Eric,

Why aluminum? Well…

My door cards are quite worn and warped. I could try flattening them ( I did that on my old 82 van) but they are breaking at the bottom edge.

I could buy the commercially available textured abs panels.

I could buy some abs and cut my own. But the abs sheet is as expensive as aluminum.

There was a sheet of 0.090” thick aluminum at work that was free for me. So obviously that’s the choice.

Both abs and aluminum want warp with moisture, and I have an annoying habit of leaving drivers side window down when parked at home.

I guess it’s also a case of “ when the only tool you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail”. I work with aluminum every day, I know the stuff pretty well now. If I worked in a wood shop I’d probably be cutting up thin plywood to do the cards.

No, wasn’t the burned out van that made me cut the aluminum cards :-)

Cheers

Ab

> On Mar 23, 2022, at 8:48 AM, Eric Caron <ericcaron96@comcast.net> wrote:
> 
> Why? 
> 
> Advantages? 
> 
> I guess they won’t burn. 
> 
> Having the burned van in your view constantly might make one want to remove all burnable material!
> 
> eRic 
> 
> 
>> On Mar 22, 2022, at 11:33 PM, Alistair Bell <albell@SHAW.CA> wrote:
>> 
>> I finally, finally after a lot of procrastination, cut some door cards today. What I’m covering them with is a secret for now 
>> https://shufti.blog/2022/03/22/vanagon-door-cards/
>> 
>> Alistair