christmas Tree clips are missing. The driver's side front is going to take the most work. I've get to seperate the top and bottom of the old panel, plus remove the old carpet and packet assembly from the old panel, and then re-attach all that to my newly-painted lower salvage yard panel. Such fun!

Oh and as mentioned we ran to Wrench-A-Part this afternoon. Nothing new on the Roady front but there was one cool car there that was worth looking at. Thought you might get a kick out of this one.

1961 Buick LeSabre 4-door hardtop. This car was VERY solid, had tons of good chrome on it, good bumpers, perfect tail lights, and the engine and complete factory a/c system were still under the hood.

BUT the coolest thing was the speedometer. The speedometer mounts flat on the dash, pointing up at the ceiling. Just behind and above it is a mirror, and THIS is what the driver looks at what driving, the reflection in the mirror! Neat! Also the mirror is attached to rolling knobs so you can adjust it's angle to better see the speedo reflection. Reall unique and very 60's idea. Check out the pics.

Look at how HUGE those front brake drums are!

Perfect tail lights and nice trunk crest emblem

And here is that wacko speedometer/mirror setup:




That was my Sunday gang. Hope you all had a good weekend!

-Mike

Yep I bet they would! Ha!

Funky design!

Mike the door panels turned out great.Noticed any difference in the rattle you said was driving
you nuttier than you already are.LOL keep up the good work and practice makes perfect.
Jim Gordon

Woah, looks like a good match to me Glad you are finding some relief from the rattling door panels and cracks!!

Yep the passenger front door is great now. No rattles, no creaks, and no cracks. Woo-Hoo!

The driver's front door panel is going to be a bigger project. I've got to take it all apart and then epoxy it all back together. Saving that chore for this weekend.

-Mike

Ok got fired up after work last night and tore the driver's front door panel off. Worked on the panel for hours.

Here's the start. The trim around the door handle has been broken since I bought the car....driven me crazy...and the crack on the door panel itself in front of the arm rest keeps spreading and will be to the edge soon:




On pulling the door panel off for this first time, this is what I found. Look like someone tried to fix the crack once before, and it's a bad crack, goes all the way under the arm rest...no wonder this panel rattled when the door closed. Also many of the panel clips had been broken off...some were still glued on.


CAREFULLY serperated the upper panel from the lower panel, and also removed the carpeted pocket storage area from the lower panel



Next I lightly sanded where the panels were to be joined, and used Plastic Weld Epoxy to attach the old upper and new lower panels together, added the epoxy, and then clamped everything together.




Next I used my grinder to carefully take the carpet off the edges of the lower storage pocket where it will be attached to the new lower panel. Then I used the epoxy to attach the pocket to the lower door panel, and used a jackstand to hold it onto the panel so the epoxy could set:


I also used epoxy to attach new Christmas Tree clips to the broken mounting points on the new salvage yard panel.

While the panel was setting, I got to work on removing the carpet trim from the broken door panel. This proved to be the hardest part of the entire job. That carpet was ON THERE. If I pulled too hard it tried to tear. I used a hair drier to try to soften the glue, but it did not help, so I ended up using a razor blade and "sawing" the carpet off. What a PAIN, but I finally got it off:


I went and set the carpet on the new panel, and it was now longer than the panel!! Ha! I'd stretched it all out removing it! Notice how the end of the carpet is sticking up. This was about 11pm.


I trimmed the carpet to the correct size, and used headliner spray adhesive to glue it to the new panel. Next I turned the panel back over and used the spray adhesive to re-attach the insulation. Almost done!


While the panel dried some more, I carefully removed the speaker from the broken door handle trim panel, and used the plastic weld epoxy to attach it to the new;y-painted, none-broken panel. I moved the lock switch and slider as well, and also added epoxy to the area on the back of the trim where these commonly crack...hopefully that won't happen to this new panel. Then I pulled out the paint marker and painted the Concert Sound II lettering. I also installed my new power window switches in the black switch panel.


DONE! This is at 2am. It came out really well and I can't wait to put it back on!



Don't tell my wife I put that on her couch....

I let the panel dry all night and am planning to re-install it today, but I still have not figured out why the doop panel light will not come on when the door is opened. Still chasing the wires. As soon as I figure that out I'll post pics of the finished panel installed back on the car.

Such fun!

-Mike

Wow nice job Mike. And see, you were all nervous about doing it

SEM is some great stuff to work with.

Nice job and the color looks great. Like you said several times Mike, don't put the panel back on until you have figured out the wiring. Those trees are really only for one install, after you have pulled them out once, you may as well throw them away. as they don't hold that good the second time.

Tom

Well I found the reason why the light on the door panel doesn't work. Chased the wire into the dash and for some reason it's tied to the aftermarket alarm mess that I disconnected when I bought the car. According to the thermometer outside the current temp is 103 degrees, so I'm not messing with that today.

On the upside, since the issue is not in the door, I got to put the panel back on. Looks good!

No more cracks!



See the black plug in the wood above the headlight switch? That was a flashing LED for the alarm when I bought the car. Drove me nuts so I removed the LED and plugged the hole but never took that alarm mess out.



Such fun!

-Mike

I guess it doesnt matter that I found some maroon door panels on Ebay yesterday.Guy wants
100 bucks each and they are all from a Caprice but would have worked.
Jim Gordon

SWEET! Looks great Mike Very good job!!


Chris