Full Size Jeep Network

After an unplanned hiatus from my door panel project I am ready to resume.

Currently I am working on producing the 77-81-ish panels with the vertical metal bars.

Here is a template I made showing the various parts of the panel with a mockup of one I might make for my jeep which is painted Pacific Blue.
What I would ask of you is to spec out a panel based upon your color and material preferences. This will assist me in finding the most common preferences among the FSJ crowd.
Wagoneer and J-Truck designs would be similar.


Below are the options:
A) Main panel surround: Material and color.
B) Main panel perimeter detail line: Color and seam type.
C) Main panel insert: Material and color.
D) Main panel 'Gills': Color.
E) Mid-panel divider bars: Original metal bars (You provide) or single or double vinyl piping, french seamed, blind seam, Hydem seam and color.
F Mid-panel insert: Material, color and vertical or horizontal accent strips.
G Front panel: Material and color.

All features can be deleted upon request such as speaker and detail objects.
Here are examples of what some of the seam options are.
Blind seam: Stitched on the back side of the material which produces a very clean seam.

French Seam/Saddle Stitch: Material is folded back under itself and sewn from the top.

Hydem Seam: A double piping based seam that is applied over a rough edge or seam to cover it. A nice decorative alternative to complex seam designs.

Single Welt Seam: Very common seam style in automotive upholstery. It's the white stripe in the image below.

Double Welt Seam: Two welts joined together.



Custom designs of your choice would also be available.

Please take the time to reply here in this thread with your choices and I will provide a design image in return.
Thank you in advance!

Jim

All I see is "Image" no pichers. Is it just me?

SJTD wrote:All I see is "Image" no pichers. Is it just me?

Not sure, but I can see them. I like the piping!

I get that sometimes and when I come back the images appear.
I think if the images don't load within 30 seconds the browser gives up.
Hopefully you can see them now.

The site he is using to host the image is blocked by my company's internet nanny. Yours may be doing the same. Dad-gum internet Nazis.

Interesting! I host my images on a commercial server located in Los Angeles.
I doubt it's anything personal, just the IT dept. being careful.

Can you re-apoulster the center arm rest ? The one in my 90 wagoneer is well.. cracked badly, and scrapes my arm its a burgendy color. Also the leather one in my 98 5.9 ZJ is also going bad in one section.

candymancan wrote:Can you re-apoulster the center arm rest ? The one in my 90 wagoneer is well.. cracked badly, and scrapes my arm its a burgendy color. Also the leather one in my 98 5.9 ZJ is also going bad in one section.

I can, but am currently focused on the interior panels. Once I have all the years covered from 62-91 I'll add seats dash re-covers, visors and consoles.

well my door panels are still good its just the arm rests in both my ZJ grand cherokee and my waggy that needs redone. The ZJ uses a black calf nappa skin leather though.

Once you can do consoles let me know i really need mine redone, and the steering wheels too if you can do them ?

I was pondering doing leather wrapped steering wheels since I have the tools, materials and know-how.
I'll get to that in due time.

I'm in for set of door panels. I was thinking they would just be black but now you've given us all these options! lol
I'd also be down for steering wheel. I have one I already cut the old material off ready to go..........

LOL@Nightglide!
Consider it done when I get there.

Ok, I had an idea yesterday morning...

I've been attempting to duplicate the factory gills on the lower part of the door panel and have had mixed results...mostly the not-so-good type.
The factory used a huge insanely expensive RF dielectric press to compress, heat and bond the vinyl and scrim padding to the cardboard backing. I found a used dielectric press for $72,000 which is not an option.
So, I tried the high-low relief method but the marine grade vinyl I chose is too thick to conform to the small tight shapes needed.
So, my latest idea is to use the gills and detail lines cut from the original door panel and sew them to the new vinyl as an applique. A great idea except that sewing a 4mm wide by .5mm stitch around the rounded corners has proven to be almost impossible due to the tight radius. I can do it perfectly maybe 1 time out of 10 if I am lucky.

The alternative is to cut off the two end gills and make the corners a clean 90 turn which is WAAAAY easier and quicker.


As you can see, there are 22 gills on the insert. The outer ones have rounded corners that match the outer perimeter line. Removing these two will allow for a "90% original" appearance, cut back on labor costs and make the finished product less expensive for you.

What is your opinion? Would the squared corners bug you or would you not care so much?


Jim

Nice work..., interested only if it looks OEM not by a custom option
Would be also interesting to have the Levi's/denim doors panels

mud89 wrote:Nice work..., interested only if it looks OEM not by a custom option
Would be also interesting to have the Levi's/denim doors panels

Noted. I understand that some will want a factory copy which is why I am taking so much time setting up production.

Speaking of the denim: I found some material that is a good match for the originals. Finding those buttons is the difficult part.

Update:
I decided that using the original door gills as not going to work out well so I bit the bullet and made a die and stamp to make them myself.

This photo shows the first test of my setup and it almost came out perfect.
I am in the process of making a full door panel sized stamp and should have a production sample in a week or two.
I think the effort will be worthwhile as the gills look factory.



This test piece came out great in the middle but the compression at the ends wasn't very good due to uneven clamping. It shows promise however.

Jim

That looks dang good if you ask me!

Is there any chance of a reproduction dash for fsj's?

j20seyller wrote:Is there any chance of a reproduction dash for fsj's?

Sorry, but the dash presents a huge challenge that I don't have the room or capital for at this time.
The best I can offer is a leather or vinyl re-skin over the existing dash.
I wish I could make new ones but that's likely above my pay grade.

Nikkormat wrote:That looks dang good if you ask me!

TY Bro! I am hoping to make the panels so close to factory only an FSJ nut would know the difference.