Door panel install problem. 67 impala

D/L the 67 Fisher body service manual Here & look in section 14, you'll see a couple of references to nails in the diagrams as in Fig.14-15 & 14-39. But as you'll see they would appear to sandwich the trim core with the point of the nail poking through the trim overlap. Bit hard to explain, the pic's do better.

Jynx said:

D/L the 67 Fisher body service manual Here & look in section 14, you'll see a couple of references to nails in the diagrams as in Fig.14-15 & 14-39. But as you'll see they would appear to sandwich the trim core with the point of the nail poking through the trim overlap. Bit hard to explain, the pic's do better.

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Thanks for the tip! I did install the nails kind of behind the edge of the vinyl that overlaps and the carboard backer on the panel. There's nothing really solid on the door panel to clamp the retainer to, but the sheet metal on it is pretty stiff and clamped pretty tight onto the vinyl and backer board. I wonder if originally there was a thin piece of metal or something in the door panel for the clips to clamp onto. I think it will work but I have to get some new retaining cups now, when I pushed the nails into my old ones they all broke off.

I've never seen a panel disassembled, but I can't imagine they'd be messing with extra pieces of metal though, there's a possibility they would've had a hand tool that would indent or crimp them in place, but I guess you'd need to disassemble a panel to see.
Luckily those cups are super common, I think I bought a packet years ago from Summit with a bunch of other parts, I remember seeing those nails when I was searching and I also remember wondering where the hell they went, as i'd never seen any anywhere on the car, now I know.

67ImpalaSSConv said:

My panels aren’t in the best shape. Kind of moisture warped. But I’m going to use them. I have some panel “nails” that came with the car. They have small angled sheet metal on the nail. Any ideas how to use these? Not even sure they are correct for this door panel. the door has these white connectors in it and I assume the nails go in there. But not sure how to connect them to the door panel. I’ll try to post a pic.

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Yeah, that’s definitely not the right fitting. I just had mine off but I don’t have any pics of the correct ones. I mashed some of mine and actually went with some double-sided adhesive tape to make up for it. Mine also had some screws for the bottom in the carpet section of the panel but I don’t know if those are correct or not. I’ve never seen the type of connector in your picture on a 67 anywhere.

mrnine said:

Yeah, that’s definitely not the right fitting. I just had mine off but I don’t have any pics of the correct ones. I mashed some of mine and actually went with some double-sided adhesive tape to make up for it. Mine also had some screws for the bottom in the carpet section of the panel but I don’t know if those are correct or not. I’ve never seen the type of connector in your picture on a 67 anywhere.

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Maybe they are aftermarket connectors. They ended up working pretty good. I know they came with the new rear door panels that I have because they were in the package.