The rear interior panels are in pretty nasty shape. They are extremely brittle and have some pieces missing.








The back of the panels is a little interesting. One looks like it was molded in a pearl white while the other looks tan. Both have white overspray on the back from where the top and bottom sections were painted.


In December I ordered new panels from Laysons. They were out of stock at the time but said they would honor their end of the year discount when the panels arrived. With everything back ordered due to covid, I didn't know when or if they would arrive. Well, it took 8 months but they showed up last week. They no longer offer them in white so these will need to be painted. I'll be painting the top and bottom white to match the inner door paint. The center section will be pearl white to match the door panels. There are some differences between the new panels and old so I need to test fit these to see how they fit. The biggest thing is that these aren't brittle so as long as they fit, they will be better then what I started with.




The original chrome moldings that go on the interior panels aren't in the best shape either. They have a lot of pitting in the chrome. The reproductions are expensive and Layson's even says they aren't a very high quality restoration piece. The nicest parts they could find to use for tooling weren't perfect. So, to save some money I thought I'd try to make some replacements myself. I put a piece of 1/4" thick aluminum in my father-in-laws mill and machined two grooves down the length to get the concave shape.


Then I cut them into strips and started sanding...and sanding...and sanding some more. I used sand paper wrapped around a deepwell socket to sand the concave areas. After a lot of sanding and polishing they came out awsome. They have the same profile as the originals. The only difference is they are about twice the thickness. I needed that thickness though, so I could drill and tap the back side for 6-32 screws. The extra thickess doesn't look bad at all.