Making Your Own Interior Panels

Anytime you do a project like this it's best to understand how the item was originally made. In the case of the interior panels, it's all pretty obvious with the exception of the door pocket. It's an interesting design that requires some careful sewing, cutting, fitting and assembling. Even though I completely understand how to do it, I kept one old door cover with the pocket still partially attached and the other door cover with it all taken apart. AND....... I still miss cut my first practice door and my first door that I was doing in leather. I may understand how it's done but it's counter-intuitive.

The arrow points to the slot where the front edge of the pocket goes through the door panel and is stapled to the back of the panel.

Here it is on the back side but..............

Under the pocket is a small flap of material seen on the left, then the slot in the middle and the pocket on the right.

Here's the pocket's leading edge pulled back to the front of the panel.

And here's that flap cut out with the arrow pointing toward the rear of the door panel.

Empty staples...........my guess is that there should be an elastic here.

And here's the other end doing absolutely no good at all.

As I peel the vinyl from the door you can see that there's minimal (maybe 1/64") foam used and the seam is heat sealed.

With all the vinyl removed you can see the foam and outline of the seams.

I mentioned that I screwed up two door panels. I expected to mess up somewhere and the first practice panel met my expectations. After that initial screw up I did 3 full sets, 6 doors in total, with no problems. Then I made up my first door in leather.

Red arrow points to the pocket while the white arrow shows where I made the cut for the pocket to go into.............

The cut I made was on the red line and it should have been on the white lines! You cut that little flap which is then tucked through the slot in the back board. The pocket then goes in over the flap. Toss this panel into the experience pile!

And here's what it looks like when done the right way. The green arrow points to the pocket which has been stitched to the bottom of the door panel. The flat has been cut and is ready to be pushed through the slot (blue arrow) in the back board. Then the pocket itself gets pushed through the slot.

This is what a door pocket looks like before it's attached to the door panel

Chalk marks all over the place and the pocket hasn't been stapled to the back board yet to tighten it up but here's what it looks when done correctly.