Finally got around to reskinning my driver's side door on the '66. Since I've owned her, she's had an embarrassing, ratty door panel that greeted every entry... Larger, badly stained, rotted bottom with remains of the orig owner's duct tape "repair." About 3-4 years ago, I bought some junkyard interior parts from a '65 Galaxie 500, a tailgate panel from another, put 'em in the back of my wagon, and promptly forgot about them. (Figured one day I'd cut out the rectangle for the PW gang switch of the '65 trim card and try to make it work till I could find a '66 card in turquoise). Larger Then, a couple years ago a buddy picked up a used 2door Galaxie trim card in turquoise, and I thought, well, that's not going to do any good, thanks, but why bother? Starting work on the '66 PW's two weeks ago, the old '65 parts were still there in back, then I saw this '66 Custom 500 trim card on ebay and got to thinking. I could see the outline of the PW gang switch where the window crank hole was, and had a Eureka Moment. (I was ready to buy the ebay '66 card, and remembered the used '65 card in the wagon). Larger If all trim cards are precut, then I should be able to use the old '65 card, my 2door '66 "skin," and make a decent trim card for my driver's door. (It's been a while since I've fooled with door panels). The kicker would be mating mating 2door upholstery to a 4door card. Sure enough, the leading edge of the 2door trim matched up perfectly, as did the holes for the vent crank, door handle and armrest. All I had to do was cut off the add'l length of the 2door trim at the back. The remote mirror hole was already diecut on the '65 panel, too, so I punched it out and the PW switch rectangle, and started skinning. The only glue was around the top of the cards and on the inside where the trim was stapled. The die-lectric bonded horizontal lines held the skin at the bottom, and came off easily with a little care. I slowly glued the trim's backside of the leading edge at the A-pillar, using 3M Trim Adhesive and clothespins to set the bond. Did the same at the top and along the ex die-lectric bond halfway down the bottom, then trimmed off enough of the end to wrap around and glue to the back. A Dremel tool removed the thick, bonded mylar horizontal trim piece at the rear edge, and some dark green vinyl dye (already on hand) covered up the cut nicely. The only cash outlay that day was $21.93 for the 3M adhesive, but I had 20 bucks on my Advance Auto card, so I spent $1.93 (not including the meager cost of all that old used stuff). The only real pain was removing the heavily-stapled window fuzzy and getting it back into place after the glue had set overnight. Larger The finished result won't win any awards for perfection, but it sure is nice to have this panel greet me, rather than the POS from before. More than once I was about to throw out that 2door card with its nicer vertical woodgrained button, and called my buddy to thank him after my "new" panel was in place. Can't wait for him to see it! Thanks for listening and looking, TG
Wow, looks great 66 and congratulations on thinking out of the box and being so creative. Don't you love it when things work out?!!
