I have kept this old sign since I picked it up when dropping our daughter off in primary school in the 90's! That was the last time we had 7 digit phone numbers as well. Lack of email and web addresses certainly date it too. Thought it was something good to use for the door and kick panels as won't absorb any moisture.
It is made from perspex which is a British name for acrylic. I am routing the area around the door handle so it will sit perfectly flush over it.
Can see it sitting nice and flat. Also routed the backside of it around any bolt and screw heads and the speaker mounts.
To hold the door panels in place I am using 'christmas trees' from my old XJ Cherokee door cards. I had to recess them a bit as they were designed for a thinner panel. Also means the heads are perfectly flush on this side as will be doing minimal backing on the covering to keep the modern interior theme.
Just trying the panel flipped over on the opposite door to see if everything still lines up there, it does, so can use it as a template. If I was going for a more funky theme I could have done it this way!
The armrest will break up the panel nicely. Plans at this stage is to cover the armrests in matching dark slate leather as used on the front bucket seats. I will cut it from the rear leather seat covers from the donor. The panel I will match the tan inserts.
To bolt the armrest to the door I have installed nutserts in the middle of the stiffening bead that runs across the door. The front bolt I get to through the hole for the switches and cut an access hole out for the rear one. This will all be hidden with another padded covering panel.
I ordered in some door pocket handles in as well as some I took from another Jeep, KK same as my daily driver. The tan ones are from the donor rear doors.
I ended up going with the donor ones and will change the colour of them to black to match the leather. The cover piece I had some I think is polycarbonate. Routed a recess this time for the back of the christmas trees into the armrests. The door handles are held down by the original screws after I welded in a tab for them.
The covers will be padded before being covered in leather. The handle holds down the centre of the cover and the trees the rest. All sits flush on top with no gaps around the side.
Only thing I didn't like about the polycarbonate is that you cannot use staples. It just shatters! Not sure how well the glue only would have held on it, so replaced them with more of the sign scraps which staples really well.