After a very exhaustive search, I finally struck gold this weekend. Turned out to be only 2 hours from my house here in North Carolina. I found them through Craig's List. For anyone that doesn't know, you can search multiple Craig's Lists through a website called Search Tempest:
https://www.searchtempest.com
I'm sure most of you know the difference between the two types of panels. In case you don't, it seems that Ford made a running engineering change with these panels. It was brought to their attention that if you have to adjust the folding rear seat latch on Mustang fastbacks (and Shelby's of course), the shape of the cutout made this very difficult. The hole was enlarged and a cover was fabricated. This must have happened fairly early into production, so just about every original set of panels out there for sale seems to be the later style.
These panels are in really nice shape. One side has no damage or cracks and the other side has moderate were from an unadjusted seat, as well as some cracks. I was just overwhelmed to have finally found them. I'm sending them off to Larry Zobeck for restoration.
Here is a gallery of them if you're interested:
https://imageshack.com/a/GYBo/1
(http://www.saacforum.com/gallery/196-040618174527.jpeg)
(http://www.saacforum.com/gallery/196-040618174448.jpeg)
Great Find!
Thanks for the tip on the broad searching tool.
Love when you find that needle in a haystack. It is a lot of fun.
Larry did a tremendous job repairing 4" diameter speaker holes in my panels.
Just got my early panels back from Larry last month, he did a fantastic job.
Mine too had speaker holes along with other damage. The repairs are undetectable on the front side and they look brand new.
Larry did my plastic seat trim as well. A couple of those pieces were pretty rough. Along with fiberglass and plastic he says he'll do vinyl and pot metal too. Wish I'd known that before I bought those replacement door panels.
Larry Zobeck can be reached at 586-904-0007. I highly recommend him.
Brian, your hunting efforts were rewarded...well done.