81 911 sc to rs style door panels

[saxen]

im sure this has been beat to hell, however in my search i did not find any solid information-

i have a 81 911sc and it currently has a dark blue interior, my door panels are in pretty rough shape so i have been thinking about going with rs style panels with the pull tabs- the problem is its will be a semi dd for me so i would really like to keep my door locks, window switches, speakers ect ect with out having to alter anything- so keeping switches and everything- im also converting the whole interior to black so i would like all black ones-

who sells these? are they rs style or rs America style.

thanks for the help in advance

[gavinc69]

I did the same thing, changed my light tan colour interior to black, Pelican sell the RS style door panels. They have have the cut outs for the electric window switch's they are just hidden beneath the black covering, you just need a sharp craft knife to make the cut outs (very easy job) and also do the same with the round door locks and your speakers. My speakers also needed a bit of the new door card cut out because there a bit larger than standard but again all easy to do with a knife.
The knee pads and the bits over the doors and I covered in black leather vinyl that I got off ebay really cheap, I was surprised how good the stuff was and how easy and quick it is to do. The finished look is just about factory :-)

[schumicat]

pelican sells them. they have finished ones and cheaper ones where you do some of the labor yourself (they give you template to cut out speakers, switches, etc.).

[mack6820]

wish yours were black, I'm thinking about switching to regular door panels. None of my passengers can figure out how to get out of the car.

[tcar]

Appbiz.

Think they also sell through Pelican. Great stuff.

[175K911]

+1 for Appbiz.

[mnewport]

I'm in the middle of doing this right now. I had a dark blue interior that smelled like a musty tool box. I switched everything over to black, including new seats, with the exception of the carpet which is a charcoal grey RS style with rear seat delete. I've just about finished the headliner install.

Here's a link: interior conversion.

I also recommend the Appbiz panels.

[Joe Bob]

Originally Posted by mack6820

None of my passengers can figure out how to get out of the car.

Not an issue on a first date......

[fred cook]

Just put them in my SC. I ordered mine with the stainless window switch reinforcements already installed. I used the original speaker grills from the old door panels to keep the "Porsche" look. Here is a picture:



I used the yellow pull straps so that they would stand out and be super easy to find. I also have matching yellow Corbeau harnesses in the car. Another picture:



The harness can be used as a retractable for street driving or locked by turning a dial 90 degrees for autocross or DE. I am going to add an antisubmarine strap for the driver side which will simply loop over the waist belt. When not in use, it can be pulled back flush with the top of the seat.

[cole930]

Appbiz,

Bob and his crew are great !!!!!!




Cole

[saxen]

Thanks for the replys guys the panels look great!!! Love the color matching-

Is there any thing else I should know or buy befor I jump into this?

[toddu]

What's the actual trick to getting the door pull (handle, not release) bezels to stick? Got one of them on, but the other 3 seem to not want to give in. I've got a little padding behind the panels, I read that as 1 trick. The handle where it attaches to the door seems to be angled back towards the door, which would seem to make it more difficult to snap the bezels on. Anyone bend these out a bit prior to attaching?

Todd

[fred cook]

Yes, I had to bend the pulls so that they were more "flat". I also put a washer between the door panel and the pull metal so that the Bezels would snap in place more easily. I also took my inside door lock knobs to a hardware store and found some metal spacers that would fit over the knob shank and are the same diameter as the knob. This holds the door lock bezel firmly against the door panel.

[mnewport]

I can't remember exactly how I got my mounting hardware in. It was tricky, I remember that much.

[Kemo]

i did pretty much what Fred Cook did, added a few washers under there and flattend out the handles. Prior to that, the bezel thingys kept popping off.

[Cyberdennis]

I wanted to have these but in the carbon fiber style, but found them too expensive. Then it hit me, why not try to do something like it by myself.

I started by buying black fiberglass weave like this: Black Fiberglass : Fiberglass : Chopped Strand Mat : Aerospace : E-Glass : Surfacing : Boating : Black : Gun Roving
and some ordinary white fiberglass weave for extra strenght (cheaper).

I then removed the doorpanel and made a paper template of it with all the holes that I wanted to use, not all of them... This i used to cut the glassfiber in the size i needed:

After that I used an old glass table to get a flat, perfect surface for the new panel, waxed the table and applied resin, black glassfiber, more resin, black glassfiber, more resin, white glassfiber, more resin and a final layer of white glassfiber.
The see through glass table was also perfekt for seeing where your outer lines would be. I taped out the size of the door panel on the backside of the glass table and extended the tape far outside the size of the glassfiber weave that I previously had cut, and by doing this I could see the size of the finished product while I was working with resin and glassfiber.

(not the front door panel, but for the rear seats...)

When it is all dried i just removed it from the prewaxed glass table and, voilá!


I then used the template to mark the exact size and the cut outs on the panels (I just had to switch side of the template to do the passenger side):


This is what it looked like after some trimming:


I still wanted to have the locking knob on the panel but hade to make a trim piece since the panel now sits closer to the door. The trim piece is a 3" pipe that fits perfectly in the plastic piece surrounding the knob.


For door opening i used two rubber plugs, one for each door panel, and made a cut through it with a sharp knife. I then bought a strap in the colour of my seat belts, blue, cut that strap into two loops and made a hole through both ends of the loop where i put a M6 mm bolt and nut.


To close the door I earlier made a handle that I could use being strapped in the 6 point harness:

But I also wanted something in the middle of the door to use to close the door so I went to the build shop and bought a pair of handles for a cupboard in chrome:


This from the beginning hade a M4 mm hole but since the door already have holes that are M6 mm I rethreaded it to M6 mm and inserted a bolt from the inside of the door and through my new made door panel to attach the cupboard handle to.


And the final result (without the chrome handle):

The image is still with a lot of dust on the panel, but I still have some areas where my skills in working with glassfiber (first time) shows in the way that the area was not filled with resin and didn't leave a perfect flat surface. This now looks a lot better after I put some clear coat on the panels.