My Garage fabbed Door Panels

[protour73]

Sometimes you just need to push the fear of trying something new aside. So I dove into auto upholstery, head first. I figured if I screw something up, I'll just do it over. I kept my design simple, so the actual application would not be so difficult. Knowing my amateur status could only take me so far, I had a local auto upholstery shop (Riggs Brothers in Naperville, IL) do the armrests, they were able to incorporate the 2 major choices of material that I used and ran a stitch down the side of the armrest for a nice finished look.

I had gotten tired of the look of the stock '73 door panels in the car and they just didn't fit the overall protouring feeling that the rest of car was exhibiting. The upper door panels were covered with a product from 3M called Di-NOC. It has a faux Carbon Fiber look to it. It's not just a printed design, the surface actually has a texture to it. It works well with the faux Black Carbon Fiber marine grade vinyl I used on the perimeter of the panel, the large insert is a Black faux leather with a really nice texture to it. The small insert is the identical material as the black around the perimeter but in a yellow closely matching the cars paint.

The window cranks are billet aluminum by Lokar, anodized black from their "Midnight" series. I still have to install the interior door handles, but I am waiting for the escutcheon to come back from my friend Tom ( feathercarbon.com ) who is doing them in real Carbon Fiber.

The overall fit and finish turned out pretty well, not perfect.....but hey, it's my first time. I will post up a complete build thread, as I took pictures through the whole fabrication process.