Hey all,

At the right time I want to ultimately redo my inner door panels...drove around with the inner door panels off and you'd be surprised at how much more room there is in the car...so...in my pea brained imagination, knowing there'd be a lot of work involved but not knowing how to do the work, I'm wondering what specifically has to be done to redo my inner door panels such that I could cut away a central channel above the arm rest to make more elbow room (if you will), build up some new material there of course since some material would have to be removed, design the door panels much more creatively so aesthetically it was more sophisticated, (I can do the design part), and then recover it all with the appropriate fabrics and materials so it looks better than oem. (oem doors on our 350's are too plasticky for how elegant the car is - we know this I know)

Anyone have any thoughts, tutorials, etc on how to get immersed in learning this project and then executing it?

Thanks sincerely,

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What about all that metal and glass behind the door panel?

 

That's all behind the silver metal "vapor barrier panel". I won't be interfering with the glass or metal structure in the least.

I just want to hack away at the door panel that hangs off the metal..the vinyl/plastic bit that holds the arm rest and door switches, etc.. In a way just think of the way 370z doors have a bit of an indentation in the panel itself for their elbow rest..the 350 could accomodate that, but would need some major overhaulin to the door panel to do it...I just may have a go though in future months once I have a bead on how to do it.

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Take your door panel off sometime, and just drive around after hooking up your window switches, leave them carefully dangling beside the seat...you'll be really surprised at how much more open the cabin becomes.

Then just imagine putting the door panel back on, but carving out enough vinyl to reinvent that extra space for your arm to then sit on a newly built elbow rest...it's a major job...but hopefully these words will get you the right mind picture since my brain been's out of film with the lens cap on for some time.

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Dude it's gonna turn out ghetto.

There is no way you are going to be able to match the clean finish (for lack of better phrasing) of a factory door panel.

Do you REALLY need an extra couple of inches of interior space that badly?

 

If you were going to do it I'd imagine fiberglass would be the easiest/cheapest option. Whether or not the fiberglass will bond with the plastic for an extended amount of time how you want to do it; I have no idea. I've never done it before.

*If I was going to do it I'd just make new door panels all together out of fiberglass. That I've done, it's time consuming but not crazy difficult.

 

Nismo: I hear you, and won't do the project unless I believe I can accomplish my imagination within reason. I've seen most of what I want to do done to other cars online, so I know it's doable, but in all honesty probably not by me...but...nothing happens if I don't ask and possibly try. We'll see.

It's really not about gaining a little extra elbow room, my real project is to artistically upscale the interior to match the elegance of the Z's exterior lines, so it feels more exotic and visually plush to drive in. I've wanted to redesign the bland doors since my first test drive almost. heh The elbow room is just a "while I'm at it" kind of wondering...but if I even do this I really don't know.

 

Weight: Fiberglass was my guess too, although I've seen guys attach a strip of board that is covered in leather TO the door panel's front...so I also wonder if a strip could be cut out of the panel, an insert made from fiberglass or whatever that lips over the door panel's front and glues to the door panel's back as well...hard to describe.

We'll see...it's just a research effort at this point..probably will never have the time to really pull this off unless I hired a pro, but I want the control and the design to be done first rate...not the mediocre audio-shop installs I see too often with some so so fabrics and mismatched stitching thread sizes that are too small to look oem.

I have some nice ideas...(I think)...but we'll see how it goes as time goes by.

 

First off, I'd suggest you buy a used set of door panels to work on and play with before you start tearing up anything else. They're affordable enough to let that pea-sized imagination go wild without damaging the functionality of your interior.

 

Well another option is 8115 made by 3m. It's a panel bonding adhesive that's used to bond metal and is also used as a structural repair on plastic bumpers. The setup isn't crazy expensive. There's an applicator gun and the epoxy itself. I don't remember how much they are exactly but the epoxy is close to $50 each.

 

I would try a mold simply around resin, skip the fiberglass, it doesn't need the structural stability, some fleece and resin would do the trick