door panel construction, for newbs Options

[r3dplanet]

Peeps,

Allow me to begin by stating that I've never done this before. Well, not for twenty years anyway when I was an undergrad working in a furniture restoration shop as a college job.

I bought one of Mikey914's cool new fiberglass door panel and vinyl kits as seen here:
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...10198&st=20

For additional reference: http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...=54608&st=0

Armed with this how-to, I'm off to work in an empty bedroom because it's Portland, WCR is three weeks away, and it's pouring rain outside.

I admit I'm lost without a stapler. There are two things I don't know how to do. I have the aluminum strip riveted in and the bolster is nicely aligned with positive lock. But I don't know exactly how to attach the vinyl on the backside without a stapler. Sure there's contact cement, but it doesn't seem like that would work conveniently because you can't just inch your way along and keep the vinyl nice and and tight around the corners.

Any ideas from those smarter than I?

-marcus

[rjames]

The problem with just using a flat piece of fiberboard is the top bolster. Just curious how you address that as there is a curve in it. Looks like you may have taken the top off the old panel and attached it somehow?


Thanks for putting this out there I've been too busy to even get mine done, but I'm going to have to as WCR isn't that far away.

-Mark

The early door panels, the top is actually metal, so the whole board part is flat.

Yup. I re-used the metal top part from an early model door panel and attached it in the same way to the new panel I made. On the later cars ('75-'76) the whole thing was fiberboard. So if you've got a later car and want new panels you either use the fiberglass version shown in this thread or find a set of cores from an early car.