Aussie Ford
Hard-core CEG'er
Have you ever had this problem?
There I was at the JY looking for stuff and WOW I hit the gold! Yep you guessed it a 96 Mystique the same color inside as my wife's Tour. Since I am always looking for ways to improve it for her (she is getting suspicious when I barrow it these days) this was a real find. I especially like Stiques door panels with those under door lights in the corner, and this still even had them. Believe me that is unusual. These were almost in perfect condition but, the problem was the on the driver side the speaker grill was broken, so I decided to grab them anyway.
Then I found another one that some had broken the handle off, but the speaker grill was good. These things are plastic welded in place on the back side but all I had handy at the time was a pair of wire cutters. The door plastic cuts well and I got it out successfully. The fact that someone had broken the door handle actually was a help.
At home I took the door panel, working from the back, using a (sharp) 1/4" chisel and knocked the welds off carefully freeing up the post supports. Then turning it over I removed it from the panel. It has tabs that go under the door pull area and need to move both down and forward at the same time, so it is a bit of a trick to get out. There is also a hooked tab that goes through a slot. This I heated up with my heat gun and when hot bent it straight. The weld posts on the replacement part I trimmed up to get them back to what I considered regular size before it was melted, by trimming and filing.
With a bit of care I found it flexible enough to allow those tabs to in fact go up and back, under the door pull (the other one had come out w/o breaking). Then the real problem hit me the holes in the door panel didn't all match the size of the trimmed pegs. These were adjusted using a Dremmel and rotary cutting bit. Lastly I used Plumbers Goop which works on PVC, & ABS plastics to glue them in place on the back side.
Part Two:
On this same door panel the rear edge top screw hole was also broken out. To repair this I pealed back the leather covering (ok fake leather covering) and removed the broken pieces. This was just enough to expose, and allow access to, the broken out area. Then I took a piece of tin, 18ga, and cut it to be as wide as it could be and fit the area, and about three times the length of the broken area (the broken area was in a V shape as those types usually are). I then roughed it up a bit with 80 grit sand paper as well as the plastic on the door. Next I applied Plumbing Goop to cover it and stuck it in place. I gooped up the sides of the two broken pieces and put them in place. I did likewise with the covering and after everything was all together I place a small piece of wood on the finish side and put two clamps on it. When cured it should be stronger than when new, and I will drill and new screw hole in the same place. The 18ga material should be thin enough so there won’t be any noticeable bulge and strong enough it won’t tear out again. I also have considered using a couple of pop rivets on it but I want to try it with just the adhesive first. A short 1/8” rivet would not interfere with anything on the inside of the door panel as that area is mostly open.
We shall see how it all turns out.
If you have done this in a different manor how'd you do it?
Regards,
AF
There I was at the JY looking for stuff and WOW I hit the gold! Yep you guessed it a 96 Mystique the same color inside as my wife's Tour. Since I am always looking for ways to improve it for her (she is getting suspicious when I barrow it these days) this was a real find. I especially like Stiques door panels with those under door lights in the corner, and this still even had them. Believe me that is unusual. These were almost in perfect condition but, the problem was the on the driver side the speaker grill was broken, so I decided to grab them anyway.
Then I found another one that some had broken the handle off, but the speaker grill was good. These things are plastic welded in place on the back side but all I had handy at the time was a pair of wire cutters. The door plastic cuts well and I got it out successfully. The fact that someone had broken the door handle actually was a help.
At home I took the door panel, working from the back, using a (sharp) 1/4" chisel and knocked the welds off carefully freeing up the post supports. Then turning it over I removed it from the panel. It has tabs that go under the door pull area and need to move both down and forward at the same time, so it is a bit of a trick to get out. There is also a hooked tab that goes through a slot. This I heated up with my heat gun and when hot bent it straight. The weld posts on the replacement part I trimmed up to get them back to what I considered regular size before it was melted, by trimming and filing.
With a bit of care I found it flexible enough to allow those tabs to in fact go up and back, under the door pull (the other one had come out w/o breaking). Then the real problem hit me the holes in the door panel didn't all match the size of the trimmed pegs. These were adjusted using a Dremmel and rotary cutting bit. Lastly I used Plumbers Goop which works on PVC, & ABS plastics to glue them in place on the back side.
Part Two:
On this same door panel the rear edge top screw hole was also broken out. To repair this I pealed back the leather covering (ok fake leather covering) and removed the broken pieces. This was just enough to expose, and allow access to, the broken out area. Then I took a piece of tin, 18ga, and cut it to be as wide as it could be and fit the area, and about three times the length of the broken area (the broken area was in a V shape as those types usually are). I then roughed it up a bit with 80 grit sand paper as well as the plastic on the door. Next I applied Plumbing Goop to cover it and stuck it in place. I gooped up the sides of the two broken pieces and put them in place. I did likewise with the covering and after everything was all together I place a small piece of wood on the finish side and put two clamps on it. When cured it should be stronger than when new, and I will drill and new screw hole in the same place. The 18ga material should be thin enough so there won’t be any noticeable bulge and strong enough it won’t tear out again. I also have considered using a couple of pop rivets on it but I want to try it with just the adhesive first. A short 1/8” rivet would not interfere with anything on the inside of the door panel as that area is mostly open.
We shall see how it all turns out.
If you have done this in a different manor how'd you do it?
Regards,
AF
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