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Door Panel Replacement

With mixed emotions, I'm replacing the door panels that the previous owner fashioned from plywood and red vinyl with OEM style panels. The red/black swirl vinyl that was used was a bit too ornate for my tastes, but did in fact, look nice on the car. I've decided to keep the door panels that came with the car, for they are better constructed. I may use them again someday, however, I'll use black vinyl paint to color over them before I do.

I've already painted over the matching red/black vinyl that the previous owner used to fashion the sheetmetal backed parcel trays. These are a huge improvement over the cheap cardboard panels that were fitted by Triumph. This is just one of several nice mods that the previous owner made to make the car his own.

The door panels came with no instructions, so I had to figure out the orientation of the door clips myself. The trick is to orient the clips so that the part of the clip that inserts into the door holes is as close to the outer edge of the door panel as possible.

Be prepared to have to wriggle some of the clips around a litte bit to get good alignment with the door holes.

TIP: Keep a set of needle-nosed pliers handy. You'll be glad you did. Also, when inserting the clips, take care not to push them in at an angle and damage the vinyl on the other side.

There are two clip positions that I decided to avoid altogether. These are located several inches down from the top edge towars the center of the door. I found that I couldn't insert the clips to their proper orientation without puckering the vinyl on the other side, which is creased, so I didn't use them. These clips are shown below in the incorrect position. They should have been facing in the same direction as the clip shown above them on the upper right. However, inserting them that way seemed to cause problems with the vinyl on the other side.

With a bit of time, patience and good lighting (a must!), I was able to mount the two door panels with little trouble. Well, a little trouble. The outside corner of one is having a bit of trouble staying put because the door itself has been bent inward right where the hole is. I tried bending it back out with some success, but may end up applying some heavy duty double sided tape to the problem spot.

In reattaching the door handles I realized that the PO had fitted them backwards. Before, I had to push down to open the door -- now it's a more intuitive pull up.

I'll do a final cleanup with some vinyl dressing, but for now this project is complete!

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