Restoring Original Door Panels, A How-To

[67ctbug]

Alright guys, as the body work on my car is on hold for a minute, I've decided to tackle some interior stuff. The door panels on my car were a bit worse for wear. You can see, that they've got some marks on them, some tape/glue residue on the edges, and overall just look a bit bad.
I decided that I was going to clean them up and not buy repros.
Here's what you'll need-

Magic erasers
Simple Green
Purple Power (optional)
Water
Paper towels
Contact Cement
Microfiber cloth
Spray Glue
Cheap paint brush

After you've got that stuff, or what you need from it, it's time to work. First, what you want to do is just wipe the panel down with a damp paper towel or microfiber cloth, that'll get rid of any dust so you can get a feel for how bad the panel is. On my panel, it just cleaned up the armrest really, nothing else really showed up. Any scuffs or black marks come up pretty easily with a magic eraser, a little simple green on a paper towel works too. On the edge of my panels there was some residue from tape or something, anyway, the magic eraser didn't do much, but the simple green took it off pretty easily. That was all I had to do to the drivers front panel, the passenger rear panel was different.

The rear passenger panel's glue had practically disappeared. The only thing holding the vinyl to the masonite was the ash tray. First thing is to do a light cleaning just like on the front panel. After that you’re gonna flip the panel over and spray the spray glue on the backside of the vinyl and on the masonite, then just press it down. You’ll have a bit of time to move it around to get it right. The spray glue will hold pretty well, but now you have to glue the edges with contact cement. Get yourself a chip brush or cheap paint brush and the can of contact cement. Apply to the edge of the vinyl and the masonite where the vinyl will touch. I did mine in two sections so I didn’t have to rush. Once you apply the glue, wait for however long the can says and come back and press the pieces together, it should stick instantly. You’ll know the glue is ready when you can touch it and it doesn’t really stick to you. Once you do that the panel can get a final cleaning if you want. I used an old toothbrush to get in the heat seams and did another pass with a wet towel. I was suggested to use an old shirt to stuff the pocket and clean where it wrinkles. I didn’t try it but it doesn’t sound like a bad idea. Here are some before and after pics, let the know what you think and if you try this for yourself. All of this should be universal for vinyl door cards. Oh and I made a video too if you want to watch that.
Front Before

Front After

Rear Before

Rear After

Link

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'67 Beetle L41
'74 Westfalia
'69 Plymouth "Adam-12"
'63 Ragtop
'73 914
'73 Dodge W200
'72 Dodge Wrecker
Go Cubs!
World Series Champions 2016

[9pin]

Does Magic Eraser affect the shine of the panel at all?
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Yet another person with a '66 project: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=526418

[bluebus86]

409 and a soft scrub brush can do a good job at cleaning. note the vinyl can shrink and sometimes not fit well over the backer board, the board may need a trim to better fit a shrunk vinyl.

Bug On!
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[stale air]

[67ctbug]

[Ceckert64]

I have restreched panels also, check the adhesive your using before you put it all over the vinyl, I have had it badly distort the vinyl and wrinkle it. One set I restreched is the blue in the lower picture.

[KTPhil]