aftermarket quarter interior panels

I just bought a pair of the interior quarter panels, and they say its not original graining, has anybody used these? Do they look good? Do they fit? They are for fastback w/o fold down rear seat.

If you're talking about the ABS pieces from National Parts Depot, I have a set. Mine's more of a restomod, so as far as the grain pattern "not being correct" goes, I'm not really concerned - once they were painted the right color for my interior (SEM Metallic Black), they look great. A concourse-minded individual will want to seek out some nice OE pieces anyway.

Currently, they are "loosely" tossed into the car (only fastened at the door jambs currently, with the rear seat pretty much "holding" them in-place - fixed... not folding). I was scrambling for a car show, and they wound up fitting in "good enough" to just look nice at the car show without having to nail 'em down.

However - they are going to take a bit of massaging and tweaking to get them in. I'm not saying they don't fit... I'm saying they'll take some work to fit correctly. Like the repop door panels (and other big trim pieces) they don't have any mounting or fastener holes punched through anywhere - you'll need to do that yourself to ensure proper fit... which will be a challenge, since everywhere the fasteners need to go will be an exercise in locating the mounting points behind a big piece of material, and punching the holes [hopefully] in the right places. There are a few things the pieces being of ABS construction are a detriment, specifically where the other trim pieces are supposed to overlap or be overlapped by these pieces - they don't "give-a-little" like the OE pieces would - which makes it tough to fit everything together properly.

A few things I really like: ABS construction... means the shape will not distort with the crazy heat in West Texas. No ashtray is nice as well - yes, it's not stock... but who uses the ashtray in the back seat anyway (one less thing to hassle with).

Overall, I'm happy. But then again, I'm not a concourse guy or afraid of trimming or tweaking a little to make things fit where they otherwise might not, so it is what it is.

Hope this helps. I'll get some pics this weekend - I still need to install my seat belts and tweak a few things inside anyway.

Eric-to locate holes, can you put a piece of something like poster board up and mark the holes and then use it in reverse to help locate the position for adding holes to you new part?

Good tip - and that works great on flatter pieces: that's how I was able to figure out how to trim the package tray pieces after I'd installed the package tray (that should've instead been trimmed itself).

There were a few holes I was able to "eyeball," but they were closer to the edges and the door jambs. There are a couple of mounting points that are smack in the middle of the piece(s) - which can go a long way toward having the holes in the wrong places. Plus, I have the regulator crank holes for the quarter windows to consider... but for now, they're still hidden behind the plastic.

I think what I'll probably wind up doing, since these pieces are so rigid, is maybe do the Velcro thing on those few mounting points. That way, no visible screws (or holes to mess up) and no chance of mis-aligning things based on bad screw-hole locations. Restomod, after all.

I fixed a Volvo's door panels once with construction adhesive. Only do that if you never want to remove the panel though LOL

Well, I'd like to say I'll never take 'em back out... but yeah... you know how that goes. rofl

I think I'm going to stuff a feather pillow in a plastic bag behind mine!

A neat trick to locate holes is as follows:

Insert a screw with a point into the fastener hole, but backwards so that the screw point faces the plastic piece that you wish to fit. Have the screw just penetrating the bracket. Then whack the plastic with the flat of your hand so that the screw point makes a mark. Remove the panel and drill accordingly.

Works every time!

Cue the heavenly music from above...

:udaman:

cool, thanks for the input, I'm not going for concourse correct either, so I'm sure they will work well.

I had repop panels in mine for a while, personally, I hated them. They were honestly really cheesy and didn't fit in there very well without modification (cutting) and not even installed correctly by the P.O.

I bought a set of OEM ones from Kurt and after some serious refinishing, popped them in. They look great!

IMO, the OEM panels are MILES better than the reproduction in terms of structure, installation, appearance, etc.