make your own door panels with original pattern

[willy3486]

Click on the picture to see a larger image.
I made a pattern for the original plastic door panels. My originals had long since went to the trash bin and I wanted some that looked like the originals but I didn’t want to spend 200 bucks. I have a pattern I will post also at the end I drew up measurements from a pic of a door panel I had. First you need to take some paper wider and longer that the actual door panel. Then I took the chrome and taped the 3 pieces, (top, corner and bottom) with masking tape where they connect. Then I laid it out on the paper and the end that is open on the chrome towards the dash I had a distance of 10 inches from the top to the bottom. 10 inches is the distance when it is mounted on the truck. Then I used a pencil and traced the OUTSIDE of the chrome piece on the paper. Then I trimmed it out as shown.

[albumimg]251[/albumimg]



Then you take the pattern, which should have the basic shape of the panel and measure down from the top part and mark with a dot starting at the corner where the screw is 1-¼ inches about every 1-2 inches. Do this until you are over the door pull area in about the middle of the door pull just before the panel starts to go down. Then take the top piece and lay it on the dots or marks you just made and trace it out until you are about over the door pull. As shown here.

[albumimg]252[/albumimg]

Then at the bottom make a mark 2 inches up , start at the end toward dash and make 2-3 more lines all the way across the bottom and lay out a yardstick all the way across. Do this in pencil because you will have to erase later. Then on the piece that is on the top make a mark 1 ½ inches about where the tab would be that holds the trim, see next photo.This is the second tab holder from bottom. Then line up the dot you made with the top trim and line the trim up with the line at the top you already drew and connect the 2. Now you just need to connect the line at the top and the long line at the bottom. I did this with a quarter. I traced part of the curve as shown in this photo.


[albumimg]254[/albumimg]

After you do this you can see the line that is indented into the plastic is started to take shape. Then the only lines left are the vertical lines. I got those by the bottom line that is 2 inches up . I went to the very back of the panel where the door pull is and measured in 4 inches and made a mark. Then I measured again 3 ¼ inches. I measured out until I was almost to the end 3 ¼ inches as shown in this pic as brown

[albumimg]255[/albumimg]

This has all measurements of the pattern. Then using a square I made a line from each mark to the top line and erased all the extra lines then I highlighted the lines with a marker as shown with the pulls,trim and handles over the pattern. What I am going to do is to get some vinyl and fold it over and sandwich some quilt batting between it. Then my better half is going to sew some blue thread in the lines I have drawn out on the vinyl. One word of caution, do not cut out holes for the door pull bolts, window and door handles until you have this sewn up. Also you will need to trim up around it where the chrome will go. This is due to the pattern being the same size. I am going to start out with ¼ inch; this will depend on your thickness of panel material. Then after I get it the right size and the chrome fits right I will cut the holes for handles and door pull bolts. If you have any questions let me know here if you don’t get a reply from my hotmail account, my hotmail account is acting up. Hope this helps someone.

And now this is what it should look like.


[albumimg]256[/albumimg]


And the finished product

[albumimg]253[/albumimg]





Couple of other things to do. One to make a spacer to go between the vinyl and handle so that the handle won't cut into the vinyl. You can make it out of a plastic milk jug ,just cut a flat piece out. sandwich it between 2 scraps of wood and drill a hole in the sandwich slightly thicker than the shaft handle. So it will be snug on it. Then you can slide the plastic on the shaft and then put the handle on and draw around it to cut out the disk. The reason for the sandwich is that if you just drill the plastic it tends to pull and warp the hole. By using the wood to hold the plastic its a smooth hole and looks like a hole created by a punch press. The next trick is sometimes the handles will strip off and the groves are gone. To remedy this I marked on the shaft that came out where the screw in the door or window handle would go into the shaft. I then drilled a hole there a little bigger than the screw . Then go to a hardware store for a screw thats slightly longer and correct threads for the handles. Then when you put them back on the new screws will go into the shaft and no more opening the door and off goes the handles

[MadMaxetc]

we can't see your C:\ drive

You should upload your pics to you galery on this site or to a site like http://www.PhotoBucket.com

Thanks for posting the how to!

[willy3486]

I was trying to add photos but couldn't figure out how to insert them . Is there a easy way to do so? It was easy on the old one. I uploaded in my photo area but could not get it here. I will try again. I left the address so I would know which one to use.

[MadMaxetc]

you can go in and edit your posts, so you don't have to retype or add to it.

to incert a pic you have to go to your album (or someone elses) and copy the URL and then paste it in you mesage.

To get to your album just right click on album and "Open In New Window" then there is a link to your album. then just find the pic and copy the "BBCode" and paste it in.

no harder than MSN just diferant steps.

Maybe I will do a tutorial on how to do this latter.[/img]

[Comet]

Ahh Max, I was wondering about this too. In the future will there be a way to add pics that are not in your album like similar sites do? Otherwise, I see the albums getting big fast. I know about the photobucket (or similar sites) way too, but I'm talking more about the way Willy tried, from you C: drive

[willy3486]

I got that changed now but I was trying to actually insert it in the post. That way you don't have a bunch of open windows. I belong to another group that uses this setup and have seen pictures inserted into posts . I was trying to get it like this original post below . Any suggestions.?

http://groups.msn.com/slick60sfordfseri ... 6373427896

[Comet]

Willy, you could always use a free service like Photobucket. Plus it doesn't use up this site's bandwidth and you can make huge photos. This is a test of photobucket posting.