On 2/5/2019, John Upton wrote:
"Check that the stiffener bars do actually fit over the door liner panels before you paint the bars. I didn't, and they didn't fit. The "turn overs" at the top of the bars were much too tight to clip over the panels. I'd already painted the bars but then had to "persuade" them over the specially tapered edge of a metal plate to widen the turn over gaps. Repainting required! I bought both the door panels and bars from Moss, too trusting"!

"The panels I have are 3.6-mm at the edges including the covering. The slot in the stiffeners was 3-mm. If you start prying the stiffener turnover apart with a screwdriver or something you could (maybe) get it onto the panels but the edge of the stiffener would start to look uneven. I used a piece of steel sheet ground down to about 4-mm (5/32-in) on the edge, mounted the steel vertically, and then tapped the stiffeners over the steel using a full length piece of wood and a hammer. But it messed up my beautiful paint job on the stiffeners".

From Barney: The two photos above are from when I replaced the door pockets and panels in my car in 2003. The prior panels were from 1986, and both sets came from Moss Motors. The stiffeners have been there since 1986. I can't recall if they were original issue, but more likely came from Moss Motors at that time. In any case, the ones on my car do not represent current issue replacement parts.
The panels are supposed to be made of 1/8-in (or 3-mm) plywood plus a vinyl wrap. I just measured the panels in my car. They measure 0.150-in thick (3.8-mm) including the front and back layers of vinyl. These panels slip right into the stiffener bars, so the slots in my bars must be at least 0.150-in wide (and a bit more allowing for the paint), and no problem there.

Bottom line is, the new stiffener bars from Moss Motors are formed with the slot too narrow, and not suitable for the application. Moss Motors USA has been notified, 12 FEB 2019. Immediate reply acknowledges it is a problem that needs to be fixed. Now to wait a bit to see what may come of it.

Addendum Nov 1, 2022:
Well this is pretty obnoxious. Some years after being notified about the problem Moss is still selling the same dysfunctional parts (blaming the delay on Covid, very convenient).

On 10/31/2022, Joe Wilson wrote:
"I informed them (Moss Motors) that I had two 451-095 door stiffeners that would not fit and tried to return them but was told I had purchased them too long ago and would not accept a return unless I paid the freight which would have been as much as the parts cost. I asked them why they were still selling the part since they had known about the problem since February of 2019 and got no answer".
"I was able to widen the slot by using a piece of angle iron in a vise and then flattening it out with a dead blow hammer".

Followed by cleaning and finishing and repainting, of course.

It bothers me to no end that they refuse to throw out the bad parts and continue to sell them to the unsuspecting public without any notice that the parts are bad and would have to be modified to be used. This seems to be standard practice for Moss to sell off inventory of known faulty parts before fixing the problem. This one is now four years in process, and no one knows how much longer they intend to scam their customers. -- Barney