These photos and notes are courtesy of Mark Wellard in Australia.

The secondary panel is a steel plate with cotton batting as padding. It has pressed clips that hold it to the fiber board panel which is screwed to the door. The pictures show the slots cut into the fiber board through which the clips pass. The smaller secondary panel has a hole for the window winder and to save having to make left and right they have punched holes at each end so that it will do either side. I am told that the pressed clips snap off if bent too much.

So, working from the door to the surface of the panel we have fiber board, covered with a layer of vinyl then the secondary panel clipped through the vinyl and fibre board after being covered with cotton batting and vinyl. The secondary panel has thicker vinyl than the main door panel, although the same pattern.




I have added close ups to show the fine string used to create the (3) seams of the secondary panel and the vinyl pattern.

The door pulls fit through the rectangular cut out at the top of the fiber board panel and are screwed to the metal frame of the door. These door pulls are found on some Wolseleys and Rileys, as well as being remanufactured (available from SF).

Additional photos and notes from Jim Cheatham:

The MGA Coupe door cards are made up of two panels (a primary and a secondary door card panels). The backing for the larger primary door card panel is fiber board and the backing for the secondary door card panel is metal with wedge-shaped cut outs used to secure the secondary panel to the primary panel. There is also thin cotton batting sewn to the vinyl along the three stitched lines on the secondary panel and then it was glued to the metal secondary panel.

As you can see, there are two holes in the metal backing panel so the same panel will work for either side. Also note the piping that surrounds the secondary door card panel is finished at the bottom and has a small piece of vinyl to cover the ends as a finisher.

I have also attached pictures of the door pulls showing that they are secured to the doors with three small screws through a metal strip that holds a double-folded piece of vinyl to the door.

Addendum July 13, 2016:
From David Adams, another photo of the sheet steel panel with dimensions:

"The Coupe has a steel backing pate for its pleated door trim. The padding and pleated vynide are stuck to the panel and piping is stuck around the perimeter. In my rebuild the panel was ragged with rust along its lower edge, marginally reusable, but several of the tags which attach it to the door card had broken off, or were about to, and I needed to make new panels.

"The panel was standardised and has two window winder holes so it could be used on either door. For some reason the tags on the top and bottom edges are not symmetrically spaced from the vertical edges. For the new panels I drilled around the edge of the tags and cut through with a cold chisel, cleaning up afterwards.
"If I were making the panels again I would use aluminium to reduce the weight of the door".