I took my PUI new door panels out of the wrappers today that I got from Year One. Boy was i disappointed ! Here are the facts : (1) Whoever stapled the belt molding on, MISSED, and put 2 of them in the wrong area and ripped the rubber and left it that way instead of putting on a new belt molding. (2) The carpeting that was glued on , was left all frayed, crooked, and looking terrible. (3) All of the pre-punched cut outs for the door panel clips are not correct. I made a template from my original GM panels. The areas outlined in blue , is where PUI supplied the spot for the door panel clips. WAY OFF ! There is no dimples on the top inner part of the new door panels to grip hold to the retainers that get bolted to the door. Where is the quality control ? This supports my theory that YEAR ONE sells BLEMS ! EVERY part i have ever bought from them , has had an issue. Pure Fact ! Someone needs to be accountable for these mistakes because it sure takes all the fun out of it !
I have found PUI stuff to be poor quality, especially their door panels + seat covers! Legendary is the best. Y1 is excellent at returning things, I've never had a prob sending things back there. Call them, last time I was going to send door panels back they told me to keep them and sent another pair. Even Legendary the holes for the clips will probably not line up right, you almost always have to trim the holes. That's why the pros get good $, it's time consuming to make stuff fit right.
Do those door panels match your originals? The packaging is for a 1971 and the panels appear to be 69 GS door panels. You might not be able to return them now that you have cut the holes. 69 GS door panel 1971 GS door panel
My originals did not have carpeting on the bottom. I like the carpeting if it was not frayed and had the chrome strip to divide the vinyl and carpet. I wonder if I could get a chrome strip ? The Year One catalog shows 71 panels with carpeting on the bottom. Not sure how they were.
The "chrome" strip is actually a stainless steel strip that's crimped onto an inner steel piece. This inner steel part has the spikes/retaining tabs that go through the door panel. Being stainless these things survive the elements very well......you should be able to find a decent used pair of those relatively easily. If you are contemplating adding carpet to a non-carpeted door panel then that's another story. The factory, and the repro panels with carpet, made these with a vinyl border strip that was sewn over the bare edge of the carpet and then folded back to form a clean, neat border. Just adding the carpet pieces without doing something to deal with the bare, exposed edges is a potential mess.
Just to answer a few of your problems. Your new door panels are for a 1969 GS This will explain the frayed carpet. this door panel requires using you old stainless molding. The molding clip locations would also be for a 69, or possibly a Chevelle generic door panel. Locations for the armrest bases would probably be incorrect also since the 69 uses the long armrest base. The rubber with the staples through it is poor quality control. I personally would be upset that they sent me the wrong door panels. Like I said before you have 69 GS door panels in the packaging for a 1971. Do these even match your rear panels? Does the color even match your seats?
i agree ,i just recieved a set of 69 panels from tamraz.pui parts.those are identical to mine . you recieved the wrong stuff.
I have been researching this and this is where it gets really confusing. The door panels do appear to be for a 1969. But, the panels i have are PEARL color. Pearl was not available in 1969, so why would they have these 1969 panels in PEARL to send me ? Anyone ?
I don't know what research you have done but Pearl White was a standard color in 1969. If it wasn't then I made at least 200 sets of seat covers wrong and definately would have heard about it. 68 was a pure white 69-71 was Pearl White 72 was off white The door panels you received were for a 69 Buick and that's the way it is. Whoever sent them to you screwed up and grabbed the wrong year panels. Duane
Duane, I appreciate the info. One of the websites i did my research on was www.legendaryautointeriors.com which seem to be a reputable company. According to their website, they state the available colors for 1971 were : Black , Metallic Parchment , Metallic Blue , Red , Buckskin . It also states that , Metallic Blue and Buckskin were not available on a bucket seat interior for a convertible in 1969. It also states that Red interior was not offered in a coupe in 1969. I was using this information for my research. Just going by what i read. I am not sure how to post a direct link to the page since it is on a PDF file.
You are getting caught up in semantics. The names of the colors depended on the type of information that was referenced. Sales info called it one thing while other factory info called it something else. I would bet their "Metallic Parchment" is what we are calling Pearl White. Duane
Doube check those listings. The colors you list for 71 are way off. Available were Green, Sandlewood, Pearl White, Saddle and Black. This is straight from the 71 Buick big salesmans book I have. Check it out.
Riddle me this Batman, LOL, I have a 71' L6 with a trim code of 165 which should be what I have found to be just plain WHITE, but I don't see that in your Big Book. I'm also in need of door panels and seat covers, but am waiting to get this trim # thing sorted out before I plunk down the green. Side note, VIN # is a 3337. Thanks for any help I can get. Mike
