dR's Custom Alcantara Door Panel Inserts

DavidRam · May 27, 2015

I know a couple of you have seen these already, but I thought they needed a thread of their own if that's ok with you guys!

Materials:

Alcantara - that I had previously ordered from JPM Coachworks
MLV Sheet - mass loaded vinyl, 3/8" that I had sitting around in the garage
3M Fabric Adhesive Spray - also had that in the garage
Dynamat Roller - used for applying sound deadening
3M Double Sided Tape - used the 20lb kind

(Upholstery shops often use a thinner cardboard backed foam for these types of things, but I wanted a beefier look and feel to mine, hence the mlv.)

Cut the general shape out of the mlv, then cleaned it up with a knife and sand paper. Sprayed the adhesive on both sides, let it dry for 10 minutes and then rolled it on with the roller. I am making it sound easy... Getting the corners tight and ripple/wrinkle free is a *****.

Cleaned the door panel off with alcohol and slapped the panels on with 3m 20lb double sided tape. They are on there sooooooo tight I hope I never have to remove them. :baby:

DavidRam · May 27, 2015

After that codered and cgeorgemo came up with the idea of adding some aluminum to it... GREAT IDEA!!!

I had a strip of aluminum in the garage, 1" x 48" x 1/16". Perfect.

Cut the aluminum to size, heated it, bent it to the shape I need. Then I grinded, filed and wet/dry sanded it to perfection. I took the edges down to a knife edge because I didn't want a lip between them and the panels.

By the way, I love the brushed look on aluminum and my speaker pods have that same look and finish. Here is what I do to get it that way: wet and dry sand aggressively with 220 to clean of all the file lines and flaws, wet and dry sand with 400 to reduce the size of the brush lines, wet and dry sand with 800 to get it really smooth and clean, then lightly brush it wet with 400.

If I say so myself, I am pretty impressed that I was able to make two of these things with the crudest of hand tools, and they turned out identical to each other... Ok, Ok, I'll stop patting myself on the back, lol!

codered · May 27, 2015

lol, these things must be amazing if they get their own thread :crazy:

DavidRam · May 27, 2015

Used a contact adhesive to mount the aluminum badges to the panels. I chose their location simply by trying them up and down and up and down and up and down for 20 minutes, lol!

I didn't want symmetry because that is not me.

DavidRam · May 27, 2015

Last thing I want to do with these, is have a little plate engraved with my logo and then glue it on aluminum strips...

Below is just a quick photo shop of what it could look like.

kg93 · May 27, 2015

very nice! are you going to wrap your pillars in it too along with the headliner?

Im interested to see how the pillars would look with alcantara vs spray paint. Cant stand the black/tan combo, i need all black

codered · May 27, 2015

very nice! I was wrong that would look best :waytogo:

DavidRam · May 27, 2015

kg93 said:
very nice! are you going to wrap your pillars in it too along with the headliner?
Im interested to see how the pillars would look with alcantara vs spray paint. Cant stand the black/tan combo, i need all black

I would loooove to do the pillars and headliner in alcantara! The pillars are very hard to do, that is one thing I would send out to have the pros do. The headliner is easy... Alcantara runs about $110 a yard, though so it's not cheap. Would probably need 2 yards for the headliner and more for the pillars!

codered said:
very nice! I was wrong that would look best

Thanks man!!! :favorites13:

codered · May 27, 2015

DavidRam said:
I would loooove to do the pillars and headliner in alcantara! The pillars are very hard to do, that is one thing I would send out to have the pros do. The headliner is easy... Alcantara runs about $110 a yard, though so it's not cheap. Would probably need 2 yards for the headliner and more for the pillars!

Thanks man!!!

anytime man

sent from my brick using clay

cgeorgemo · May 28, 2015

DavidRam said:
Last thing I want to do with these, is have a little plate engraved with my logo and then glue it on aluminum strips...

Acid Etch the dR logo.

Like I said in the other thread.

xrsman · May 28, 2015

Wow that turned out awesome! The aluminum with your logo really dressed it up too!

DavidRam · May 28, 2015

cgeorgemo said:
Acid Etch the dR logo.
Like I said in the other thread.

Gotchya.

xrsman said:
Wow that turned out awesome! The aluminum with your logo really dressed it up too!

Thanks man! The logo isn't on there yet, that was just a ps of what it could look like.

Graygoose · May 28, 2015

Looks good brother, good idea!

Etroze86 · May 28, 2015

Nice work David very unique and idk if a pro shop could do any better.

DavidRam · May 28, 2015

Thanks guys!!!

CMil527 · May 28, 2015

love it... standard express door panels?

DavidRam · May 28, 2015

CMil527 said:
love it... standard express door panels?

Thank you sir!!!

Yep, base model express. I actually bought this truck originally to rip it apart and build a stripped down, bad ass road course race truck, buuuuuuut those plans got a little derailed, obviously... Lol!

EagleChief · May 28, 2015

Looks great!! I like the brushed aluminum look.

On a side note... since I don't know. What is your DR Designs business? I know you have the car thing going, but is this something else?

DavidRam · May 28, 2015

EagleChief said:
Looks great!! I like the brushed aluminum look.

On a side note... since I don't know. What is your DR Designs business? I know you have the car thing going, but is this something else?

Thanks bro!

Funny you ask, dR is something that came about with my Ram as I did custom parts... It was/is short for DavidRam, lol! I am a designer though, I design high end furniture and do interiors as well. However, two weeks ago I quit my job with the company I was running and doing design work out of. I am sick and tired of the furniture/design business - it's the ******* gayest job ever, lol!

So now I do some free lance design work and I also do the luxury car brokering.

It would be a dream for me to go in to business designing automotive cosmetic parts!!!

CMil527 · May 28, 2015

fully sponsored by dR - 4 demo units of these your making for my crew cab door panels!

dR's Custom Alcantara Door Panel Inserts

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