Solution to the poorly designed vert door panels (with pics)

[Adam61988]

As all of us 240 convertible owners know nissan really cheaped out when it came to engineering the door panels. All of the verts Ive come across in the junkyards have had the problems with the arm rest inserts falling out, the gab handle/tray falling out, or the panel just detaching itself from the door.

I first had to do something when I got my new set of speakers (infinity reference 6 1/2s and 6x9's) and realized that the 6.5s wouldnt fit in the door because the stock system was 5.25 round speakers. So I basically just took the panels off, put some self tapping panhead screws, and plugged the window switches and called it a day.

I dont know where the ideas came from, but im pleased with the end result. I was more concerned with getting a solid, strong door panel before anything else. So I got rid of the black plastic tray that the window buttons screw onto and I instead made my own fiberglass piece. The fabric that was aleady on the door made a good base for the resin to stick to. A few coats of resin and I used two sheets of fiberglass mesh

Now that I eliminated that piece, I took the arm rest insert and lined it up where it should go on the door panel and drilled a bunch of holes around the circumference of it. then I took small machine screws and nuts and bolted the arm rest onto the door panel.

Next came the old speaker hole. it had some metal screen/mesh over it that I just unscrewed, then I drilled small holes into the panel around it and layed a piece of fiberglass over it and covered it in resin. After all that had dried I took some body filler and filled in behind the covered up speaker hole. That way there was a thicker base for mounting my speaker later.

Now that I had a pretty solid, but ugly door panel, I was thinking of the easiest way of making it look nice. Painting would require alot of priming sanding filling etc. Someone suggested rhino lining (the spray on bed liner)and I really took to it. I met with one of the sales agents and he said that it could be done, and it didnt require much prep work. For 200 bucks they sprayed both panels and did some sanding and prep work.

After they came back from the shop I had to cut out the speaker holes and cut out the spots for the window buttons. Nothing too fancy here, I just drilled and cut the holes and made sure to bolt everything on.

FINISHED PRODUCT:

Only downside is there is a tiny bit of odor that builds up after the doors and windows have been closed for a while. It is gradually decreasinjg with time. The added weight is surprisingly only ~7 more pounds

The last part of my mission was to find a way to securely mount the panels to the door. THe old plastic pushpin design wouldnt work. Hell it didnt really work before and I doubt that it would have worked with the added weight of the door. I finally went to the harware store and bought self drilling metal screws with a hex head. And some thick washers. I pulled out the old pushpins and drilled holes through the door panels where the pushpins used to mount. Then I welded the washers onto the door over the holes where the pushpins used to mount. then I just screwed the door panels on.

Finished Mounted Doors
Modified by Adam61988 at 10:03 AM 9/26/2007

[biggie]

Good job, I guess. But scares me (reminds me of inside of a halloween hearse or something).

BTW the 6.5's fit easily in the front, either by making a spacer/bracket for them or ordering one off ebay as I did.

[DirftKing102]

great write up

[94_240sx]

Guys,Is it easy to take off stock door interior panels? My speakers went bad long time ago, but I am scared if I break the panel when I try to replace them.

[ishkabibble]

Is it easy to take off the stock panel? Yes.

Is it easy to break the stock panel when you are taking it off? Yes.

[biggie]

Definately easy to make the door insert start to seperate the more you take the panel off/on.

For taking it off there are 3 screws on the panel (2 covered, 1 on insert, 1 near dash), 1 screw near the top of the pillar, behind the seat belt. Also a screw in the cup/window switches (have to remove the small cover to get to it). Then just remove the handle/lock trim and the cup/window switches (unhook the window switches after removal.)

Also a screw at the top-back of the door holding the window trim piece at the bottom of the pillar.

Pop it off, about 6-7 plastic pushin clips that have to be pulled out. And slide the seat belt through the slot at the bottom, while removing it.

[BOOMSHAKALAKA]

Is it easy to take off the stock panel? Yes.

Is it easy to break the stock panel when you are taking it off? Yes.

I learned this the hard way...

[Loki]

Is it easy to take off the stock panel? Yes.

Is it easy to break the stock panel when you are taking it off? Yes.

Hell, these door panels will crack if you just THINK about removing them

[Adam61988]

The problem I have was that the infinity speakers I have were designed to be mounted in speaker cover that they came with. They have a little decible gain button on the tweeter. and the stock speaker cover that is mounted on the door panel doesnt have the hole. The other solution would be use the 6.5" speaker adapter and then remove the speaker cover that was on the door and use my speaker cover. But the infinity speaker cover is designed to have the speaker mounted inside of it. Its difficult for me to explain. I hope someone understands.

[DirftKing102]

so basically it is really easy to take off door panals because all you do is unscrew all of the screws in your door and take them off. I tried to make mine tighter and then the paint shop finally found out what was wrong with it.

[white90esex]

OMFG!!! you drive around with that ****? thats makes me projectile vomit!

sorry, I dont usually down talk other peoples stuff but thats the most horendis thing ive EVER SEEN. Looks like it got **** out of something.

If I were you id go buy some new panels and get some spacers/addapters to put those speakers in.

[premo-s12]

sorry, not trying to be an @$$....but i think that looks horrible :-/

[Adam61988]

Hmmm strange people say it looks like crap. I mean the pictures really dont do it justice but everyone that has seen it in person says that it is a big improvement.

I would have prefered a new stock door panel, but as we all know the stock panels are faulty at best. I'll take the small tradeoff in looks just because these door panels are indestructible. I can slam the doors as hard as I want (not that I do) and dont hear the rattling of the panel, nor do I feel like I am in danger of pulling something apart when I do.

I'll try to get out there one day and take a picture with something other than my camera phone once I get the back panels done also.

[ishkabibble]

Your effort is better spent doing the door pillar mod.

[Eikon]

Adam, Sorry to see people are being so immature about things. That's not the way most of the adults in this forum act.

Memo to all: If you feel the need to tell the original poster that you don't like their project/car/work, etc.. Please do it in a respectful fashion!

Perhaps something like one of the following phrases: "Hmm.. I'm not really feeling that". "That's not my favorite." "I really like the stock look better." "Here's something I might have done differently..."What Ish just said is a reasonable as well.

Your effort is better spent doing the door pillar mod.

What I won't tolerate are statements like:

OMFG!!! you drive around with that ****? thats makes me projectile vomit!

sorry, I dont usually down talk other peoples stuff but thats the most horendis thing ive EVER SEEN. Looks like it got **** out of something.

I'm not here to censor people, you can state your opinions. But I won't allow insults in the 'vert forum. We're better than that.

Thanks gang!

[Eikon]

Adam,

I'm impressed with your fiberglassing ability. Have you ever thought about any other projects for the 'vert?

Boot cover for example!

[Adam61988]

I actually never really fiberglassed much at all. My dad is pretty amazing when it comes to stuff like that and I guess I just picked up on it throughout the years.

Interesting you mention the boot cover. I thought it was such a simple idea that some small company would have made one by now, but since my google search results only turned up a few results none of which were relevant; I'll look into making one and see how hard it would be. I guess there is more of a demand for a hard cover then for a soft cover because any upholstery shop could make a soft cover for you.

[white90esex]

sorry for the "harsh" insult but in all reality if I said.... im not feeling that it, it just doesnt say the truth about what it looks like.

It looks like you ryno-lined the inside of the car.

You say that the very door panels are "faulty" you could have gotten Coupe door panels to solve the solution and put all that time and effort into making the inside uniform and stylish instead of just yuck.

Sorry but I dont go around insulting people just for the hell of it. It is a harsh critisizm but no one will learn if you incurage to them to do tastless and utterly useless things to their vehicles.

And to make you fell better, good job with the creativity and inginuity. If you could use those skills elsewere you could probably build yourself a bad *** car.

Also, I dont meet to bring down the Vert Forum. I am not a vert owner but have desired to be for years. I do see that the Vert forum does have alot less arguing and sencless crap the other forums such as the 240sx & Silvia forum.

and I dont see how you can say

THIS:

looks better than

THIS:

Sorry, but its the truth. And admin man, im sorry for making everyone hate me for being brutally honest.

[BOOMSHAKALAKA]

Not feeling it, Adam. Sorry man. However, I give you props for making those because I wouldn't even attempt to tackle a project like that.

If it were me I'd just get some fiberglass panels by Origin or D-Max and call it a day.

[otto_3478s]

I wonder what these same panels would look like if you were to make them nice and smooth kinda like the stock ones. I think that that would give you the Origin CF panel look, but these are def a step in the right direction and +1 for diy!!!

[azndan2]

nice job on fiberglassingit doesnt suit my taste, but it is originali also would like to agree with eikon on the flamingflaming is for children

[TKE SigO 258]

Not feelin the look, but definitely like the idea. it does look a bit rhyno-lined in the pictures, but picture quality isn't always the best. But props on the diy!

[TIMELSS_vert]

I think the concept of the idea could fly, if it was done through out, with smooth, show quality finish. The guy who said it looked like Rino Lining has it spot on imo, along with those who say the effort could have been spent in more productive ways to solve the same problem.

[thrty5thsc]

You should sand it and skim it with some body filler now. Also try to fasten the switches from the inside. Get it smooth hide those screws and you'll have some door panels that people pay thousands for. Maybe you could also put the switches back in the original mount and glass the whole part to your door panel.

[vertbish]

Now that I had a pretty solid, but ugly door panel, I was thinking of the easiest way of making it look nice. Painting would require alot of priming sanding filling etc. Someone suggested rhino lining (the spray on bed liner)and I really took to it. I met with one of the sales agents and he said that it could be done, and it didnt require much prep work. For 200 bucks they sprayed both panels and did some sanding and prep work.

Modified by Adam61988 at 10:03 AM 9/26/2007

I am going to be harsh but whats the point to beating around the bush?

So if I read this correctly you did have them rhino lined because you are too lazy to make them look nice???

AND spent $200????

I just dont understand why people half-*** everything when they could take thier time and have the end result be 1000x better... I would have gave you mad props if you would have took time and painted it instead of half-assing it.

Someone already did come up with the concept of having fiberglass/Carbon panels.... A few more hundred bucks and you could have got the bang!

Eikon, Im sorry... It just upsets me to see a vert owner lazy and careless.

Im sure most of you agree.

So please.... dont do any more work to your car unless your going to go the extra mile and do it right... or whatever its your car, do what you want. I think you should sell it now while you can to someone who will take care of it! Go get a honda, you will get better gas mileage, you wont have to worry about nissan designing some poorly door panels!!!

Modified by vertbish at 12:33 PM 10/11/2007
Modified by vertbish at 12:37 PM 10/11/2007

[-RJ-]

If it were me I'd just get some fiberglass panels by Origin or D-Max and call it a day.

where do you buy those at? i cant find it on their pages

[BOOMSHAKALAKA]

where do you buy those at? i cant find it on their pages

D-Maxhttp://www.dmax-cs.com/interior.htmlOriginhttp ... de...ndoor

Those are what I was talking about. Where to buy them, I don't know. I'll keep looking and if I find anything, I'll let you know.

[MadmikeX3]

I say just rock out and do the dash and rear panles as well.