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December 26, 2022

Door & Wheel Arch Cards

The interiors of Triumph cars of this era were generally pretty utilitarian, maybe even spartan.  Spanning from the A post to the rear of the car, the door cards and the wheel arch panels were covered with thin vinyl over some token padding.  The base of both panels was simple 1/8" flat hardboard.

The door cards did have a lower panel of some sort of fuzzy material that probably did look sort of nice when it was new.  There were also some heat-welded lines, apparently intended to look like stitched channels or pleats, but I don't think it ever really fooled anybody. 

My door cards didn't look very good.




One of my cards had a layer of plastic attached to the backside.  I believe there was originally some "water curtains" in the doors to try to keep water away from the cards, but I don't think this was the original curtain.  There were signs of significant water damage on both cards.  It looked like wet debris had gotten trapped between the door and card.




The vinyl cover was attached to the card by the heat welds across the center, and by staples around the perimeter.  The foam padding was barely 1/8" thick, and had gotten sort of stiff.




Because of the potential exposure to water, even with water curtains, I've always thought that hardboard is not the best material for this application.  I know that some folks have used aluminum with success, but I thought that some sort of plastic sheet would also work well.  This is a sheet of Kydex.  It is a PVC/acrylic composite plastic that is waterproof, very tough, and has low flammability.  It was originally developed for interior partitions in aircraft.




Kydex typically comes with a smooth and a textured side.  I put the textured side as the backside of the card, reasoning that glue will grip better.  I cut it by scoring it, like plastic laminate.




Cut to shape, then all the various holes were marked and drilled.




I then started laying out for some sort of stitched design on the panel.  I wanted it to reflect the original parallel lines, but maybe with a twist.




Cut some leather and some foam to fit.  That is "sew foam" or "scrim foam".  It has a fabric bonded to one side so that it will hold stitching.  I used 3/8" foam to try to lush the interior up a notch.  I used 1/2" on my TR6 door cards, and they look really good, but the door handle and window crank drag on the vinyl, and will eventually probably leave a mark.  Not sure if 3/8" will have the same problem.




This is the stitching pattern I came up with.  It's similar to a pattern I used on the TR6.  I guess it's a little link between the cars.




Getting ready to mount the leather/foam to the panel.  The white donuts are to bring the thickness of panel up to the same as the original, so that the panel clips will fit properly.  The Kydex is 0.080" thick, so I needed another 0.040" or so.  Standard plastic laminate (e.g. Formica) worked great.




Glued the covering to the panel, sort of stretching slightly as I went.




When there is a pair of items, especially for jobs I don't do often, I typically do one at a time in case I need to refer to an original.




The second one always goes faster.




The wheel arch cards were even more nondescript--just flat hardboard covered with thin vinyl and 1/8" foam.  The hardboard was in relatively good shape, but some of the mounting holes were damaged.




Since there was no evidence of water exposure on these cards, I didn't feel that the extra expense of Kydex was justified, but I did opt to make new hardboard panels.




As a hedge against airborne moisture and condensation, I did apply 5-6 coats of urethane varnish to the panels before cutting foam and vinyl to fit.




Then, just to add a smidge of character to these plain parts, I stitched some lines that should line up with those on the door cards.





Then put it all together.




A little over a week's work, spread over a month or so.




Not sure what else has to match.




This was a perfect pass time for the warm shop during our recent sub-zero weather.  This wasn't a cheap project, though.  It took most of a leather hide at around $200, and maybe $60 worth of Kydex, though I have a fair amount left over.

Comments to Ed at elhollin1@yahoo.com

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