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Have both front doorcards off to retire the alcantara panels, will post a guide when I finish, but just a heads up... its a pig...
But, while I am inside the doors, is there anything I should watch for or service, just in case ??
Thanks
Paul
First question, I found this inside the drivers door, rattling around in the bottom ? Does not appear to be one on the passenger side ? Where should it be ? Its soft rubber ?
Look at the door end where the inner trim meets the window. It fits somewhere there.
Ok,
Have gone thru the project of re trimming the front doorcards and below are a few hints on what I found, there are some good tips on the forum already so this may help too..
- I got the alcantara from Audi Tradition, they sell 2 types, one type for seats and one for door panels (I think the thickness of foam is different... good colour match. It comes with 3mm of foam attached.
- Removal of the doorcards is straight forward, make sure to lift it straight up and then out. In total there are 6 fixings to undo, 3 in the handle, 1 in the door release and two small ones at the top left and right.. the doorcard lifts straight up and then out..
- trimming is easier if you remove the door pockets, they are plastic welded but they go back on without too much trouble..
- Best to remove the sound insulation, its held on with 3 spring washers that just twist off.
- I also removed the carbon trim, its held on with 7 clips from the back.
- The messy part is removing the old material or more particularly, the old glue that is probably a brown gunk.... I used engine degreaser and then a rub down with a glue remover (evostick product).. it took ages and then needs an overnight to dry thoroughly...
- After the panel is completely dry I then applied a coat of PVA sealer, it dries quickly and gives a good key for the next stage.
- I made a template about 3 inches larger all the way round to give some margin and room for cutting..
- I used evostick impact adhesive (aerosol) to coat the whole panel (I masked off the rest of the doorcard) I also coated the foam but not all the way to the edge, its best to leave the last few inches to be done by hand later...
- I then applied the alcantara, just to the flat surface, it stuck vey well, then its the tricky part...
- I worked around the edge, now applying the glue with a brush and tucking it down into the gap with a plastic scraper and trimming it with a scalpel. Its possible to get a very good edge but you need to make sure the glue is ready to grab otherwise it can get a bit messy. It takes quite a long time, especially the corners but the worst is the corner at the top right where it meets the carbon trim, there is no edge just here so you need to make the glue just right to make it work....
- Refitting is straightforward, the brackets for the handles are marked R & L so yo can't mix them up, note the v points down....
- Before refitting its worth greasing the track for the wire window lifter. Also, check all the wires are tight and not vibrating or you will get annoying rattles...
- there are 7 rubber wedges that go where the hooks go over the metal door... fit these to the metal door cutouts and grease them so you don't run the risk of dislodging them when fitting.... when fitted right the doorcard is solid, if its loose then you have probably dislodged one of the wedges...
- And thats all there is to it. It will take at least 2 days, so don't rush. Its very satisfying to get rid of the messy old fabric... next I need to do the rear doors...
The old glue it's water based.
So to get rid of the brownorange stick gunk just use....
Water plenty of it wit a hose, keep the doorcard verically and just use a common scotchbrite dishes sponge to scrab the disgusting thing.
It works nice and easy especially when the doorcards are made of plastic.
The method can be used on headlining as well with the due car, keeping it always vertical and turn it upside down very two three minutes.
Have mine to do soon, and going to attempt to rescue the original fabric from the foam, as the fabric is still good. Then reapply it to new foam, then glue to door card.
Acetone is the best stuff for glue removal/degreasing in this case, it is what I intend to try to remove the glue from the fabric from. If that works I will also try doing the headlining with the same method, as you can't get that material either
Have mine to do soon, and going to attempt to rescue the original fabric from the foam, as the fabric is still good. Then reapply it to new foam, then glue to door card.
Acetone is the best stuff for glue removal/degreasing in this case, it is what I intend to try to remove the glue from the fabric from. If that works I will also try doing the headlining with the same method, as you can't get that material either
Bowie,
Trying to save the original alcantara is a challenge and is probably easier to get the foam backed alcantara from Audi Tradition as it makes the job much easier... I tried acetone by the way, it did not work... water is the way to go..
I replaced the headlining a while back, the old glue the same and is a nightmare... it is water based glue and I remember washing it with a hose.. Strongly recommend using a PVA sealer on the headlining, I wasted some expensive alcantara when it failed to hold on the headlining.. I used charcoal alcantara on the headlining and did all the pillar trims and sun visors too, it looks much better than the original.. There is a post about it here somewhere...
I also noticed that the .com site doesn't have all the good guides. I could use all of them if someone has them.
Yeah thats a shame - some kind soul ported most contents of s2central.net onto s2central.com when my ISP host totally messed up (and I was out of the loop for ages).
I should have archives of most PDF docs that I can unearth. I actually came looking here earlier today for the PDF on this for dashboard removal on my S2, so had to discover it all over again.
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