Tonight I started making the interior panels, starting with the cargo doors and cargo area side panel. First a paper template is made, then the panel is cut from 1/8″ tempered hardboard. The hardboard is an extremely close match to the original panel material, which would have been ~1/8″ tarboard. The hardboard has the same composition except is held together with dried linseed oil instead of dried tar; this type of hardboard was much more common than tarboard on other cars of the same era.
I finished 3 panels tonight and there are 8 more to go: Rear hatch, cargo area behind cargo doors, both front doors, under dashboard (2 panels), and back of both seat partitions. Once they’re all finished they’ll be covered in vinyl and mounted in place.
