I'd like to show you a technique for doing door panels. This is not the only way to do a door panel, there are many other ways. You do not need to pad your door panels with closed cell foam if you don't want to, you can pad them with anything you like. This particular door panel lends itself to the use of 1/8" closed cell foam.

To start with, here's the old door panel. As you can see, it isn't salvageable, but it has redeeming qualities such as the original holes in the panel for armrests, door, and window handles, the shape of the panel, and the original chrome decoration that is evident by the dark areas. The chrome has obviously been removed.

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________
__________________________________

No one lives forever, the trick is creating something that will.
__________________________________

The next step was to strip off the old covering to get to the panel board underneath. After removing the original covering and padding, I traced the outline of the panel onto a new piece of panel board, including locating the holes. The new panel is waterproof panel board. I would have preferred to use PVC foam board like Sintra or Komatex, but I was outvoted by the customer. Once I cut out the new blank, I hung the new panel on the door to trim it to size. I have 4 very strong magnets that I use to hold the door panel in place while I fine tune it to size. These magnets will hold through 1/2" plywood, so the 1/8" thick panel board is no problem. When the panel is held on by only the two magnets on the top, I can re-position the panel. Once all four magnets are attached, the panel can't be moved. After the panel is trimmed to size, we're ready for the next step, which is locating the holes for the panel clips. I like to use Au-Ve-Co offset clips # 10780 which require a 7/16" or 1/2" hole in the panel 5/8" in towards the center of the car door from where the holes in the car door are. I like this style of clip because the clips are attached to the panel after it has been upholstered so they're not in the way when I'm working on the front of the panel. Remember, if you have to drill new holes in the door, to avoid places that do not let the clip fully seat itself. Also, remember that the door has glass in it so don't impede the window glass with a clip in the wrong place.

Attached Thumbnails

   

__________________
__________________________________

No one lives forever, the trick is creating something that will.
__________________________________

Now we have the panel all cut to size and all the holes for mounting and attaching handles and armrests cut. I do not drill holes through waterproof panel board, I cut all the holes with arch punches so I have clean holes with sharp edges. I have punches that go all the way from 1/8" all the way up to 1 3/8". That's why PVC foam board is so nice, you can drill nice clean holes in it and shape it with regular woodworking tools.

The next step is deciding what the new design will be. After laying out the design on the panel, I decided that this was a rather plain Jane door panel, so I wanted to jazz it up a little bit with a section of white 2" wide pleats that will coordinate with the pleats in the new seat covers. I needed to keep these panels relatively thin, so I will use 1/8" closed cell foam. The easiest way to make these pleats is to simply glue the 1/8" foam to the panel board, cut 1/4" wide lines where you want the pleats to be, and glue the fabric right to the foam while pressing in the pleats. I wanted to add a detail to the pleats of actual stitch lines, but the only way to do that would to be using a long arm sewing machine. After thinking about how to do this for a while, I decided to try doing it a different way.

__________________
__________________________________

No one lives forever, the trick is creating something that will.
__________________________________

I thought about gluing the foam to a thin piece of Versare fabric, cutting in the lines, gluing the fabric over the foam, pressing in the vertical lines, and then sewing the pleats down to the fabric. The only problem with this method is that each pleat shrinks up a little bit as it's sewed, and it's almost impossible to determine how much it will do this ahead of time.

That's when I had the brainstorm of gluing the closed cell foam to a very thin piece of chipboard, which would not shrink when sewed to. After cutting the section the shape I wanted and subtracting just enough from the edges of the chipboard to account for the thickness of the fabric (in this case, Ultraleather) covering the panel, I drew my pleat lines, and cut out the areas of the foam where I wanted the pleats. Then I glued each pleat section individually to the foam. For this operation, I used foam to foam glue which is a lot more forgiving than the DAP Weldwood Top and Trim adhesive that was used for the rest of the gluing. I only glued the fabric right at each groove so the fabric could stretch a little between the grooves. This type of glue allows the fabric to be removed and re-positioned without ruining the fabric or the foam. Each groove had the glued fabric forced down into it using the plastic end of an upholsterer's regulator. After each groove was pressed in, I went over it again with the steel side laid flat. This pushed the fabric right down to the chipboard. Then the lines were sewed on my regular sewing machine using size 138 polyester thread and a presser foot.

Attached Thumbnails

         

__________________
__________________________________

No one lives forever, the trick is creating something that will.
__________________________________

I cut the channels in the foam with a straight edge and a utility knife with a brand new blade, holding the knife at approximately a 45 degree angle from the center angling up and out to the edge as I made the cuts. Once all the cuts were made, I removed the pieces of foam with a phillips screwdriver. It's best to do this right after you have glued the foam onto the chipboard because the glue increases its holding power the longer it dries. Be sure to scuff up the closed cell foam so the foam glues tightly to the chipboard. This is not as important for the section that will be sewed down, but I used the same technique for the other pieces of the design as well, where it would be important.

You can see that I was able to roll up the chipboard to get the piece to go through and sew down each line with just a regular sewing machine. When I sew pleats of any kind, I like to start in the middle and work my way to the end, and then do the same thing in the other direction. Don't the pleats look a lot thicker than just 1/8" deep?

Attached Thumbnails

         

__________________
__________________________________

No one lives forever, the trick is creating something that will.
__________________________________

Now comes the fun part. I figured that as long as one section was glued to chipboard, I would glue all four sections to chipboard and assemble the door panel like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. These pictures are of that process. For every section, I cut a piece of chipboard to the desired shape, glued the 1/8" closed cell foam on, and glued the fabric to the closed cell foam. Then I glued the fabric to the back of the chipboard, but only in places where the parts touched each other in the middle of the door panel, not on the back of the door panel yet.

As you can see, the local bank gives away free pencils that I used to support the the glued sections while I positioned them. As I carefully pressed the chipboard and foam sections to the door panel board, I would remove one pencil at a time as each area was pressed down.

Attached Thumbnails

         

__________________
__________________________________

No one lives forever, the trick is creating something that will.
__________________________________

After all four sections of the door panel design are glued down, flip the panel over and glue the fabric to the back of the panel. Notice the relief cuts at all four corners where the excess fabric has been cut away before gluing the fabric down. Trim away any excess fabric along the edges that might get in the way of the door panel clips. The last picture is of the completed door panel. You can see that the original chrome decorative pieces and the stitched pleats really look great and keeps the door panel from being so plain Jane.

Attached Thumbnails

         

__________________
__________________________________

No one lives forever, the trick is creating something that will.
__________________________________

Thank You, Dan !!

Looks great, Dan. Even I can follow that process.

Thanks!

454 RATTLER

Fantastic tutoria! Bookmarking this one for sure.
Thanks

Thanks for taking the time to upload and photo. and explain the process for us one timers, just in case !!

Nicely done,Dan.....

hey, i was wondering if you could post a link to where you buy all this panel board ETC...

I get my supplies from local sources that only sell to upholstery businesses. For this job I used waterproof panel board which is available at upholstery supply places like HERE My preference is to use expanded PVC, also known as foamed PVC, or closed cell PVC. It goes by the brand names Komatex, Sintra, and Celtec and is available from plastic supply places like www.usplastic.com. Most sign shops have it.

Waterproof panel board is cheaper, but the expanded PVC is easier to work with and can be cut with regular woodworking tools.

__________________
__________________________________

No one lives forever, the trick is creating something that will.
__________________________________

Thanks alot! Im restoring my 86 T/A, i know its not a old school hotrod or anything. But I really like thirgen body styles, ive never been a fan of the interior, and reading all of your tutorials has really inspired me to learn how to do interiors, i will attempt to redo my trans am over time, and ill post some pics of the work, just wanted to say thanks alot for the time you put in all this.