door panel build

Chris Smith

I bought a sheet of black door card material to practice making inside upholstery panels. This stuff is tough and hard to cut with a box cutter. What else can I use to cut the pieces accurately.  

lostmind

Try medium size tin snips. Works well on roofing shingles , should work on your panels if they are sharp.

Jon B

How about an electric jigsaw or sabre saw with a very fine blade (or knife blade)?  Or even a bandsaw.  If you are using a box cutter, make sure it has a new blade, use a metal straightedge and (of course) make several light passes with the knife, going ever-deeper with each succeeding cut, as opposed to trying to get it all on the first cut.  The round holes (for the window winder shafts) will of course be difficult.  There might possibly be a fine-tooth hole saw out there of the correct diameter, which could help you.

RL Chilton

Ditto what Jon said.  No better method.  

SuperDave

If you can find a leather/gasket punch of  the correct size , or an electricians chassis punch. they will make a neat hole.

The one on the left is used by electricians to punch holes in junction boxes and in to radio chassis when they used vacuum tubes ! Yes I used it for that "back in the day"..  The leather or gasket punch on the right has been in my tool box longer than I can remember.

Chris Smith

I have a snap-on gasket hole punch set that should work well for the holes but the box cutter method is not my favorite way to cut out the rest of the shapes. I wonder what the pros use. I will both methods suggested and see what leaves the cleanest edge.Thanks for the tips.

duncan

Hi Chris For our 54 Hollywood  we used a small wood chisel of the right size to cut holes for the clips to hold panel on door. Also for the holes for window cranks a thin wall electricians aluminum pipe ground sharp to the size of hole.We also used clear plastic vapor barrier cut a little bigger than door or quarter panel and used lots of flat small magnets to hold plastic on door while using a black felt marking pen to draw all holes that needed to be cut out.Worked very good.  Hudsonly  Ray

duncan

Chris  to use pipe to make large holes after sharp just gently turn pipe several times till hole is through panel.

Ray

Chris Smith

Ray, what did you use to attach and seal the plastic water barrier?

duncan

The upolsterer hasn,t said yet. Maybe black roofing paper or plastic using two sided

sticky tape. Ray

J Spencer

I can't add any thing to the suggestions Jon, etc made but as far as vapor barrier goes knowing new cars have it what if you just sprayed clear paint on it. I think the edges would be very important to seal also,not just the flat surface.

charles4d

 You every think about using glass board very durable and wont decay 

DavidC

Dynamat or similar product makes a great vapor/heat/sound barrier

Chris Smith

While the doors were off the car to strip the old paint, prime, block, and paint the final color, I cleaned all the old insulation out of the insides and painted with POR15. I then replaced the insulation with Dynamat Xtreme.  Adding more Dynamat as a water barrier would be an expensive over kill for me. Its a consideration though as I like the stuff, and it has its own never come off again adhesive.