Since a lot of modification was made with the floors in the body, the concern was always at the back of my mind about how the interior panels and rear seats would fit in the body. Since the floor for the most part rides a lot higher than the old floors, I already figured that I would have to do some modification to the two side panels that grace either side of the rear seat in order to make them fit. Now, some would cringe at the thought of cutting up a set of vintage interior panels versus just making some kind of improvised panel but the intent is to try and restore as much of the car as possible and this includes the interior panels. So hacking it is. I had already eyeballed where I would need to start and even measured from one of the screw holes at the top of the panel down to where the new floors are at to get an idea of where to trace a new line along the bottom. I cut out some of the plastic and did some test fitting, then from that point on did a series of small trims, eyeballing where the bottom was making contact with the floor so I can trim out just that small amount of material. I didn't want to just cut out a bunch of material then find out I cut too much plastic. Doing that would have the panel fitting where there's huge gaps along the bottom, which would just look tacky as hell. Once I finally got the panel where it was actually fitting good along the bottom as well as lined up with the top screw holes, I was able to move on to finalizing the mounting of the panel. One thing I also took time to address is the interior light in the panel. These lights always gave a warm white glow when they were activated and it would be cool to restore operation of these lights, even if I upgrade to LED bulbs. The terminals used the male/female bullet plugs which rather than try to use, I just cut those ends off and spliced a pair of wires to the wires for the light sockets, then strung the wires down to the bottom front of the panel so when I rewire the car I can splice into these wires for the interior light circuit. With the light wired up, I added the screws where there were still mounting points. Along the bottom though, since the mounting points were all cut off during the trimming of the bottom of the panel, I had to come up with another idea. I took a small angle brace and drilled a hole on the bottom of the panel. I used a small nut and bolt to hold the brace to the bottom of the panel. I then drilled a hole on the floor so the brace can be secured using a sheet metal screw, effectively holding the bottom of the panel on the floor. With the right side interior panel done, I moved to the left side to do the same. After doing the right side I had a good idea on where to start with the trimming. I started off with a line marking where my first cut would be and did the chop. After fitting the panel I only had to do a couple small trims before I had the panel right where I needed it to be. I was able to secure the angle brace in place, splice the wires and mount the panel in place as I did on the right side. With the two interior panels mounted on the inside, I eliminated a concern I had about fitting some parts that I had to reuse but would not be able to use in their original form. I could go further off on a tangent and assemble the rest of the interior around these panels but to try and stay on script I'll be moving back to the outside and continue assembling the body. We have several parts that make up the "front clip", which I really want to try and make one piece if possible. Here I will probably find myself doing more modification to these parts to allow me to connect them to each other in a way that will allow me to mount the whole assembly as one piece versus having to put the pieces on one at a time in a sequence.
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