I am experimenting with mounting a shoulder harness retractor in the OEM location on the top frame and need to cut a pass through in the front of the upper quarter cover for a pass through for the belt. I don't want to take a dremel to original panels, I'd rather experiment with repops. Mine look in great shape on the back, is there a way to tell if they are originals or not? The stamp appears to start with T031... Thanks, Tom
Did you know the way GM did it was just to run the belt between the piston panel and the sidewall panel with a piece of thin plastic tubing for it to slide though, there is no cut through for the belt? It's a crazy thing, but that is what they did. Scroll down to near the bottom of the page (link attached) there is a picture there from my car. I used clear, most guys get some kind of sleeve that matches their interior (black on black seems most common) Of course if you want to cut them out and make something better that's cool. I can look at my spare piston panels tomorrow and see what they have for p/n if that might help you ID yours. http://fixjet.ca/final.html
I dug out my old panels today but all I have is the lower sections. Not sure what happened to the uppers. So I took the little metal panel off my car and tried to get a picture of the numbers on it, the picture is terrible but does show the location. The only numbers stamped are "1484 A10". It could be 1434 its pretty hard to read. Tried my GM IPC as well, there are a million different numbers in there and of course the p/n stamped on a piece of metal is not necessarily the number the trim is sold under once finished, etc. Have you tried checking to see what the p/n's of the repro panels are? Sorry couldn't be more help. Retractor would be cool (guess that is why you need the pass through), not happy with 8 feet of belt hanging there all the time??LOL
See attached. Second pic changed the lighting a bit to try and bring out texture. Basically it matches the texture on the seats. I bead blasted mine then sprayed with proper color (sanding them down will wipe out the grain if you are aggressive):
Tim, Thanks for the shots. They look sweet. What type of media did you use bead blasting? The detail looks great. What paint did you use? I assume the panels are Parchment color? Keep it up, Mike
Honestly don't remember, small glass media I think, its been 14 years. Buddies shop. Panels are 72 off-white, the close up shots in the shadows make it look a bit yellow, check out the rear seat in background or my website (badly due for an overhaul!) for more detail. Pretty sure I actually used a vinyl dye to spray them as it was super close match to the color of my car (also resprayed door handle bases, few other trim pieces to clean them up). I can look up the dye # if you want, they may or may not make it anymore, in fact if I recall correctly it was called "super white". Pic from website attached.
