Posted By: cjskotni
Best 1971-1974 B-body Lower Door Panels? - 05/25/14 02:37 PM
Guys,
This fall, if funds permit, I may try to get my front door panels put together and finish this darn car up.
I know there are quite a few poor quality reproduction molded door panels out there. Who makes the best ones? I always heard that you want 'injection molded' IIRC?
I will be needing the seat backs and lower front door panels for my 1973 Charger. Who makes the best ones?
Thanks!
Posted By: 71birdJ68
Re: Best 1971-1974 B-body Lower Door Panels? - 05/26/14 01:53 AM
I'm not sure who makes the best door panels, I think metro does, but I just bought some seat backs from Year one, that are excellent, and they are cheaper than anybody else's.
Posted By: JAK
Re: Best 1971-1974 B-body Lower Door Panels? - 05/26/14 03:37 AM
To my knowledge nobody reproduces a good 71 and later b body lower door panel. You would be better off trying to locate a nice original set.
Posted By: 72chargerz
Re: Best 1971-1974 B-body Lower Door Panels? - 05/26/14 03:43 AM
JAK is correct. There are no good lower panels reproduced for these cars.
They are all terrible.
PALCO may be slightly better than Accuform, but that is not saying much...and most certainly is not an endorsement.
Posted By: JAK
Re: Best 1971-1974 B-body Lower Door Panels? - 05/26/14 01:52 PM
If I remember correctly the palco panels have a smoother and a glossy appearance and wont match the rest of your interior. I would try and find some good originals in any color and paint them to match your interior.
Posted By: TB3CUDA
Re: Best 1971-1974 B-body Lower Door Panels? - 05/26/14 03:44 PM
bought a set of the palco panels for a 73 cuda i had,they are not very nice,they have more plastic in them and do not fit correctly,the drivers side chipped and cracked.the pass side did not fit at all.the original panels have more rubber and are flexable,the repos kinda remind me of model car plastic,and are not flexable at all.i have 3 sets of white door panels front and back that are pretty nice,if you dont find decent repops.and i almost forgot,i paid $700.00 for them cheap plastic cuda panels.only reason i bought them is the car had a blue interior and it came from out west so the panels had all the grain worn off,and turned green.
Posted By: steve70
Re: Best 1971-1974 B-body Lower Door Panels? - 05/26/14 04:24 PM
There's a set in the "parts for sale" section here
http://www.71chargerrtregistry.com/
Posted By: 72chargerz
Re: Best 1971-1974 B-body Lower Door Panels? - 05/27/14 04:51 AM
Bottom line is that if you want to keep a white interior, you don't have any good options. NONE. Good used ones are basically non existent.
Personally, I chose to ditch my white interior, switch to black and use used panels, freshened up with a very light dusting of SEMS Landau black. Look like new, with correct texture.
Buy the repro's...and you will end up with a Hodge-podge of panel grains and shades of white.
If I absolutely had to keep the interior white, I would buy the lightest color lower panels I could find (probably a light tan/gold set) that were not chaulky...and dye them to match, knowing that they will have to be "touched" up with some regularity. This route is both the cheapest and best looking, but will require maintenance.
