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Enjoy.
Here is the finished passenger door panel installed.
What do you think of the accent against the black?
View attachment 21429 As I was polishing the bumper, there was a hairline that failed to polish out. So I am redoing it slowly to prevent overheating the joint. Stainless Steel holds heat very well so I need to be careful.
Thanks for the in depth insight into the methods used. For all practical purposes here you are creating a concept car. Impressive!Jerry,
Thank you for your kind words.
By chance the high school I went to offered auto shop, woodworking and metal fab as well as welding. So I could gas weld and stick weld and some time ago got the teach myself how to use a MIG welder. The Tig welder I purchased recently and still figuring out how to use it correctly. I didn't buy the correct size welding sticks for the bumpers so the MIG welder has been used to do them until I get the smaller sticks.
To answer your question, the door panels are original for the S2000 Chassis. My Mother was a seamstress and her sewing machine was in the TV room. As a kid I watched and asked some questions to understand what and why she was doing things a certain way.
Back to the interior, the only modification that you can buy changes the perforated panel insert. I went a different direction and changed the solid panel and actually like it better now that it is in the car. The insert is screwed onto the door card and the material is glued to it. Pulled it off and used the old as a template to cut the new material and got some thin foam and Glue from Joann's fabric store. Glued the material to the foam, let it fully set and cure for 24 hours then I could sew them together. The top stitch was too much material for my bullet proof old Black Singer sewing machine so that had to be done by hand. That little accent makes it right, same as I did on the shifter boot. Now the center console piece will get the same top stitching to match.
As far as the body modifications, the rear quarter panels had to be blended (hand formed) at the door jam and I also made new wheel houses before putting them on. The trunk panel was made by using the front edge of the NC Miata, a majority of the Sunbeam "boot" and the side extension were formed by hand and everything was welded together. The front ended up using only the headlight housing grafted onto the Honda fenders. From the headlight to the windshield was sheet metal hand formed to fit. On the larger areas I use MDF or plywood on curved 2x4's cut and sanded to the shape wanted and fit the metal to it.
Guy