Cardboard door panels? Being made?

[Fozz71]

Anyone know if the old fiberboard black touring car panels are being made yet? I have had older T's that had very simple black cardboard/fiberboard door panels and wonder if anyone still makes em?

Thanks,
Jim

[Erik Johnson]

Classtique makes kick panels for roadsters and tourings. Depending on the year of the car, they are leatherette over cardboard or simply finished cardboard.

My dad has a 1917 touring and he made up his own panels - once around 1950 and he re-did them a few years ago. The last time around he bought the panel board and leatherette from Classtique (we're in Minneapolis so we drove to Classtique and picked up the material). My father also made up his own welting/beaded trim. I can't remember if he bought the binding to make the welting from a local upholstery supply or from Classtique but he did install the piping, fold and glue it, etc. However, Classtique does sell complete, welting/beaded trim.

If you want to make them up youself, you may be able to source the panel board from a local auto upholstery supply.

[Fozz71]

OKay thanks, I am always short on time so I wanted to see if anyone was already repoping the plain black panels without the vinyl covers on them. Thanks!

[Original Smith]

I bought the correct black cardboard, and made my own. The original Ford panels had a grained appearance. I have a NOS one of those.

[Gregnew]

Anyone know if the old fiberboard black touring car panels are being made yet? I have had older T's that had very simple black cardboard/fiberboard door panels and wonder if anyone still makes em?

Thanks,
Jim

in one or two lines

You might find replacement fiberboard panels for a Model T from specialty suppliers like Mac's Antique Auto Parts or Lang's Old Car Parts. If not, custom fabrication from a restoration shop could be an option.

[BRENT in 10-uh-C]

Anyone know if the old fiberboard black touring car panels are being made yet? I have had older T's that had very simple black cardboard/fiberboard door panels and wonder if anyone still makes em?

Thanks,
Jim

Jim or Larry, can you elaborate the specific pattern of graining or texture on the panelboard? The Model-A originally used a grained panelboard to cover open car door panels and all open & closed car kick panels with exception of a few DeLuxe models. Maybe this is similar? There is a company now manufacturing ABS plastic that shares a very close facsimile of what the original graining was like.

FWIW, when I was restoring for Fine Point, I used an original sample of the graining and had that pattern duplicated in Cad. Then we used a CNC Router to carve that pattern into a small piece of hardwood. We just moistened the top layer of the panelboard and used a hydraulic press to imprint the panelboard. We used a leather dye to color to what was authentic, and I am certain a black dye would work in your application too. As mentioned above, now that grained panel boards are being reproduced in an ABS poly product by Quiet Ride Solutions, I no longer do the pressing method, but it does work.

[Erik Johnson]

My father also used to have some later NOS finished/embossed cardboard panels.

The best way to describe them is the embossed side is basically the same as imitation leather non-woven book cloth, like what is used on Holy Bibles, high school yearbooks, etc.

The vendors used to carry the later style embossed panels but I don't know if they still do.

If I were to make up my own later style panels, I would use non-woven book cloth (if I could source sheets that were large enough) as described above and glue it to panel board purchased from an automotive upholstery supply. You could use regular, dense cardboard from the craft store. However, panel board used in automotive upholstery typically has one side that is water resistant.