Unfortunetly my panels were assembled and wrapped prior to this post so i dont have pics on how to wrap using adhesives and vinyl, but Ive got pics for everything elese and ill expain it as best I can. First remove the panel from the door. as you can see my top rail was broken and the fabric was peeling off, pretty common. Remove the washers holding on the pocket and top rail using needle nose pliars buy pushing out ward and turning.

 

My bracket for the plastic door pins was missing on the front so I took a few off of another door from my parts car and used short strand resin to adhere them to the back. Becarful if you have to do this that they are in the correct position or else they wont pop into the holes on the door

 

While you wait for the resin to dry. take the plastic toprail and interior door sweep and check for straightness. If it seems resonably straight dont worry about this part, if not continue. My original one was broke in two so I threw it away. You have two choices ,buy a new one or find one at a junkyard which will probaly be bent like a bananna(did I spell that right?) and straighten it out. I took the one from my parts car. First remove the sweep and screw it to a 2x4 starting at one end.keep it on the edge as you go to straighten it out. then your done wih that. Then take the rail and heat it up with a heat gun(be carefull not to over do it) cut a 2x4 @ 4" shorter than theback of the rail. Screw it down through the back tabs starting at one end while heating it up, just enough so you can push the rail down to get the next tab to sit flat on the 2x4 then screw it to hold it. do this to the end,@ I think theres 6 tabs. let it cool down. Once its not hot to the touch heat up the entire piece evenly( be carefull not to over do it) it will start popping as the plastic forms to being straight after years of sun turning it into a bananna

 

Cut around the original fabric with a sharp razor, carefully peel the fabric back making sure you dont pull to fast or the vinyl will pull off the door if the razor didnt cut all the way through. If it does use some spray adhesive to readhere it.

 

tape off the area surrounding the exposed foam and paint the edges the same color as your door or the panel color your using.

 

Now ill try to expain making the actual panel. Take your cutout of fabric and lay it over a piece of card board (for a template only dont make it out of cardboard, this works if your fabric is wrecked and is very easy to make adjustments too)or 1/8" plywood. trace it out and cut it. lay it out over your door to check for fit,( make sure the handle will sit in the plywood cause it wont sit on top of it like the fabric) if its cardboard make adjustments and trace shape onto plywood for a final piece. Now you can use foam if your making a design, or if its letters use 1/8" wood. cut out whatever pattern it is (example tpi or flames) use a spray adhesive and spray both the area on the panel and the back of the cutout.let sit 5 minutes and apply the cutout to the new panel. wrapping it is the same adhesion techniqe. cut a piece of vinyl larger than the panel buy about 3" minimum all the way around. Start at the lettering using any tool with a flat edge that wont damage the material ie.. window screen roller(the best) or a plastic scraper. Lay a piece of foam down to cover the area your not doing so the vinyl wont stick to it. push down on the top of one letter then use your tool to trace around the outer edge of the shape once the letters or shape is done begin applying pressure on the vinyl around the letters while pulling it tight so you dont get wrinkles. Trust me this sounds harder than it is. Once finished with that area pull the foam off the other section and begin wrapping it. always work from an inside point to the outer edges. when the face side is done turn over and cut the excess material leaving an 1.5" all the way around the edge so you can fold it over. where every the piece curves make a cut like a v into the material youll see what I mean on my next post with the pics.

 

There is a pic that shows what I mean about those v cuts. Next use a strong adhesive, I prefer construction grade sub floor, and apply some on the new panel and some on the door. put the panel in place and camp it down well . Now remeber once this dries its there forever. You may want to try and figure out a different way to attach it,but this is what I do so there ya go. Let it sit overnight. this is were I left mine at today so these are all the pics i have, but all thats left is the top rail and sweep. I use very small self tapping screws to mount the sweep back to the rail and I clamp the rail to the door panel and apply short strand resin on the back of the panel and connect the two . Thats it. Hope this helps out. There are a few more pics on my thread WS6 DOOR PANELS.

 

Looks really good man. thanks!

 

hear are the pics of attaching the top rail. I got lucky cause some of the holes that hold the rail to the door panel werent wrecked so I was able to use them, but often they are all ruined so this method works well in that case. set the rail were it should be and clamp both ends (and in the center if need be) check the reveal in the front to make sure its in the right postion. mix short strand resin with a hardener and apply to the panel and rail. Let sit over night and your ready to reinstall.

 

That turned out great.
Nice work.
Kory

 

Ya should consider making inserts to sell! I want new inserts (mine are peeling on one side) but can't make those.

 

those look sick I love the WS6

 

nice touch! awesome write-up.

 

thanks for all the replies, hope this helps anyone who wants to do there door panels.

 

that turned out nice

 

Thanks mate, that is some nice work. I have used your idea and expanded on it for my car. I haven't covered them yet but here is pic of what I am doing

I'm hopeing to cover them this weekend.

 

I like that it has screws instead of my scenario of glue,not so permanent. But how are you going to wrap it and then reinstall it with the screws? Keep us posted on how it turns out...love the speakers exposed. looks good man!

 

The screws you can see are actually nuts. They have spikes that stick into the door trim, so they can't come out or turn and the screws go in from the back. So if I take the door trim off the door, I can undo the screws and it comes off.

 

Yeah I realized they were in backwards but forgot to repost, great idea dude. Cant wait to see the final product...good luck.

 

Sweet, I'm gonna hafta consider trying this... Posting this mainly as a way to bookmark the thread...

 

Glad you liked it, as I said, you gave me the idea, so thanks mate. I should probably start myown thread on how I did them though and stop hijacking your thread

 

wow, im gona look into doing something like this

 

This is almost exactly what I want to do with my Trans Am.

 

I forgot to post the finished product, so here it is.

 

How did you make the bird? Looks very nice

 

Great work this should be a sticky or an article

 

I covered the whole thing in 3mm high density foam, then cut the bird out of a scrap of foam and covered it all with the material

 

Thats a very intricate shape to cut and then cover,

 

BTW you spelled "banana" wrong. lol figured I could help out there.

 

,,, yeah, thanks