Projects Mercury Door Panels

So I made some 1950 Mercury Door Panels, and I figured I would share.
Started with this.


Took and made some templates out of beer cases.


Then I went and bought some Luan board, its like 3/16 to 1/4 inch thick furniture backing?


Supposed to be mostly unaffected by water, but I put 8 mil plastic sheeting on the backside and wrapped the edges a bit in case there is some water coming in from the outside of the door.


Then I went to Joann Fabric and got a few yards of Faux leather, and 1/2 "sewing batting" and cut the padding to fit the panel and glued and sewed that to the Faux leather. I bought the industrial white thread too. Then wrapped the Leather around the door panel.


and Sew...


Then we wrapped it around the door panel.



Then painted my garnish Moldings.

Then ended up with this. I think it turned out alright.

 

Came out well,nothing like D.I.Y . Looks good. How are you going to hold those to the doors though?

 

I have some nice panhead stainless screws. Otherwise I have some screws with plastic caps. Going to see which looks better.

 

Personally I think that will ruin an otherwise smooth look. Can you use some type of blind fastener or clip?

 

Nice work!

 

You have some nice looking panels there; something that I have not tried to do myself. But this is the internet so I can be the keyboard expert.

The outside edge of the door has the holes for mounting the panels with those clips to put into the luan board. You could use your beer case pattern as a guide and poke around with an awl to find the holes. Just don't do what I would do and drill the holes for the clips and make a few holes in the vinyl by going too far.

Again, nice job on the panels.

Neal

 

Nice. They sell original type wire clips that fit on the panel from the back in a small hole then just snap into the original door holes.
I've heard of people using Velcro also. You don't want screws showing. I have used small chrome screws with little pop on covers on the corners for safety.

You didn't say how you got the pleated look.

 

We obtained the pleated look from sewing straight lines on just the faux leather and the foam, then attached to the luan board.

I am going to look into those clips now that you mention it. Originally I thought it might look okay seeing a stainless screw but they do look real clean the way they are so I might not want to see that screw.

 

Use clips, I hate screws. Auveco 808 clips are straight in type, would be the best imho ,but probably require rolling the cover back to mark and install .

 

I have had little luck using velcro......

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