[Peter D]

Dalton : yep, those are pics of Steve's car some years ago. I am still tossing around the idea of a straight, shallow arm rest along the bottom of the opening, so I think I'll try a mock-up before the whole backing board gets upholstered. That way, if they don't work out, we can cover the mounting holes & nobody will be any the wiser !

I'm with you on those nasty plastic barb gadgets - they were designed with only one purpose in mind - to ease (cheapen) construction in the factory (no thoughts of r&r later) ! I am planning to use marine ply for the backing boards, & to f/glass some s/s c/s bolts thru the boards - these will slip into holes in the inner door skins & then the boards will be secured by washers & nyloc nuts inside the door.

I like the courtesy light idea, but that will have to wait until I make a call on the stereo/speakers - I was in such a rush to get to rego that I forgot to allow for wiring into the doors, so this will be quite a challenge in terms of getting wiring into the inside of the car (the inside side panels covering the filler pipes are fully sealed into place with polyurethane, & guess who didn't fit inspection hatches) !

Bill : I have been scanning for door trim pics for ages, & those below are the only ones I found. Hopefully, a few other members will chime in with their own pics ?

The reason that I want to preserve the door opening is that it would allow access to the interior door storage areas whilst on the road. Most of the "fold-down" setups I have seen look like you would have to have the doors open to fold down the panel & get at the interior space. If the insides of the doors were trimmed nicely (eg, carpet), it all should look pretty sharp & provide some further sound-deadening.

I have been using the lower side-intrusion bar as a door-pull - nice & solid, and easy to reach. I plan on keeping this accessible/visible, but just covering it with either carpet or leather trim. So, I will be able to either use these, or if I go ahead with a shallow arm-rest along the bottom of the opening (braced from behind with a steel or aly strip), this would be a convenient & strong door-pull option.

Kind Regards,

Peter D.