Door Panel Reupholster
I�m guessing most of you going to redo them, you can figure out how the panel comes off. After you have it off, notice on the back side that there are melted plastic studs everywhere. These are what hold the panel together. In the front, you will have to pop off the long column piece and the speaker grill. You don�t have to worry about the bottom tray. When popping off the plastic, try to just take off the top part only, and leave the little nipple attached. I recommend a hammer and a tiny sharp scraper. They pop off easily. Once you start doing it, you will notice what I�m talking about. On the back panels, there is only the bottom and the grill to take off.
For the reupholster itself, I had to sew two pieces together for the top part, and just a solid piece for the bottom. (I will explain in pictures.) With a vinyl top sprayer, I coated both pieces with glue. (Vinyl top glue is your best bet if you can get some. If not, try to get high temp glue. Normal glue will give out on those nice hot days.) Make sure you let the glue sit for awhile. If you try to put them on while the glue is tacky, you will not able to pull up on it. You will pull the glue right off. I started both pieces by laying the sewed pieces in the groove, and worked with it from there. I pulled it around and glue it to the back side to get the finished edges. For the bottom part, you just have to cut a big enough piece of material out, and lay it on. Try to keep it tight you so don�t get wrinkles, but not to tight so that it is under stress. For the part by the air duct in the front, I folded it a sewed it to get a finished edge, since there is nothing to pull it around. Once everything is dried, so can cut out the speaker holes and just x out the pull handles. If you have any wrinkles left, or you have some parts that aren�t sticking, just take a heat gun to it and get the glue hot, and it should lay down for you.
To put back together, just line the panel all back up, and use �¼ in. trim screws to get it back together. Be careful in some spots that are thin, the screw will poke through. Sometimes if you donâ��t have enough room, throw a couple of washers on it the help with the depth. You donâ��t have to get every screw in it. Some spots are to thin to get a screw into. After you get them all back together, I just took a punch to line up the holes in the door and put them back in. If you have any more questions, just message me.
