Part 3 of 4
Saturday, I got some stuff done around the house and headed south to a small town ~90 miles away. Two weeks prior, one of our customers mentioned that he was prototyping some panels for tubular Bronco doors. He had a sample of the material with him and it got the three of us (at work) all riled up about the possibilites for our own projects...and possible products. We sent the customer away with an RS door panel from Kevin's 964 to start roughing-in the shape & dimensions until I could get to his shop with a car to pull some firmer dimensions from.
Lasers!
And some holes
After five hours and 11 revisions, we had a panel on my car.
I drove home and treated Kelly to her favorite pizza as she was still a trifle under the weather.
The next day (Sunday, for those of you playing along at home) I spent most of the day in the garage. I pulled the door panel off and set about installing the other panel on my door. You see, the Tegris panels have different finishes on the other sides. One side is very smooth whilst on the other, you can feel the weave of the strands. I had originally fitted it smooth-side out, but wanted the texture of the other side. I forked about with panel, and my door for a long time before I got it all dialed in the way I want. Part of that fettling was ditching the screws Porsche had used to fit the upper trim for riv-nuts and machine-screws. That meant drilling holes in my car (old hat by this point) and then treating those fresh wounds with paint to prevent infection by tin worms.
While the paint dried, before the installation of the riv-nuts, I wandered around to the back of the car to mock-up an adjustment I've been keen to do for a while now.
Tony likened my exhaust pipe to that of a school bus and now I can't unsee it. I haven't cut it yet because it's 10000 degrees outside, but I'll have to do it soon or it won't be done before CIO this weekend.
BACK ON TRACK!
I got the riv-nuts installed and the panels installed and I'm going to say I did a pretty sweet job. If anyone wants a close look, I'll be at CIO in Chicago this Saturday and then Rennsport next month.
Oh yeah.
I got a demo panel made from a similar type of material that shows all the holes we have mapped so far. I'm thinking it might be nice to have a high-quality, water-resistant option for door panels for these old jalopies. Whether they be trimmed in leather, or left full-race, they're better than particle board that absorbs moisture from the atmosphere.
