DIY (partial) Door Panels

[BumbleBeeSS2009]

Thanks Drook - yeah the ABL did change a little - it's "green-ish" not blue, not green... somewhere in the middle... I'm actually thinking about doing the LED swap and maybe putting in either yellow or white LED bulbs to see what that would look like...

I'll post pics if I do



Ark - dont forget to post pics - Aqua Blue is probably going to look bad ass!!

[Bangarang]

Thanks a lot for the DIY, it helped a lot with removing mine and painting them. I'll probably buy some pre-painted ones once I have enough money.

There were a few imperfections that come with using a spray can but as you can see, they're not noticeable unless you're looking really closely.

[BumbleBeeSS2009]

Looks great!!

[cody.freeman1]

I really want to paint my 2SS/RS door panels Yellow.....but I'm not sure how to keep the stock aqua blue light from still showing.

[Bangarang]

I believe GM sells a kit of yellow dash and door panels that works with the ABL. Painting it yourself probably won't allow the light to shine through. I know my SIM panels won't now cause I did 3 coats of paint and 2 clear.

[woodstock]

Man what a difference! Awesome.

[Nutro]

Originally Posted by Bangarang

I believe GM sells a kit of yellow dash and door panels that works with the ABL. Painting it yourself probably won't allow the light to shine through. I know my SIM panels won't now cause I did 3 coats of paint and 2 clear.

Did you tape off the top edge of the panels before painting them?

Anyone have a part number for that bag of screws?

[Bangarang]

After you take the panels out you can paint the whole piece without taping. You'll have a lot of glue and crap stuck to the piece though because it's upholstered.

I just took some low grit sandpaper and used that to scrape away the glue until it was relatively smooth. Painted with filler and sanded with high grit until I was satisfied with the texture. Then spray bombed and sanded again until the final coat. Then I clear coated.

One big problem I had with spray bombing was that when the piece was laying flat I couldn't keep the paint even. So I stapled up a couple coat hangers in my laundry room/paint booth (lol) and hung the pieces from those.

The screws I used I got from home depot. #8x3/8" I think. Don't use 1/2" cause the first one I tried almost went through the other side of the door. You will need washers too.

Good luck

[midnighter]

Originally Posted by midnighter

Great step pictures. When I switched out my cloth inserts for silver I made 2 mistakes. (1) was that a used a wide flathead screwdriver to pry off the dash trims and that left some marks on the dashboard rolled edge, (2) I broke my trunk release button. Everything else went smooth and I used my dremel tool the sand off the factory melted riveting.

I still use this reference for door trim removal. All the good videos on YouTube I used to use have been deleted.

[BIO-HAZARD]

I'm going to need this soon,, Thanks .

[CamaroLS]

@BumbleBeeSS2009 I did not see anywhere that you told where you got your new yellow parts. Thank you

[BIO-HAZARD]

Well, I finally took the plunge today and did this , The end result was amazing, But alittle trouble along the way ,

Started with the small trim dash panel , what a pain , the turn signal handle was really in the way for a trim removal tool , Anyways finally got hold of it , and pulled up , broke both clips off, No biggie because I was putting new parts on , but what a pain,

as for the door panels , this is the easiest way to get the black rivets cut off , trust me , no grinding or sanding , no mess,,,

go buy an xacto knife set , it will have a stragiht blade in it . looks like a chissel , all you do is hold it level and tap it with a hammer, cuts them off flush and no mess . This was the easiest part to do ,

next , screws , I bought some truss head's & thought I could cut them to 8mm , WRONG ANSWER... thank god my local hardware was open till 3pm , ended up just going with machime screws, panheads 8# 32 3/8 , added a flat washer to ensure they would cover any holes in the new panels , this workout pretty good ,

I still never seen the dimple on the panel, this was suppose to be drilled out . Well I did'nt do it , never figured it out , Really did'nt affect anything,

All in all this would of taken about 2 hours total time , But with breakes & taking my time And screw run, about 3 hours ,

In the end well worth it , Now I have new Synergy green panels & dash trim and it looks hot..

I just want to say thanks for the write up , it sure made this alot easier to do ...

[CamaroLS]

Just installed mine today. Thanks

[BumbleBeeSS2009]

Glad to see everyone put this to some use!!

for those who posted pics - looks GREAT!!

if anyone has any questions re:the panels please PM me, I really dont monitor this thread anymore so I apologize for not answering any questions that were posed in the thread... but Im always available - just PM me!!

I got my panels from GMparts direct - I have no idea what the part number was, search for "scorch yellow trim panels" on google and they should pop up...