Flaw? what flaw - these are fronts only, I'm not doing it for the rear speakers, in fact these may get painted black.

Well if you don't see it, I'm sure not pointing it out!

Meh, I don't care...the holes are as close to perfect as I can get with a drill press.

They really do look fantastic - don't pound your head too hard. I surely couldn't do any better!

Ok, back to the door panels. I've never built a set of panels before, and upholstering with leather as taught me a few things (leave more waste is one!). Took most of last night to get my sewing machine convinced that sewing leather was an OK thing to do. I finally got the thing to work correctly, so off we go.

Panels were covered in foam during the week when I had time.



The upper part of the door is 5/8 thick foam and more plush than the original. The bottom half is covered in 1/8. Next up, the faux suede. I first glued the 1/8 to the suede, then cut it to fit the space between the two raised parts of the panel.

Then I cut the leather to fit - should have left myself more waste area (went with around an inch - note to self, make it two inches next time).

Here's a shot of the upholstery shop.



You can't pin leather to hold it for sewing, as it leaves holes, so you clamp it with paper clips.



That very fine line close to the edge by the clips is my seam line. I was trying to get it as close to the edge as possible to avoid unsightly seams showing up when it was all glued down.

All sewing went well and nothing went south with my machine for a change. It is hard to keep the fabric and the leather feeding correctly as I was working so close to the edge the feed dogs on the machine couldn't grasp the fabric all the way across. I just went slow and made sure it was coming out straight.

Test fit prior to glue up.



Then off to the basement for a round of gluing, and swearing - I just got them to fit over the edge. I would have been some pissed had my extra inch been not enough - it was JUST enough. Off to the frozen garage to get the stainless strips made. They are 1/4 and have #4-40 screws welded on to the back to bolt them onto the panel. I decided to go with polished, go figure.

Here's the final product.





I'm pretty happy with the result. Just need to water seal the back and get the sound deadening on the doors and this project is done.

Looks awesome .... again ... Craig

No one here would have guessed you would have gone with polished You are so full of surprises.

That looks like a real neat job; all black was a good choice, as was painting (?) the speaker guards; they are subtle but look really cool!

Just more unbelievable work, can't wait to see the whole car done... or does "done" exist??

Done, an interesting concept not often visited by me with respect to work on cars or work in general. Isn't that the fun part?

Yup We need a rhetorical question smiley (if such a thing exists) for my last post.

"Never let your best be good enough", works for me...

Looks great Craig! Well done!

I feel like the rod accent piece needs to continue past the speaker on the other side....it looks a little bare there. But that could just be me.

Not you at all - I thought the same at first. But the dash and door are there so there is little point in adding what would amount to a centimeter of polished stainless...it's a little different than the bottom position.

Please stop posting pictures of those seats, I can't keep up with the laundry it's creating.

Ah yes...of course. I hadn't thought of that.

Colors look just great