[Peter D]

Another update is probably well overdue !
I now have some 9,000kms on the car, but sadly none of them done on any major road trips (yet).
I'll put the developments in separate posts to keep things short :

1. Inside Door Trim Panels

After sorting out the seating in the car, the next project was to get the inside door panels done. After much thought, Mike Cooper (the guy who did such a nice job on the seats) came up with a design that we were both happy with.

Stage 1 was for me to make up the panels to the correct shape & fit them to the doors. The panels were done in marine ply, & I set about 15 x 4mm c/s bolts into them (epoxied into place). The bolts pass thru holes in the f/glass inner door panel, & all is held in place with wing-nuts - you can't see them, but they are dead easy to install/remove. I also made up some re-inforcing bars out of 1/2" aly angle - these run the full length inside the doors, along the bottom edge of the cut-outs - these were bolted in place 1st, then the door panels go on & cover the bolts. Apart from stiffening up the lower edge of the cut-outs (making a useful "door-pull"), they also provide a mini arm-rest area which does not intrude into the cabin.

Once we were happy with the whole setup, Mike worked his magic & covered the re-inforcing bars, the edges of the cutouts, & the door panels in the same leather that he used for the seats. His really smart suggestion was to put some fairly hard foam on the cabin sides of the panels & to trim it back some 5/8" from all the edges. Once the leather was glued over this, it provided a very nice "character line" around all the edges & so he ended up achieving my goals for the panels :

- No visible fixing screws or fittings
- Some nice edging to get away from the "flat panel" look
- A useable arm rest
- A strengthened bottom edge of the cut-out which can be used as a door-pull

To finish the doors off, I'll carpet the inside storage area & Mike will run some leather over the side-intrusion bars that are visible thru the cutouts.
See following pics of progress so far .....

(Mike has also done the centre tunnel in the same leather, with beautiful double-row stitching along the shoulders. He is working on the g/shift boot, & I'll post pics as soon as I can.)

The next installment (Wheel Spacers) will follow as soon as the rain stops & I can take some "after" pics !

Kind Regards,

Peter D.