1960 T-bird door panels

[newbird59]

Hey guys. I have a 1960 T-bird with excellent condition interior. It's a cherry red with black (exterior paint is black) but I'm having a little trouble with the kicks and door panels. The upholstery is great but it seems as thought the door panel cards are starting to give....They aren't going to last another winter.

My question for you guys is if anyone knows where to get the door cards alone, without buying arm rest, trim and all of the upholstery, or if anyone has experience with making some. I was thinking about making some out of a thick plastic but i don't know measurements or anything...i'd hate to take them apart only to have ruined them. Can anyone help?

Thank you!

David

[jopizz]

All of the T-Bird vendors sell replacement door panels. They are not cheap, about $550-600 for a pair. You have to reuse the stainless trim and arm rests from your old ones. New kick panels are also available. As far as making them it's a little more difficult on a '60 because of the curve at the top.

[Guest]

David, you could try to rebuild them as I had done for my 58 shown in the picture series below. I used the old panels for patterns with new 1/4" untempered hardboard, but maybe a styrene plastic sheeting would be better. Whatever panel material you use you will want it to hold staples for tacking the upholstery back on.

[Anders]

I will also build myself ´60 doors as my original ´58 have changed forms and became half-soft and sloppy. Someone have already done quite a bad job to mine in the past as the chrome strip goes under the upper panel (!). Anyway, I will keep the original parts if I ever change my mind, but I totally love the ´60:s doors. Think they are among the best in the whole car history , so I bought the hardware in pretty good shape on Ebay a few years ago. Now to my question: Jed; Can you reload your pictures in a much bigger size or perhaps mail them to me?

[partsetal]

The cards for the doors, kick panels and quarter are available, but as Jopizz mentions the 60's have a curve at the top and I've got no experience modifying these. They work fine on the 58-9.
Carl

[Guest]

... Now to my question: Jed; Can you reload your pictures in a much bigger size or perhaps mail them to me?

Anders, I shall email you the individual pics which are a larger size, but don't get your hopes up on resolution as the pictures where taken before I owned a digital camera. As I recall the pictures had been grabbed as frames off a VHS video tape.

[newbird59]

After the search

Sorry for the delay, Guys. I have been looking around for someone that might make some door panel cards and I found one guy on ebay that does (out of all places in the world). The going rate is $150 bucks plus $50 shipping. I asked him if the cards are flat and he said yes. Although he said they would fit 58' 59' and 60' tbirds. I think I'm going to have my upholstery guy make some for me.

I'm going to look for that link again and post it.

thanks guys!

David

[Anders]

Sorry for the delay, Guys. I have been looking around for someone that might make some door panel cards and I found one guy on ebay that does (out of all places in the world). The going rate is $150 bucks plus $50 shipping. I asked him if the cards are flat and he said yes. Although he said they would fit 58' 59' and 60' tbirds. I think I'm going to have my upholstery guy make some for me.

I'm going to look for that link again and post it.

thanks guys!

David

Strange. The shape of the 58 & 59 is different to the 60. The 60 is going all the way up to the window and it have a big cut out for the hardware ( door handle and chrome stuff ). The most important question though is: What material are these door panels made of? It´s 2012 and it should be pretty water resistant.

[jopizz]

I've seen that on Ebay also and I wouldn't trust it. You can go to the local home center store and buy two pieces of 2x4 masonnite and cut out flat pieces for about $10. The seller is in Pennsylvania and he says they are made in Canada. If he doesn't know there's a difference in the '60 cardboard from the '58 and '59 then it speaks for itself.

[newbird59]

That's what I thought...I would assume that the 60' door cards would be diffferent due to trim and interior arm rest. I am starting to think up something to make by myself. Or get one of my upholstery guys to help me make something durable (the cardboard and stuff isn't going to '
cut' it if I want the door panels to last a long time). I would just hate to buy new panels if mine are in great shape...it's just the boards that are giving up. I'll take some photos tonight and post them! maybe that would help.

thanks for the feedback, i'll pass on the ebay purchase

[Guest]

My recollection is that I had purchased 1/4" un-tempered hardboard. Tempered hardboard is sometimes referred to as the brandname masonite. You want un-tempered stuff. Tempered is to heavy and to brittle. I have not ever seen a '60 door panel, only the 58 straight model. However if you want to curve or radius un-tempered hardboard what you would or could do is;

- make a series of linear cuts 1/2 way thru the board, maybe 1/2" apart from each other. Make 6 or 8 such cuts with a table saw. This will allow the board to be bent or curved at the cut lines.
- devise some type of clamping or holding device to hold the board in the correct curvature
- while the board is curved liberally brush on on coat of epoxy clear resin. let it saturate and cure fully.
- keeping the board still clamped and curved, brush or trowel on a thickened coating of epoxy or vinylester resin and let cure.
- release the clamps and you'll have a permanent curve.

thicken the resin with a mixture of thixotropic cabosil fumed silica and silbrico32 micro balloons. resin thickening can also be done with finely chopped fiberglass strands as well.

Check our www.expresscomposites.com for all of your resin, reinforcement and filler needs. They're located in Mpls., MN

[jopizz]

I believe you would want 1/8" hardboard and not 1/4". That would be a little too wide to use for door panels. The original panels are 1/8".

[Guest]

I believe you would want 1/8" hardboard and not 1/4". That would be a little too wide to use for door panels. The original panels are 1/8".

The original panels off my 58 were 1/4". I replaced them with 1/4" untempered hardboard. Previously I had written about cutting, bending, resin filling and radiusing panels. 1/8" panels would be probably too thin for this operation as one would have to cut 1/16" strip cuts, which wouldn't have much effect as to the epoxy resin anchoring process. 1/4" panels would allow 1/8" strip cuts which would give the epoxy bonding a little more grip. You will see two pics below. #1 is the original panels and #2 are the replacement panels I had fabricated. By super enlarging the pics you will see the edges (thickness) is 1/4"

[jopizz]

I took a piece of my old door panel to Lowes and measured the thickness against what they had and it was definitely 1/8. The 1/4 looked too wide to fit in the bottom channel. The narrative that you sent me a while back said that you used 3/16 but would use 1/8 if you did it again.

[Guest]

I took a piece of my old door panel to Lowes and measured the thickness against what they had and it was definitely 1/8. The 1/4 looked too wide to fit in the bottom channel. The narrative that you sent me a while back said that you used 3/16 but would use 1/8 if you did it again.

Yes indeed you may be correct in the 3/16 thickness. Guess my digital enhancement of the photograph didn't allow for exact gauge measurements. Thinking back for what I had done, yes indeed 1/8" maybe optimum for the staight panels. However still I must think that the 1/8" would not accept deep enough groove cuts to bend and then resin. The 3/16 would be a toss up.

However I just thought of something else based upon my experience in laminating fiberglass and resin for marine applications. Below is a pic listing 3 core materials. All can be saturated with polyester resin on a mold and will create any contour you desire. They'd be perfect for doing the '60 curved door panels. This stuff is available at expresscomposites.com