Well, If mine HAD any felt left...
It does ride against the glass, like the two little anti-rattle window dealies...it shouldn't ride against it too hard though...
Do the screw holes and the all important pull handle and lock knobs mate up? That would be my main concern....
I don't know if there are any differences between the '75 and '76, although I think '77 and certainly late '79-82 saw lots of changes in other places.
I haven't changed panels since they didn't have surface cracks in the leather and had been decently dyed to black, but I did have to reattach the L shaped side hook screw mount whats-its and epoxy in and redrill the holes the screws went into on the main doors. (Two took clip nuts and I replaced them with new ones.) (I also added two more of the L shaped panel mounts to the bottom edge to secure it better.)
Although I changed the wood panels, carpet strips, weatherstripping, the pull handles, one handle, both lock knobs and added the lock knob shields that were missing (and the two anti-rattle window pads on each side that were missing). Oddly I haven't yet changed the not-too-great main window felts (one part of that attaches to the main door itself)! (Resto-mod is never, apparently, done...)
I also had failures in the glorified carboard the main panel is made of (especially where those L-shaped screw mount hook thingies go) so I epoxied the board in some bad places and layered some fiberglass across a lot of it on the edges.
I notice there is an excellent place in the panel with a relief depression for what I assume is where the manual crank would have gone that just begs for a 5 1/4" surface mount speaker like a Boston Accoustic or Infinity similar to what I did the kick panel speakers and dash speakers in. (Both seem to excell at small speaker performance, especially in bass.)
I've been happy though that I never had problems with the outter door handles, which are apparently a bear to dissasemble and restore when they fail and only one failed window motor so far (although I had to rewire them.)
Did you have to do a lot of adjustment on the threaded latch and lock control rods yet? I seem to have to adjust one or the other one one door or the other almost seasonly. (Sometimes the outer lock won't work, sometimes the inner, sometimes the outter latch won't operate.) I also put some rubber hose strips on the longest lengths of those rods to augment the anti-rattle fittings they have on them already. Everything is now pretty quiet and very solid sounding when closing. I also found adjusting the door sill plate played a large role in that.
Just thought about this.... I have those panels off so often I forget how they act. They never really seem to hook at the top like many door panels do. Until I get the first main screw or even both of them (the ones at the top of the panel) started once it's past the door latch, it's pretty much just swimming on there, pivotting on where the handle goes through the slot (which usually manages to pinch the s*** out of one of my fingers everytime :W )
