Ryan & Dione's 1974 Gold Duster 318

Update on the rear option panel. The car has had 2x 6x9's on the rear deck since I have started messing with it. One of the first projects I remember on this was switching to some decent Infinity 3way speakers.

At some point when it was living in North Hollywood (first mistake), those speakers must have looked appealing to someone, and they broke in to the car and tried to rip them out of the panel. They were bolted in to the metal rear deck, and all they succeeded in doing was messing up rear panel (the fiberboard thing)

Dione's dad found this panel somewhere, and purchased a reproduction piece. It always looked good, so with my new found time lately, I decided to finally tackle this.

The main problem was the panel had no oval holes for speakers. So I rounded up the jigsaw and dremel and went to work.

I took out the upper and lower back seats, and used the old ripped up panel for a template. Sketched some ovals, and cut them out.

Went to stick the repro panel back in, and its too wide. So much so, that it pushed the interior plastic panels behind the rear side windows enough to crack the plastic. Didn't help my cause that these are very brittle after 40 years.

I pull it back out carefully, and measure against old one.

The old panel is 54 1/4" wide.

The repro panel is 55 1/4" wide.

So I'm now pist - I look up the sitcker on the back to confirm fitment (alleged) and it matches: DST-101 from 70-76 Duster Package Tray.

The panels have finished sides with the color matched vinyl trim, so I cant cut off 1/2" from left and right.

Only other option I could think of was cutting 1" out of the middle,but then I'm left with a seam.

I decide to ditch the old panel, especially after seeing online that it was only $20-30.

I hit the Home Depot and look for a replacement material. I find a 4'x8' piece of fiberboard that matches this material perfectly: $15.

Sketch a outline of OLD panel, 54 1/4", and cut it with speaker ovals.

As I'm laying the cut one in, I realize I will have the same problem with appealing aftermarket speakers, so I begin looking in to fabric. At first, I was going to cover only the ovals, but then opt to cover entire panel. Wife and I hit Joanns and find some gold (*GOLD Duster) burlap for $3.99 per yard.

Pics at https://plus.google.com/photos/1036...ms/5984189745400238865?authkey=COS3-cDT9aT0fw