1960 T-bird door panels

[jopizz]

You definitely couldn't use 1/8 if you were thinking about slicing and bending it. Do you think it's possible to cut the curved part off the top of the old panel and somehow epoxy it onto a flat piece.

[Guest]

You definitely couldn't use 1/8 if you were thinking about slicing and bending it. Do you think it's possible to cut the curved part off the top of the old panel and somehow epoxy it onto a flat piece.

Yes definitely that could be done by simply laminating the old top piece to the new bottom piece. I would suggest using a mat cloth on both sides or even better would be a fiberglass cloth called Double bias mat cloth. Use either epoxy resin or vinylester resin as polyester resin doesn't do too well directly onto wood products.

[newbird59]

Here are some pictures of what I'm talking about, guys.

[jopizz]

It looks like it's been recovered once already in plain red vinyl. The bottom isn't nearly as bad as most I've seen. You have a couple choices. Find some red vinyl and put a strip on the bottom but it probably won't match or recover the whole thing in new vinyl. If you do that it still won't have the correct embossed pattern like the factory vinyl did. It depends on what level of detail you want. If you want a panel that looks original your only choices are to find a good used one or buy new ones. I have the same problem with my '59. I have a good passenger side and a bad drivers side. If I recover the drivers side it won't match the factory pattern. And I don't feel like putting out $550-600 for new ones.

[Guest]

I have a set here that are in good condition, I bought a new set from Concourse.
I have no use for them but think the freight (back) to the US might be the killer.
They are black and white
I have all 6 cards

Richard

[Anders]

This is a very interesting tread!
As I will do my own inner doors and kick panels, before sending them to the upholstery shop later this year, I called the shop and asked what he use and why, in order to give you guys some feedback about what might work for you as well. He use something called "oil tempered masonite" at 100% of his jobs. With the smooth side facing out of the car, in order to help water ( condence ) drip off easier. The reason for the oil tempered in the first place is to avoid the part to take up moisture as it can reshape the whole piece. When it comes to 3-D shape, he glue foam and shape it to the form he want. What whould be the right way in order to get the needed recess for the big chunk of door hadle hardware, I´m not totally sure yet, but hopefully there will be a proposal for this along the way.

One thing that makes me wonder is the picture in post #18. The one from the inside clearly shows anothe step of shape outside where the pins comes in, but I can´t see that on the pic showing the outside. To be honest, I don´t even recorgnize that look att all. Looks pretty flat to me. Even on the pic I attach, the shape I can see from the inside, is not realy showing here either, even it the details are in. Maybe this is a consequense of not accurate aftermarket parts? It would be very interesting if anyone here have a Original ´60 door and took a picture showing the original sections and shape. Newbirds inner parts looks to be original, but someone seems to have just thrown on a new vinyl on top of it once.
Edit: The Red interior is the Leather design. The Blue is the Vinyl design. Looking close to these, there seems to be more 3-D shape on the blue where the dark and light blue parts split compair to the red, that looks much more flat.

[ncbird]

specialty plywood

Certainly an interesting thread. I have been pondering this issue for my 60 as well. One thought was to use a specialty plywood product called flexible plywood which comes in 1/8 and 1/4. It is designed to bend and is directional in its bend, by that I mean you order it as to whether you want it to bend cross sheet or length wise. I have used it successfully to build curved cabinets in some yacht cabins. For our door panels I would build a buck with the correct curve and runout. I would cover the buck in wax paper. Staple the flex ply to the buck and then saturate with epoxy. The wax paper should keep the saturated ply from adhering to the buck. You could then cut to shape so that one buck would do both doors. Just an idea for consideration. Grant

[Guest]

Guess since I have never looked closely at a 60 panel I shall admit my confusion when I see what appears to be a great diffence between the panel pics that Newbird and Anders posted. I am not seeing the same curves comparing the pics. As for the arm rest area, if such is curved, that could be done by molding a fiberglass insert such that I had done for the 58 arm rest. Pic is inserted below. Grant has a great idea for molding the entire panel. I presume that the "buck" you speak of is what I refer to a "plug". In either plug or buck case, realize the doors are a reverse or mirror image of each other, so two plugs must be made. One's not the same as the other. Both making a plug and then a mold both could certainly be done with the core material I had eluded to previously. The bendable plywood sounds like interesting stuff and must be a balsatek product.

[jopizz]

I'm not sure if it was cheaper to produce but the detachable arm rests on the '60 is a big improvement over the 58-59 molded door panels.

[Restifier52]

I have my original panels off my car now and will put up a couple photos later on today. Not right now-got to bed at 3:30 this morning then up at 7:30 for church. I was just checking the site before nap time.

[newbird59]

Guys, thanks for the useful feedback....I am 99% sure these cards are the original ones. Althought (you all are right) they have been re-covered by the past owner. Im not sure which design I would go with on these...i was planning on taking them to my upholstery guy and working something out in the next few days! Im going to brainstorm some of the suggestions all of you have posted and see how to make my own verrrry durable cards. Anders, that 2 tone blue interior looks stunning! Is this your tbird??? Let me take some more photos of the inside and of the panels. I'll post them up in a few hours

--david

[Dakota Boy]

Ya gotta love the '60 door panels with the chrome spear...

The guys that currently offer them for sale are earning thier money. No doubt about it.

[Restifier52]

1960 Door Panels

Top picture is drivers side. The other three are of the passenger side. You can see a metal strip under the curved part. The strips of horsehair like material have me scratching my head. It looks like there are seven openings for clips though they only used one in the back and two in the front.

[newbird59]

Hey guys...here is the break down. In order:

On the top, where the felt for the window is, it looks like the board is broken. but other wise I think this is going to be hard to replicate...what do you guys think? Is it re-usable? I've also included a photo of the passenger side door panel On the car. (the one in the photos is the drivers side)

Edit: the photos are clickable. Click to see bigger!

[Guest]

re-use the same panels that you now have after you have reinforced them by laminating 1.5 oz chopped strand mat to both sides of damaged areas. If you want to replace a missing section of the panel then laminate 3 or 4 layers of mat into the missing panel area. Use epoxy or vinylester resin. Vinylester is less expensive and uses cheap mekp catalyzed at 2%. The prices for chopped strand mat is shown in a pic below available at expresscomposites.com