Hi Rustysouth, In many ways I am restoring her but not in everyway. Sounds kind of screwy huh. She is not a numbers matching car for she is the end result of my original SS. My forst Nova was a 1970 SS and she was so very rotten ""New york car"" that I would have had to replace everything so I boiught the 72 body and transferred my SS parts to her including my 350 4 bolt main which I had built 32 years ago. I did that transfer around 1990. All she had wrong was a bad hit to the right front and I am good at collision work so i fixed it. Now as far as total restore I simply cannot afford to do it with all original type parts like 400.00 for door panels so I decided to make her look as good as possible and the hewck with being factory in everyway. I never attempted to do door panels so maybe it is high time I learned.

Sorry about that, Retiredfordtech. we have a place here local that sells all types of interior fabrics, I just assumed every city had one. I've also found good quality fabrics at the local "high-end" fabric stores.............I have made door panels, bed covers, speaker boxes, ect. using just basic hand tools, and my wife's sewing machine with a large needle.... I still think it is worth a try,...if you don't like how they turn out , throw them away and buy the after market ones.......sixone has a good idea too,.....you can also combine the two ideas and put fabric at the top and metal cross the bottom. ( are you restoring the car,or just fixing it up?)

The answer rustysouth gave is a great option and typical. For custom door panels you can use steel, aluminum or even copper sheeting. It will vary in $$$ depending on which one(s) you go with, but still very affordalbe. If you choose aluminum diamond plate that would be a little more expensive than plain ol' sheet metal or copper flashing. Many hardware stores will have this in stock. Here in Texas we have a hardware stores that sell copper flashing by the foot that is 24" wide. Copper flashing is typically used by roofers to prevent water from entering the home around chimneys. You could make some awesome custom door panels with copper as it is soft enough to mold and shape by hand. For an artistic touch, you could tape a Chevy Bow Tie on the back of the copper and using a round punch and hammer lightly tap the punch and trace the bow tie. The opposite side would be an embossed Chevy Bow Tie emblem. A typical dremel tool, tin snips or metal shears can be used to cut the material.

Thank you for your help, I am not realoly adventurous ! I am looking at that link you have provided, Thank you

Unless you have all the proper tools for working with vinyl as well as the machines to properly stretch & stitch I would buy after-market ones! If you really feel adventurous however you can get allot of different vinyl selection through a company in Oregon named SMS, [url]http://www.smsautofabrics.com[/url]

Where do you get the vinyl fabric for this type of job ??

If you want to make them yourself all you need is some cardboard, contact cement, thin plywood or paneling, foam, and fabric. first, make you a template of the door panel with the cardboard. once you have the shape and holes just right, transfer the shape onto the wood, cut it out, contact cement the foam to the wood, trim to fit, then cover with the fabric, pull it tight, staple the fabric to the back of the wood with a staple gun. (note* the arm rest will help hold the center together once you put it in the car) *****you might want to get your windows tinted to help block the UV rays of the sun. but for now, get you one of those reflective sun shields you put in the windshield to keep your car cool in the summer, and put it in your back window when you are not driving the car, to keep the sun off your back seat.