1966 Monaco door panel repair

66MonacoWagon

Active Member
Joined
Jul 2, 2017
Messages
245
Reaction score
254
Location
Lemont IL
Has anyone had success fixing the typical wrinkles that form on the door panel around the arm rest? If so, how? I’m attaching a bad picture of mine. It’s locked away in the garage and it’s the best pic I have right now. Thanks

DD3B0E41-ADEC-42DE-AA95-FEB94528EBAC.jpeg
 
You might try unscrewing the armrest pad and then the chrome base, after removing the door release handle. Then you might try repositioning the vinyl to possibly diminish the wrinkle. Maybe some light heat? Might need to leave it unassembled for a few days, then play with it some and then reinstall the arm rest assy.

What happens is that as the vinyl ages, the oils in it evaporate and the fabric backing can shrink a bit. But then some of those wrinkles were "factory equipment", too.

All you can do is try and see if you can make it better, gently.

CBODY67
 
I had tried on the drivers door when I changed out the armrest. I used a hair dryer to try and heat the vinyl, and tried to separate the vinyl a bit from the backing. Nothing made an improvement. Don’t know what something hotter like a heat gun might do.
 
Hoping that what you were separating was the vinyl fabric from the polyester padding under it, rather than the fabric backing of the vinyl itself.

ONE thing to remember is that in some cases, quality control was not as good as it might have been, or Ford's or GM's was. That's just the way things were back then. I know we all want things "perfect", but trying to make some of those earlier things "better" now, 50 years later, might not be possible with what we have to work with.

Sometimes, you can play with things and make small changes and improvements, which always make you feel good, but if it doesn't make much of a difference, that's all you can do. But it can be those "little victories" that really make you feel good! Whether it's working all afternoon to try to get a door to better fit the body, molding some strip caulk about gaps in the A-pillar area's chrome, adding a turn or two to the preload on the kickdown linkage for better performance on less throttle, or some lube on the door hinges. Each one by itself is good, but put them all together and things just operate better because of these little things.

One thing to not forget . . . you can't make a Chrysler act like a Ford or GM vehicle, in many respects, due to the way they were designed. Chryslers were done to a higher level of execution, which is what got them in trouble in some areas. Ford and GM had more success with quietness and such, but a Uni-Body had a different type of quiet in it. Everybody had their own way of doing things back then, which is what made cars so interesting back then, to me.

CBODY67
 
Last edited:
Look at some factory or magazine photos from back in the day... those wrinkles were there 50 years ago. I just look at them as proof there is actual padding underneath, unlike a 90s door panel (or e-body) that's just a chunk of blow-molded plastic.
 
I honestly thought it was due to shrinkage over time, and didn’t realize it may have been from production.
 
Back
Top