Time to cover up the door guts. Had three options; use the stock door panels, buy pre-made panels from Valley Motorwerks at $99 each(ouch) or make them myself. Me being a cheap bastard chose to make them. The Valley panels only cover the recessed area in the middle leaving some other parts of the door exposed which I did not want so I designed my panels to extend to the outter edge of the door.
Cardboard is cheap, aluminum is not. This was an important step because I am mildly retarded I initally cut the cardboard 2 inches short, I would have been up shit creek if I had done that with the aluminum.
One other thing I have learned is to do the less important side first, that way when you screw up you don't have to deal with it everytime on the driver's side. So the passenger door got the first panel, which was a great idea as I put the hole for the door lock and the door release handle in the wrong spots. These are minor screwups and the panel came out looking pretty damn good for not having a sheet metal break or shear. Just need to add a handle to pull the door in with and a hole for the window switch.
The two 24"x48" sheets of 0.04" 5052 aluminum was $65 shipped from OnlineMetals.com and the construction probably took 6-7 hours including making the template. So it was well worth it to make the panels instead of purchasing them.
Cardboard is cheap, aluminum is not. This was an important step because I am mildly retarded I initally cut the cardboard 2 inches short, I would have been up shit creek if I had done that with the aluminum.
One other thing I have learned is to do the less important side first, that way when you screw up you don't have to deal with it everytime on the driver's side. So the passenger door got the first panel, which was a great idea as I put the hole for the door lock and the door release handle in the wrong spots. These are minor screwups and the panel came out looking pretty damn good for not having a sheet metal break or shear. Just need to add a handle to pull the door in with and a hole for the window switch.
The two 24"x48" sheets of 0.04" 5052 aluminum was $65 shipped from OnlineMetals.com and the construction probably took 6-7 hours including making the template. So it was well worth it to make the panels instead of purchasing them.
