door handle covers

[digithead]

Boy this 2 new inside door panels project is killing me. Now I see why people ***** about fit. I was all excited to spend the dough and make doors right. THe parts look good out of the box till you go to fit it all up and find the subtle differences and holes are off 1/16--1/4" here and there.

So my biggest struggle is these 2 fillers that go behind our door pull handles. Literally the curve radius from door armrest down is flatter then radius on old covers. They old covers still drop right into my old side panels (i kept them). Any suggestions for these 2 covers? Mine fit horribly.

 

[rocket366]

I have not done this on the cups but enlarging, sectioning, or reforming of

the parts and fiberglassing them back together on the backside and

repainting them is a real possibility if you have some skills.

Paul

 

[Qcode351mach]

Boy this 2 new inside door panels project is killing me. Now I see why people ***** about fit. I was all excited to spend the dough and make doors right. THe parts look good out of the box till you go to fit it all up and find the subtle differences and holes are off 1/16--1/4" here and there.

So my biggest struggle is these 2 fillers that go behind our door pull handles. Literally the curve radius from door armrest down is flatter then radius on old covers. They old covers still drop right into my old side panels (i kept them). Any suggestions for these 2 covers? Mine fit horribly.

Buy the repop door cups good chance they will fit better match the repop door panels

http://www.cjponyparts.com/deluxe-door-handle-trim-cups-1971-1973/p/DPDC5/

 

[judge]

I did those about 4 years ago, I remember having to heat up the panel skin and stretch it to match the cups. I back filled the gap with epoxy to retain the shape.

 

[mach1000]

What does a new set go for, just curious?

Find junk Cougar door panels and use ones from them! The 7173 cougar used this type of door panel trim on the cougar XR7s.

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

I have not worked with the door panels but when I am restoring a console I use a heat gun to heat up the base and bend back into shape. You have to be careful you can melt it. Wear some thick gloves so you can massage the parts into shape.

 

[73pony]

I have not worked with the door panels but when I am restoring a console I use a heat gun to heat up the base and bend back into shape. You have to be careful you can melt it. Wear some thick gloves so you can massage the parts into shape.

+1 on that. My original cups fit like crap on my original door panels, prob just due to age. I used a heat gun (VERY CAREFULLY) to warm them up and make adjustments to the shape. Took several rounds of this to get them to fit the way I wanted then I did a thin fiberglass backing on them to hold the shape.

 

[digithead]

Thanks all. Oh boy, heat gun again. FUn fun. What can possibly go wrong with a heat gun in your hand (go ahead and fill in the blank with your story here__________________________________________.)