Interior Panel Fabrication

When I bought my old Ford it had no interior panels in it whatsoever. They had all rotted away long ago. Being ambitious and curious "I figured how hard could it be to make some?" and dove right in. 

Passenger door with pattern material

I got a good tip on how to use clear plastic material to create an initial pattern. It's nice because you can tape it up over what you want to make a pattern of and still see through it to make all the necessary marks. 

To create the pattern I used magnets and tape to hold up clear plastic material. You can find this stuff at most fabric stores.

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Plastic over quarter trim

To create the pattern I used magnets and tape to hold up clear plastic material. You can find this stuff at most fabric stores. I recommend getting the thicker stuff because it is less likely to stretch and wrinkle up. How do I know? Because I thought I'd save a buck and buy the thinner stuff. 

After the material is in place I marked out all the important things like door handles, window cranks and holes for the panel clips.

Here I have the plastic in place. It makes it easy to mark everything you need to when you can see it. 

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After your patterns are made you can transfer them to your chosen material . I chose 1/8" masonite because it is close to what was used back in the day. You can make the panels from almost anything however. 

If you need a more water-proof application for a covertible you may want to build them out of a material that could hold up better when wet. Some ABS plastic sheets would work or some harware store bathroom paneling.

That is a drawing of a speaker in the bottom left, not a booby.

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The panels are held on by clips that go through designated holes in the car's body. The clips attach to the panels by... 

There are lots of different types of clips. I used these because they are close to what was used originally.

The clips are offset by about half an inch so I drilled my clip holes through the panels accordingly.

The first panel was for my passenger door followed by the driver's side and then both quarter trim panels.

The quarters were a little tricky and required some extra attention around the wheel wells. 

I recommend a test fit of everything, then pull it all out again and block sand your edges nice and smooth. You want your panel edges as nice and straight as possible. 

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This picture shows the interior of my car from the front looking back you can see the panels that I made for the doors, the quarters, and the package tray. You can also see all the junk in my car.

GoPro Fisheye good for perspective shots

I have both doors and both quarters done as well as the rear package tray. It takes a little time and there is some further work to do before I call them done. I will install some speakers in the quarter trim panels but that's for another entry. I'll also do an entry on how to upholster them. 

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