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SMS did the door panels and embossed vinyl seat-back inserts for my 58 New Yorker wagon. Excellent products, in my view. The door panels have about five or so silver mylar bars at the bottom corners. SMS's versions are distinguishable from the Chrysler originals, when the two are side-by-side, but when you see the interior fully installed in the car, those little mylar bars look just fine and do NOT leap out as being obviously wrong.
SMS supplied the door panels, the cloth and the vinyl inserts for the seats, and vinyl yardage for the seats and cargo areas, but my local upholsterer put the seat covers together and did all the rest of the interior work, including new carpet and headliner and re-installing the metal trim that I had painted, and installing the Just Dashes dash panel.
The costs are not for the faint-of-heart, though. SMS's materials cost about $2,420, the dash panel was about $580, and the trim painting and upholstery work came to another $10,200, making for an interior that cost $13,200!!! And only took two years in the upholstery shop.
To make it worse, the upholsterer started it up after two years of sitting, and revved it up very high, to keep it running. About a month and 150 miles later, one of the crank bearings failed, which then led to a complete engine rebuild including a new crankshaft, as well as the inevitable transmission rebuild, since "you might as well" rebuild the transmission while the engine is out anyway. That only added another $6,175 for the engine and $975 for the transmission.
Got all that finished in the fall of 2004, but it took another $2,480 worth of work to get everything running right this spring (still have a short in the dash light circuit to track down and fix).
Just in time to park it under a newly drilled hole in the ceiling of a cement garage, which dripped enough cement lime water onto the door to strip off a two-inch diameter area of paint, and all the chrome off the door handle. Linkage won't work now, either, so the door won't open.
So, now having another car's paint work redone, to make sure the body shop is as good as I'm told it is, before sending this 58 wagon over to be repainted.
Do you think I should rechrome all that chrome while it's off? After all, this car is already to the stage where I'd have to drive it for about 13 years after I've died, and then be buried in it, to save the price of a coffin, just to break even. So far.
But to answer your question, yes, SMS's door panels are just fine.
Dick Woodside
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