Let me say this was very time consumeing and I am still not finished. I could not cut my lock rods because I was missing the plastic peices.. I also have some fit and finish work to do. If you are not willing to cut into your car or dont want to trim other peices then this swap is not for you..

NOTE: you MUST use 4thgen seat belts. The stock thirdgens will not clear when you try to close the door. You are also wont be able to get speakers in without making pods , I made mine at work and used the stock speaker grill as a template. They pop in and look like a "factory-mod". I used 1inch MDF.





dirty interior.. dont mind the b-pillar its not done.

 

Looks awesome. How much do fourth gen panels go for?

 

I got the panels for $35 (set)

 

^ Came out very nice! What exactly needed to be cut, please expand....

 

wat kind of a steering wheel is that?

 

The steering wheel is actually from a 82-83 Trans Am ,its pretty nice but I have a 02 grand am wheel here I may use instead.

As for cutting. Basicly you cut all the tabs off the top of the door (the ones to hold the old panels on , or you can bend them down. I cut all of the tabs off the back of the 4thgen panel. Then you pop the panel on and get it to sit where your want it. goto the back of the door with the panel in place and you will see where you have to cut. I will try to go into deeper detail. I just kind of placed the panel and cut/bend whatever was in my way Not to the point of makeing any structure probelms. The door frame is still nice and strong. You are only taking a bit of metal from the outer shell so all is good.

 

Do you have any pics with the panels off to see where & what has to be cut?

 

Yes, please go into deeper detail if you would. I installed a set of 4th Gen electric seats a few weeks back, and I'd like to compliment them with the right set of door panels, so any tips you can provide will be awesome....

-Rob

 

that really looks like a 4th gen. I like the center console. how did you make the dash work so well though?

 

i see you have a cup holder. assisting a mcdonalds parfait.

 

Looks really great, almost factory-like.

 

Thanks for the compliments. Yea that is a mc flurry in the second cup holder lol..

anyways I will get some pics of the door frame when I have the panels off again which will be next week. I can supply pics then. The dash was pretty easy to do and it feels stock i have lots of info and can help anyone who is doing the dash/console/panel swap I have posted in several older threads too. Everything feels stock in the car its quite the experiance However I can't get over how many people I talk to at the gas station ,etc who say they owned a 85 bird or camaro but don't even realize the interior in my car isint stock.


Here's a crappy driving video I made ,should give you a feel for the dash in a thirdgen. I'm gonna try to get a better one.

 

looks awesome! change out that weather stripping and it'll look brand new. A+

 

Looks good!

I'd like to see how it bolts to the door, so it doesn't get pulled off when you close the door.

 

Yeah your really start to realize just how old these cars are getting by all of the weatherstipping rot!.

I opted to do the kick panels with the door panel swap but decided against it for now for a few reasons. They fit like crap , the panel itself is too short near the back of the door and sits too high leaveing a inch or more gap all along the outside edge I could fill it but it would still look odd imo.

 

should just get rid of the door panel speakers and go with kick panels. imaging will be better anyway and would also make th edoor panel swap easier. So far it looks great though keep up the good work.

 

I actually have kick panel speaker pods made already. But they are in the way. I put a ton of miles on my car daily and when I tested them the speakers would be trashed in no time.

 

I love the look of that!! More pics please!!! Of the doors... Great Job!!

 

looks pretty good! Having done this already, if I had to do it again, I'd keep some of the rear tabs, and cut square holes in the metal. I think it would make the panel fit down on the door a little better with less screws holding it on.

I noticed that you said that you must use 4th gen belts. That's not true. I'm using thirdgen belts, all you have to do is bend the brackets towards the center of the car a little. Theres plenty of room between the retractor and the seat to make room to clear.

I did the 4th gen kick panels, and I hear ya on that issue. I ended up extending the rear plastic. Its like 1 1/2" you have to add on and I had to heat up and bend the front section to get it to fit. I plan on covering everything up with vinyl, so that'll get hidden.

You plan on doing anything on the bottom of the doors? I noticed the gap there, and I havent done anything on mine... cause I just dont know what to do with that. Its not that noticeable either.

All in all, looks great, welcome to the 4th gen door panel club!

 

did you use bird panels? I have both sets but I havent compared. I like the 4thgen belts tho so all is good. I had a fairly large clearnace problem with mine the "pocket" was hitting my belt mechanism pretty bad. You can also swap in 82 seat belts if you can find them/

Sounds like a good plan, I may takcle that in the future but for now the gap is too large and adding a piece to the end may not last for me. I also don't want to be jamming 3-4 layers of rubber seals into the gap.

Yeah its not noticeable but definatley there. I was going to look around the yard for a thick rubber seal to put in there. But for now that can wait because you really can't see it unless your looking for it.

 

I did use the bird panels, I wonder of that makes a difference for the belts. Your setup looks pretty good, I wasnt knocking it, just saying mine worked ok. I actually think I was a little overzealous in bending my retractor, it needs to go back a bit.
Heres a pic of my sill plates. Like yours its a work in progress, I'm gonna add a 4th gen door weatherstrip to the car where that height difference is between the 3rd and 4th gen pieces. Should seal up the door a bit better to do. But you can see, basically I cut the rear of my 3rd gen sill off and epoxied it to the back and all you can see is that seam.



Oh, I was wondering... how did you fasten the door panel? I see some screws around the perimeter, but did you use any of the existing center holes or screws? I used the exsisting holes in the panels, but its a little flimsy on there.

 

I know this might be a stupid question....do you still have AC on the car?..if so did you also use the 4th gen blower?..does it blow any harder than a 3rd gen blower?...so basically I wanna know if the 4rth gen ac blower blows air with more force than a 3rd gen ac blower..if anyone else knows

 

doubt it since you aren't changing the a/c condenser box that contains the fan.

 

ive been wanting to do the door panels, i just havent found a set. i looked into the kick panels and just didnt like the way they fit, or the fact that they are short.
any close up pics of how the pieces look togetherat the rear of the door?

 

i put diamond plate on mine.

 

The more I se this the more I want to do a Dash/seats/door panel swap in my 85 T/A!! I'm guessing the hardest part was the gauges?

 

i want those door sills how did u make them or where did u get them from

 

home depot lol. I got 2 inch aluminum stock from home depot, cut to the right size, drilled, countersink the holes, got polished screws. Polished it all up and stuck emblems from a pontiac van I think on there. It was either a van or a sunbird, I cant remember. I think it cost me like maybe 10-15 bucks in materials.