1998 Monaco Dynasty Interior Side Panel

[Ame2cua]

The interior driver side panel broke when disengaging the air brake in my Monaco. Figured I’d go down to Lowe’s and buy some aluminum sheet metal to remake the panel. Seen others use polycarbonate but I hear it’s not the easiest to paint and I didn’t want to run the risk of it cracking (plus aluminum is easier to bend). 
 

Wanted to know what others have done to successfully remake panels. 
 

I will be adding text using transfer tape and vinyl text via a Cricut machine for final touches, but for now what I have is functional.  

Edited May 31, 2023 by Ame2cua
Typo

[DavidL]

Nice job!

[Ame2cua]

Thank you. Didn’t do anything fancy but good old fashion elbow grease, some aviation snips, carbide burr, and some files. 

[Donflem]

Looks great 👍.

[Just Jim]

That does look good.  Should have been out of aluminum or something more substantial from the beginning.  I have just resurfaced my leather seats and several of the switches have covers that have cracked and broken.  Anyone know of a source for that kind of thing?  Along this same line, I was thinking of finding some plastic or aluminum and cutting out new ones and painting.

[jacwjames]

Very nice

Now I have to put that on my to do list.  My side console has seen better days for sure.  

[klcdenver]

I had the same problem on my 2003 Dip. I removed the panel and used thin aluminum epoxied to the underside for strength. I then used a 3M product called di-noc. It is self sticking and you can use a heat gun to really shrink it to a perfect fit. It comes in many colors and designs. Available on eBay and Amazon.

[1nolaguy]

All my failures seem to be at the screw holes at terminal end. I just checked yesterday but a new sheet of Acrylic is quite expensive. Thanks for these options. perhaps some superglue and aluminum reinforcement is the way to go.

KLCDenver, what type of epoxy did you use to attach the aluminum to the plastic?

Ame2Cua, what gauge Aluminum sheet did you use? All I could find at the local HD/Lowes was 24 ga, which seems a bit thin. 

[Ame2cua]

3 minutes ago, 1nolaguy said:

All my failures seem to be at the screw holes at terminal end. I just checked yesterday but a new sheet of Acrylic is quite expensive. Thanks for these options. perhaps some superglue and aluminum reinforcement is the way to go.

KLCDenver, what type of epoxy did you use to attach the aluminum to the plastic?

Ame2Cua, what gauge Aluminum sheet did you use? All I could find at the local HD/Lowes was 24 ga, which seems a bit thin. 

The attached photo is exactly what I bought. 24”x 36” 6063 aluminum. Bought enough to maybe remake future broken panels. Can’t remember the gauge off the top of my head but it was on the thinner side 20 or 22. I also used Krylon All in one black matte paint. 
I was worried that it would be too thin but worked out just fine once it was installed and doesn’t flex at all. It’s thin enough to cut out with some snips. 

[1nolaguy]

Thanks. I went to Lowes (and HD) website and it appears the gauge is 24 for these sheets. I am amazed that there is no flex but then the span side to side is only about 3-4" unsupported. That may not be thick enough to larger panels like the gauge cluster or radio area but for the side cluster it appears to work great.

[Ame2cua]

31 minutes ago, 1nolaguy said:

Thanks. I went to Lowes (and HD) website and it appears the gauge is 24 for these sheets. I am amazed that there is no flex but then the span side to side is only about 3-4" unsupported. That may not be thick enough to larger panels like the gauge cluster or radio area but for the side cluster it appears to work great.

Exactly, the panel doesn’t have to bear a lot of weight so it worked fine. Definitely would recommend something thicker for the gauge cluster. Probably something I could not source from Lowe’s. 

[klcdenver]

I just used the JB Weld 5 minute epoxy. You build up the corners and screw holds that have chipped out with it and redrill them when it is dry.

[hitechpete]

I had the same problem with my drivers side panel and to a lesser extent to main dashboard, I epoxied aluminium to the back, making holes in the metal slightly larger than the originals for clip in items (switches), then repaired the damage with car body filler and covered it all with carbon fibre automobile wrap.

Photo 3 shows the end result on the dash, I can’t find my photos of the drivers side console.

[beemerman]

On 6/1/2023 at 4:15 AM, hitechpete said:

I had the same problem with my drivers side panel and to a lesser extent to main dashboard, I epoxied aluminium to the back, making holes in the metal slightly larger than the originals for clip in items (switches), then repaired the damage with car body filler and covered it all with carbon fibre automobile wrap.

Photo 3 shows the end result on the dash, I can’t find my photos of the drivers side console.

That looks really good, great job!  It's a project that I need to do on our 03 Dynasty.

On 5/31/2023 at 5:34 AM, klcdenver said:

I had the same problem on my 2003 Dip. I removed the panel and used thin aluminum epoxied to the underside for strength. I then used a 3M product called di-noc. It is self sticking and you can use a heat gun to really shrink it to a perfect fit. It comes in many colors and designs. Available on eBay and Amazon.

That looks great, what did you do for the labels that were printed on the panel?

[klcdenver]

The parking brake was the only one that was labeled on the panel. I figured I knew how to operate it without instructions. LOL  All the rocker switches were labeled on the face.