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  • Door card repair

    Has anyone done a write up on how best to repair door cards where the leather panels have peeled away. I'm almost certain I came upon one at some point but I've had no luck in finding it so it could be that I'm just mental.
    RS2 - Project Mental Wheels
    RS2 - LHD on the road again
    RS2 - reduced to component parts
    RS2 Saloon replica
    A4 1.8T
    BMW 320d Touring M Sport Business Edition auto
    sigpic

  • #2
    Not so much as a write up but I tried and failed to reattach the original material a couple of times, trouble was the foam backing had disintegrated when it was glued back on the glue wouldn't stick to it. When I removed the foam it obviously lost the padded effect so looked crap and it didn't fit well. As I'd changed seats I decided to try new foam backed fabric that would match my seats and used the originals as templates but even then it wasn't easy. First attempt failed as it was tricky to get the panel exactly in the right position to get the edges right. 2nd attempt I went with slightly over size panels that I could trim to fit once the panels were stuck down, again this was tricky as it kept lifting around the sharper corners and it was hard to get a nice cut to look decent in the recess. After almost giving up on them I came up with the idea of using piping pushed into the recess around the panel, this would help hold the material in place whilst the glue goes off and cover any not so neat bits that I hadn't trimmed back so well. I think I got the piping on ebay and it saved the day for me, looks fairly stock and does a great job of neating them up whilst holding the fabric on.

    Cloth removed and left with horrible semi sticky mess



    Scotch pad and thinners removed the old glue,



    Old material as template for new, see how much foam backing has gone.



    New fabric glued down, you can see the edges aren't that great compared to the original one,



    Piping fitted,



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    • #3
      great job! I would like to do the same. which seats are? recaro's reproduction?

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      • #4
        Originally posted by ziopinulo View Post
        great job! I would like to do the same. which seats are? recaro's reproduction?
        Yup, Recaro sportser cs

        Comment


        • #5
          I've redone one of mine, and will be doing the rest as and when the foam fails.

          I used a soft wire brush to get all the old foam off the back of the leather which is in fact vinyl, that was pretty easy. The difficult and unpleasant bit was getting all the old foam and glue off the door card, I'm not sure what solvent works best, I read on here it's a water based adhesive, but water did nothing, tar remover had the best success.

          I used 3mm scrim foam and glued it to the back of the leather with high temp upholstery adhesive. The original is 4.5mm but I couldn't find anyone who sold that, 6mm is readily available but I'm unsure if that would be too thick. The hard bit is lining up the leather with the door card and not getting glue everywhere, I found it easiest to start from the middle as the cut outs are a good guide to get it positioned correctly. I used a general purpose adhesive as the upholstery stuff did not stick well to the door card.

          The end result was this.

          3E60D6C5-FF21-4BF1-99F4-62841C4EA0B4 by Matt4475, on Flickr
          92 Audi 80 Quattro => RS2 Saloon!
          98 TVR Cerbera 4.5
          63 Austin Mini Super Deluxe (turbocharged)
          69 Austin Mini Cooper
          71 MGB GT
          75 Daimler Vanden Plas 4.2L
          04 Kawasaki GPX250
          96 Subaru Legacy GT-B

          Comment


          • #6
            I asked my upholsterer who did my headlining and It seems it is not so easy to glue it only. He said he would do some aluminium thing and than make a new leather which will look like original and that solution should last for ages. I think he wanted 90 euro for a piece because I did that headlining at his place which was pretty expensive

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            • #7
              Wow, those are some pretty good jobs, thanks! Hey ajax, is that replacement vinyl you've used or an alcantara substitute, it's hard to tell. If it's not alcantara do you or anyone else know where one can get some?

              80Quattro did you do anything special to get the edges down so it looks nice and factory fresh like that?
              RS2 - Project Mental Wheels
              RS2 - LHD on the road again
              RS2 - reduced to component parts
              RS2 Saloon replica
              A4 1.8T
              BMW 320d Touring M Sport Business Edition auto
              sigpic

              Comment


              • #8
                Hi cardash, look up Andy at Snappy Gaitors, he is based in Crewe and works for the local car manufacturer there, so as you'll appreciate his work is pretty good.

                His employer used to make 4.5 litres cars back in the 1930s.

                Let us know how you get on as given our cars ages now they could do with some attention on the door card inserts. Cloth to Alcantara or leather.

                Thanks.






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                • #9
                  Originally posted by cardcrash View Post
                  Wow, those are some pretty good jobs, thanks! Hey ajax, is that replacement vinyl you've used or an alcantara substitute, it's hard to tell. If it's not alcantara do you or anyone else know where one can get some?

                  80Quattro did you do anything special to get the edges down so it looks nice and factory fresh like that?
                  I got my fake alcantara from Ebay, I can't remember it's exact name but it's the same stuff that the centres of my seats are made of.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by cardcrash View Post
                    80Quattro did you do anything special to get the edges down so it looks nice and factory fresh like that?
                    I used an ice lolly stick and ran it along the edge while the glue was still wet, it worked well.
                    92 Audi 80 Quattro => RS2 Saloon!
                    98 TVR Cerbera 4.5
                    63 Austin Mini Super Deluxe (turbocharged)
                    69 Austin Mini Cooper
                    71 MGB GT
                    75 Daimler Vanden Plas 4.2L
                    04 Kawasaki GPX250
                    96 Subaru Legacy GT-B

                    Comment

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