Interior door cards

[Abigdumbkid]

Well I've been reading thru tips and tricks and looking at a lot of builds in progress and noticed a lot of door cards separated from the main interior tub of a model. Is this specific to certain models or are people separating them? I usually spray the interior as one piece and always wondered how some kits have nicer door cards than others. If you separate them, do you have to use styrene strips to reattach to the tub or will the usually go back on fairly easy. I'm not skilled enough yet to try and work on getting doors to open just yet. Thanks in advance.

[Foxer]

Many kits do the interior with a 'flat' floor with separate sides instead of a full tub with sides attached. This is probably what you're seeing. These separate sides can have much deeper detail and are therefore consistently better.

Many of the skilled modelers here do add detail and even build these from scratch also.

[russosborne]

Hope I don't sound too dumb, but what is a "door card"?

I have been working with model and real cars for almost 50 years and this is the first I have ever heard that phrase.

Thanks,

Russ

[SfanGoch]

I believe Spencer means interior panels.

[Exotics_Builder]

Door cards are door panels.  Door cards is the designation usually used in Britain, et al.  Sometimes used here.  Watch Wheeler Dealers and you will hear it a lot.

[Abigdumbkid]

Yeah, sorry about that. That's exactly where I picked that up. 

[Harry P.]

Older kits (kits that were tooled long ago, as long ago as the '60s) usually had an interior "tub" with the interior side panels molded all in one piece to the interior floor. These usually had very poor, shallow panel detail like armrests and window cranks, because the molded plastic tree that the interior tub was on had to be able to be pulled away from the mold itself. If there were protruding, 3-D details on the interior door panels, the interior tub would not have been to be separated from the steel mold.

A more sophisticated way to mold interiors is to have the interior floor and side panels molded as separate pieces. That way, realistic 3-D door handles, arm rests, and window cranks can me molded into the side panels and still be able to be easily separated from the mold. Also, it's much easier for the builder to detail the side panels when they are separate from the interior floor.

The separate side panel way of doing it was an improvement in kit engineering that came along years after the old style one piece tubs. Thats why some kits have one-piece interiors (usually kits that were tooled long ago) while others have the interior side panels separate (most newer kits).