Deluxe Door Panel Restoration

[JKnight]

I acquired a set of reproduction 69 Camaro deluxe door panels years ago for a great deal on ebay, $200 for the pair. Come to find out, these repro's are horrible. The construction is so thick that the window cranks can't reach the regulator stems and the fit is lacking in many areas.

As a result, I'm working on restoring the original deluxe panels. I separated the vinyl from the padding as carefully as possible, but it still took some of the padding with it near the top of the door panel. I'm concerned that when I recover the panels, the uneven padding will show through the leather/vinyl covering. I can't really recreate the entire door panel padding, as the deluxe panels have a lot of compound shapes and I just don't have the ability to do that. Also, I'm concerned that adding a layer foam to the whole thing would cause it to be uneven, or overly...soft.

Does anyone know of a spray-on foam (or other product) that I can use to fill in the lows in the padding and sand into uniformity? Any other ideas or tips on restoring these door panels would be appreciated.

Edit: If a mod wants to fix my thread title typo I won't mind....Thanks!

[JKnight]

I'll save this spot for pictures to be posted later.

[DETON8R]

I am installing a gen 4 camaro dash in my 1969 camaro, so I will be modifying door panels to fit the dash in the car. The last thinig I was going to do was purchase a set of new panels and cut them up when there are plent of stock panes that are being repalced for not much money. I got a set of donor panels for $75 including shipping!! I will be doing some of the same work you are looking at, but I'm probably a few months behind you, so no photos or experience to pass along. My plan was to use stock door panes, and the ones I have are pretty bad, but definitely salvagable. I will be going with electric window motors and I want to update the look of the door panes to match the dash, so I will be sealing up holes and making holes, and changing conours, etc.

If you have an auto paint store around try them, or a West Marine is another option. I'm lucky, I have a professional paint and body supply store about 10 minutes away, unfortunatly they are only open during the week, so it is tough to get to them on their hours. West Marine is my fallback, they are open on weekends, and have TONS of stuff for do-it-yourselfers for that kind of project and products for it.

I have not used it myself for car repairs, but there is a rigid foam product we use for filling cracks and holes for building maintenance at work. http://greatstuff.dow.com/

Most hardware stores have GreatStuff products, and it runs around $10 a can. I was going to use foam, fiberglass and sheet metal to modify my panels, so foam is a filler for me and the fiberglass will make it smooth for the vinyl to lay over.

Hope this helps.

[JKnight]

Thanks for the input. My factory panels are really in good shape, but the vinyl was pretty sunfaded and cracking in a few places where the elbows rest. At this point I'll be happier with the fit of restored originals than with the ease of buying another set of repros and hoping they fit.

My concern with using an expanding foam is that I'm really only trying to fill in very small lows in the foam (.5mm-1.5mm). I just don't need that much to fill them in. I wish there was something in a spray can, like a high-build primer, but for soft touch surfaces.

Now I'm thinking some kind of tape or padded tape could be applied in those areas to ensure that the vinyl/leather does not show any of the lows in the foam. I know some vinyl's have a thicker backing so that it smooths out imperfections, so hopefully that, in conjunction with the tape, will smooth out the lows without creating new bumps or creases.

If I'm overthinking this, feel free to hint in that direction