Wanted to share a success report for any of you with my interior color having trouble...

I had a good passenger door panel, but haven't had a good driver panel since I bought the truck 2 years ago. I didn't want to have black panels because I'm trying to keep it as original as possible, and the "red" panels would look really weird even though they're the closest to what I have. My trim code is RF - (Explorer) Cordovan vinyl and cordovan cloth. So I set out to find a door panel and a paint for it.

Found a pristine door panel in the local pick-and-pull, problem is that it's yellow. I have heard good things about SEM paint products and they have a vinyl paint which was pleasing due to the fact I also intend to redo my dash and headliner. The answer was found at my local National Paint Depot. SEM "burgundy" #15063 to the rescue!

Check out these results:







Original door panel on the left, yellow panel on the right. Original arm rest on the right, yellow arm rest on the left. BAM!

 

Side note, this stuff lays on pretty light, it took about 4 coats on the door panels and 3 on the arm rest. Used about half the can on what you see here. I might hit each one more time because they have ever so slight shade differences.

 

That looks awesome

Great job and thanks for sharing. Post some pics of them installed.

 

I just finish mine on the drivers side and I also found some pretty nice ones at pick and pull , but they were two tone green , I did some repair welding with the goop for around the edge cracks and the door handle and it worked well , I also painted mine the same color as the ones in the picture you posted ???? Fancy that !! I also cut off one of clip holders off the old door panel and glued it on the new one witch worked well , after the forth try I found a color that matched almost perfect , on my 73 ,it's listed as maroon I think , the color I used was rust oleum ( satin claret wine ) at least five coats . The panel is back on the door and looks great , I will show some photos tomorrow if I can load them . They look just like yours

 

That guy in between the arm rests can't believe it either!

 

Haha I didn't even notice that it almost looks like he's pointing right at it! That's local youtube sensation "Pittsburgh Dad", pretty funny stuff.

I have 3 broken clips that I need to replace before I reinstall them, but honestly its going to be a month or longer. I'm in the middle of pulling the NP205 for rebuild, replacing rear pinion seal, redoing the dash pad and headliner, repainting the bumpers and getting new hardware, and installing an amplifier so I can play my ipod through the door speakers. It's a lot of projects at once, but I finally caught a nice long break from doing house projects. I can't even imagine the garage space needed for a complete frame up because my 2 car is filling up with pieces everywhere.

 

Here's the panel in on the drivers side . Originally the truck had the inserts , where as the donor panels that came from the junk yard came with the aluminum trim piece instead . I wanted to use the inserts but decided it was just not worth the time. I thought if I painted the armrest the paint would wear off in time ?? I may go ahead and paint them as well

 

You didn't paint over green door panels did you??? I can never find green at the JY.

 

I know , it was not easy , I was thinking about painting the truck match them .

 

also I noticed that yours are a much deeper Burgandy color .