I finally got around to recovering my new deluxe door panels. The light gray fabric in the middle was coming loose around the edges, and needed to be repaired.

It just so happens Im upgrading all the light gray fabric areas in my car with gray digital, so I had plenty of fabric laying around to fix up the doors. I used some 2mm plastic sheets and cut them to the shape of the light gray area, then covered them with digital fabric. I attached spike strips to the back side and carefully drilled small holes in the door panel for the spike strips to fit through.

I also took the opportunity to add the cupholders from my original door panels to the new deluxe panels. They have been painted with duplicolor gray, but its not a perfect match and makes them look a bit out of place.

Does anyone think the cup holder would look better painted dark gray like the door handle bezel? Or should I try and locate a better matching dove gray paint? They are very discolored, so removing the paint isnt really an option. I would love any suggestions on good matching paint, or the dark gray like the bezels.

Got some pics here below of the passenger side panel off the car, nothing is getting put back in until after the painting is all done. Let me know what you think.

 

Do you have a step-by-step on how to recover your doors? Both my GTA and my wife's Formula could use some new cloth as well. If it is pretty easy I may attempt to do it myself. Appreciate any info you can provide. Thanks.

 

Ill have to check my memory cards, but I think I took some pics of it in various stages of completion. It was kind of a pain, but not real bad. Getting the insert backing boards for the new cloth the exact shape was hardest part. I made an extra backing board so I could use it as a template for cutting more if I ever need to.

The main things you will need are the new fabric, some plastic or wood panel sheets large enough to cover entire door panel fabric area in one piece (2mm is about as thick as you want), and some metal spike strips like are used on home furniture, and some uphostering glue (I used spray on 3M upholstry adhesive)

Tools required are a drill with bit approximately the size of the spikes on your spike strip, a medium size pair of pliers for bending over the spikes, and a pair of tin snips for cutting the spike strip and the backing panel board.

Ill try and dig up those pics and add some better details about the process in the next few days, or hours perhaps if I can get left alone here at the shop long enough to type something up.

**EDIT: I forgot to add, if your wifes car uses the standard door panels rather than the deluxe style, then those are a cinch to recover, hardest part is getting those aweful backwards installed self threading nuts off the top black trim piece. I recovered a set of those too but I dont have any pics. I can take some though if you need them, I have a drivers side panel that is half way finished.

 

I didn’t have a lot of pics, but I dug up what I have. Hopefully this wont be to confusing, it would help if I had some pics of the spike strip application, but I did that in the middle of the night half asleep and forgot. I made up one pic as a reference with some color coded info on it, and another showing the materials I used. If I ever get around to doing another set, Ill try and make a better walkthrough about this. It was my intention this time around, but I got in too big of hurry and forgot to take pics for several steps.

Oh, and try to disregard the odd image on my panels. I used an old plastic display sign from the furniture store for it, just happened to be the perfect thickness.

Here is what I did, it seems a lot harder reading it that it actually is, but if you have no experience at all with fabrics and stuff like this, it might be rather tricky.

1. Step one is to remove all the attachment clip on the back of the door panel, so it will lay stable on a surface, and remove the lower door pockets if your doors have them. I had to make a special tool from a copper water line to get those nuts off for the door pockets, but you might have luck with the right size of pliers.

2. Now make a template for your new backing boards. Take a large piece of poster board or cardboard big enough to cover the entire fabric portion of the door panel. Lay it over the door panel and trace an outline of the fabric part onto the cardboard. It doesn’t have to be anything near perfect, since it will get trimmed later. Make sure when you trace the outline, to make it a little oversized so it can be trimmed to fit. I did this from the back side of the door panel and it was much easier for the deluxe door panels.

3. Once you have the shape of the fabric part traced onto the cardboard, cut it out and lay it into the recess where the fabric is on the door panel. Trim the edges of this piece little by little until it sets down perfectly into the recessed area of the door panel and covers the fabric portion completely. You want the cardboard panel to overlap the heat weld line where the vinyl meets the fabric so the panel butts up flush against the edges of the recess.

4. With the cardboard template trimmed to a nice fit, lay it on top of your big piece of 2mm wood or plastic panel and trace an outline around it. Flip the template over and trace another outline around it for the other door. Cut both panels out then lay one into the recess in the door and check the fit. Trim it a little if needed until it fits nice and flush into the recessed area of the door panel. (Pic. 3 Fig. 1-3) When you get it fitting nicely, hold it in place, and from the back of your door panel, trace the outline of the door handle opening onto the newly cut panel and cut out the area for the door handle. Don’t forget to cut out the area at the bottom where the arm rest goes. (Pic. 3 Fig. 4)

5. Now take your backing board pieces and lay them on your fabric, cut out a piece for each panel and make sure the fabric overlaps the backing by several inches all the way around it, so you have some to fold over to the back side.

6. With the backing board and fabric cut out, it’s now time to put it together. Start by spraying on the adhesive to the front surface of the backing board, and the rear of the fabric you intend to use. Apply the fabric to the board starting from one end and working your way to the other being careful not to let the fabric wrinkle or bunch up. Don’t let the fabric touch in an area before your ready for it to be attached since the glue will stick very easy. Don’t cut the door handle hole out of the fabric, just cut a big X in the middle of it so you can fold the fabric over to the back, so it will be more secure. Don’t fold the fabric around the edges of the panel over to the rear of the backing yet, just leave the excess hanging around the edges.

7. Now you need to get your spike strip and start cutting strips of it to go around the edges of the backing panel. You wont need to do the bottom edge under the arm rest since the arm rest itself will hold it down, but other than that one spot, the entire outer edge must have the spikes around it to hold it down firmly and evenly. In order to go around the curves just right, you will need to cut the strip into shorter sections, just make sure each strip has at least two spikes on it. Cut little holes to stick the spike strips through the overlapping fabric and then fold them over so they lay back to back with the backing board. If needed, spray a little adhesive on the back of the panel so the fabric will stick when you fold it over with the spike strip. As you add each piece of spike strip, set it onto the door panel and make sure the spikes are lining up right. You want the spikes to stick in right along the weld line on the edges of the recess in the door panel. Your backing board should overlap the spike strips just a bit, some adjustment will be required here and there for a good fit.

8. Once you have all your spike strips attached and lined up good, lay the new panel in place on the door panel and make sure its lined up just right. Make sure all the spikes are setting in the weld line and then mark the position of each spike onto the weld line with a pen or sharpie. Using a drill bit the size of the spike, drill out each dot you marked on the door panel and then put your new panel on by inserting the spikes into the holes you drilled. I laid an extra piece of spike strip along my marked dots before I drilled them just to make sure they all had proper spacing. (Pic. 3 Fig. 5)

9. When you get all the spikes into the holes, bend each spike over from the back of the panel with something metal and flat. As you bend each spike over, apply pressure from the front of the panel in that area so the spike is all the way though the hole, so it will be nice and tight. Do this to every spike until the whole panel is secured.

10. Now if everything went well you should be the proud owner of some nicely refurbished deluxe door panels. Kick back, drink something, or smoke something, have a party, because you deserve it.