psychoideas

I wanted some of those RS type door panels and, as my original panels were much, much less than perfect, I decided to make my own.

I first taped plastic to the inside of the door and marked out where all the holes for the clips and winder etc were. This is also the plastic I will use as a moisture barrier between the door and the panel when I fit them.

The next pic shows cutting them out from the pattern. I put the two panel blanks back to back and bolted them together. This way I end up with left and right panels as the panel board I was using has one textured side.

psychoideas

After they were cut out I washed them down with a damp cloth and set them out to dry.

Second pic is the glue I used to stick the foam to the panel.

Third pick is the foam glued to the panels and them sitting face down on the table to let the glue dry.

psychoideas

Next I cut the vinyl out. I did them both at once by laying the vinyl back to back. If you are not careful here it is easy to cut out two left or right ones instead of one of each.
You can see my original template I used as a guide for cutting the vinyl.
Many alterations were made on that template because I didn't have any door panels to copy. I had to make them 'from' the door.


Staplng the vinyl on with the original trim front and back. A bit fiddly, this job, you have to cut the vinyl around the corners so as not to get too much of it bunched up.

Bottom pic is of finnished panel. I will take a pic of them when they are on the car.
I cant put them on yet as I have to get a grommet put in the blue strap.
By the way, I bought a $6 blue dog lead from one of our local shops and cut it up to make the straps.

The plastic bezels are OEM Porsche. I made the handle from 2mm thick steel and covered it with pinchweld with leather rolled around it. Then I bent it to shape. Porsche want $250 per handle down here. If I could afford that, I would have just bought the panels already made up!!!

My next job on the doors is to make the lock **** surround out of Carbon fiber. Actually I have a lot of Carbon fiber plans as I dable a bit in Composites.

spence88mph

excellent effort Frank, looks great!!

Svaha

Looks great, and I love the innovation! I applaud the effort.

v8_ranch

Awesome! I would like to do this in leather at some point I think. Can you post a few more details about your handles you made?

Great job!

srf506

Nice job!

Dan Cobb

I too have considered making RS-type panels myself. I made panels for 66 Chevelle, but I simply haven't found the motivation to do it for the 911; partly because the RS panels eliminate the arm rest & I'm not sure i want to do that in this car.
I've also considered making them of CF, but I dislike the 'screwed-on' approach of attaching them to the door. I'm not sure how to make the clips attach to the panel w/o making them visible once attached.
GREAT job BTW!
+++

psychoideas

Thanks Guys.

V8, My camera Sh*t itself today but I'll see if I can get something off to you when I have time.

Dan, I can see your problem and I'm sure something could be done. Like lay up some 1mm folder aluminium with the holes for the clips on the back of the panel. This could be done in the initial lay up or epoxied in afterwards.

I too have thought about Carbon Fiber panels but I don't like using fake Carbon. ie, stick on or Carbon 'look'.
The reason I didn't go there is that in the event of a accident the epoxy and carbon would shatter and leave very sharp edges. With my luck I'd survive the crash only to have my soft dangly bits sliced off by shards of Carbon Fiber.

JV911

excellent work!

have been considering RS-styly panels myself

Dan Cobb

What about aluminum panels? Pretty cold in the winter months, but you could buff out the scratches instead of recovering them.
+++

JV911

how does the dog lead attach to the opening mechanism?

how does the handle attach?

by "plastic bezel" do you mean the pieces i've circled in red below?

thanks

it would be cheaper to fly you to sydney to help than buy oem stuff!

psychoideas

Hi JV,

Are you familiar with the inside of the doors? The normal handle inside the car is connected via a metal rod to a pivot point via a plastic clip. You remove this rod and clip and use a 6mm stainless bolt to go through the hole where the clip was and through the metal grommet in the webbing handle. They are tightened using a stainless nyloc nut. It's not tightened fully as the webbing has to be able to pivot slightly as you pull on the strap.

The handle is attached to the door by nutserts. (it is just sitting on the panel for the photo)
If you look at my very first pic you will see I have written the letter 'R' at least 3 times on the plastic template. Between the 2 'R' 's on the right you can see a bright metal dot. (almost looks white) That is a nutsert. Now that you know where that one is you can see the other to the left. They are inserted into the door so that the handle can be screwed into them after the panel has been put on. Again, handle attaches to the metal door, not the trim.

Yes I do. The two on the handle are different to the one that the strap comes through. The handle bezels clip onto the handle after the handle has been screwed to the door.

The pull strap bezel is screwed from behind to the trim (upholstered panel) this is also how the factory does it.

Hope this helps.


If you want to fly me to Sydney, I'm unemployed right at this moment

JV911

mate you're a bloody legend!

thanks

v8_ranch

Eat some Monster cookies for me will you?