door panels
I didn't have the cash to buy a new set of door panels and the originals are red (red door panels and lime green car not a good combination) and a little beat up, so I thought I would make my own. I was thinking about sewing a pattern on the vinyl but when I made a test piece I found out that I bought too soft of vinyl and I found it very hard to get the lines straight when I pulled the vinyl tight. So this is what I came up with instead.
This is a test piece that I made to see if the new idea would work.
Here is the raw passenger side rear, I figured I would start with the driver side rear though, in case it turned out really bad. It's pretty hard to see the rear door panels while driving. I made the panel and cut pieces out of the same material to make the stripes, then I glued them on the panel.
I continued the pattern on to the front door panel and then turned it down to kind of match the bumble bee stripe that I'm going to have on the car.
Here's the front and rear together, they don't match exactly but there is the break between them with the door opening trim.
This is the finished drivers rear, I think it turned out OK. The pictures don't really look that great, it's hard to see the seperation between the stripes, live they don't look too bad. I'm going to continue making the other panels and use these until I can afford the remanufactured versions.
What do you guys think? Have any of you tried to make door panels yourself?
I didn't have the cash to buy a new set of door panels and the originals are red (red door panels and lime green car not a good combination) and a little beat up, so I thought I would make my own. I was thinking about sewing a pattern on the vinyl but when I made a test piece I found out that I bought too soft of vinyl and I found it very hard to get the lines straight when I pulled the vinyl tight. So this is what I came up with instead.
This is a test piece that I made to see if the new idea would work.
Here is the raw passenger side rear, I figured I would start with the driver side rear though, in case it turned out really bad. It's pretty hard to see the rear door panels while driving. I made the panel and cut pieces out of the same material to make the stripes, then I glued them on the panel.
I continued the pattern on to the front door panel and then turned it down to kind of match the bumble bee stripe that I'm going to have on the car.
Here's the front and rear together, they don't match exactly but there is the break between them with the door opening trim.
This is the finished drivers rear, I think it turned out OK. The pictures don't really look that great, it's hard to see the seperation between the stripes, live they don't look too bad. I'm going to continue making the other panels and use these until I can afford the remanufactured versions.
What do you guys think? Have any of you tried to make door panels yourself?