i'm doing it to it. way past time to get this project under way. i'm going to start with the door skins in my 71 opel gt, and move onto the dash. not an entire dash rebuild mind you, just the dash plate ( a guage cluster, some switches, heater control)... but thats another story. the doors however are my current target.
www.lofonline.com/gt
anyways, i'll get a photo or two up of the project as it stands there...
but to start it off: the doors are skinned with carboard, a crapy padding, and rust stained vinyl. out the door those go. in dismantling, i found that the upper part of the door skin, where hte window rubber is installed on teh iside, is made of a tin material. i plan on cleaning those up, and covering in a crushed velvet. however, the majority of the door skin is in fact, carboard, and that must change. period. going to go with a 3/8 (or so) veneer wood sheet, cut out the patterns, and install proper clips. since i am diving the door skin into two peices, the uppper (velvet) can hide any massive bolt points for the door skin, while i can do something clever down at the base, and supplement all around with the GM style christmas tree plastic clips. (unless you guys have other suggestions). i plan to then use foam (anyone know of a good aerosol foam that'd work?) to build around a metal frame that creates a door handle on teh door, leaving the stock latches in, removing window cranks, installing neons near the base and back corner, and then painting all. i picked up a pair of 3.5 thin line coax speakers from blaupunkt, and i will be getting a pattern to cut my mdf with for that, i plan on mounting those as close to the panel as possible, (the car barely fits two as it is) with a set of dowels cut to size (i understand i'm supposed to hot glue gun them in place?) i was thinking epoxy, but ok.
i'm going to be putting all the switches in the center console for the door locks, window motors, with the exception of the neons. unless of course, anyone knows of a good kit where i can bring one single hot wire into the door, and use a 2 way switch, with neutral center, w/ the motor base itself being grounded to the door (power on one side of the motor goes up, power to the other, windows go down. make less wires coming into a door not designed to withstand them. the door locks have to be separate, seeign how i want to install remote/security.
anyways, back on track. i have the speakers on teh way, the wood already, a gallon can of bondo fiberglass (the regular stuff ola) and 3 bags of mat strips. the grill cloth is also on the way. i need a good aerosol foam, that i can build up, cut away as needed, and any other suggestions.
i'd like to remind you that this car is antique, and there's not a lot of room for tinkering! lol.