My attempt at repairing the door cards

[fab]

Decided to try my luck at repairing the door cards. We all know how much these cost new and pretty much an eye sore if they are sagging badly.

Just used some 3mm plywood and epoxy resin glue. A little filing here and there and job looks pretty ok.


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b300/fabtrader/armrest_2.jpg

Put a groove on the bottom one so the top one sits into it. Plenty of glue!

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b300/fabtrader/armrest_3.jpg

Finished.

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b300/fabtrader/arm-rest_1.jpg

Tomorrow the drivers door card which is a lot worse. Will keep yous posted how it goes.

[wrighty]

That looks like a good fix there Flan, will follow this thread with interest as mine are all v bad. Was the rest creased much? If so did you heat or anything to get rid of crease marks or did they go with straightening the arm rest?

Top job.

[fab]

This is the passenger side and it was broken pretty much where the bottom piece of wood is. Yes the crease marks disappeared as soon as I put them in place.

Its tricky but very doable as you can see.

Very important you dont get thicker than 3mm otherwise it will not sit snuggly on the top part as shown in the picture below.
You need to lightly shave or square off a recess so the ply-wood will fit square.(where the arrow is indicating shows the edge you have to work with)

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b300/fabtrader/armrest_2-1.jpg

The drivers side is much worse and runs along the whole arm rest. BUT i have a master plan on how to use the door handle yes the door handle to hold the plywood in place to ensure it does not wobble. Will hopefully complete that one tomorrow.

[katbloke]

I often wondered about injecting expanding foam in from the rear

[fab]

Funny you should mention that because I got some of that expanding foam also today for filling in the area around where I took the bolts off for the rear beam (that place under the rear seats)

I will give it a try. If it sticks that would be genius!
Thanks for the tip Katbloke :wink:

[fab]

Wish I had better news today but sadly no. The drivers door card is too far gone. I can add the support to it as I did with the passenger door card BUT the creases are visible.
As for the expanding foam well according to the instructions the max depth/width it can handle is up to 25mm. The gap behind the plywood for the door brackets is much bigger. Anyway I do not think it would have the strength to push the door card straight.

Hopefully my attempt will inspire others to give it a try and perhaps someone with more skill and patience can get the job done.

Mat if your reading..I still need that door card :lol:

See you.

Fab.

[katbloke]

My thoughts were if you could inject the foam from behind and use something at the front ie palm of hand to shape it to the armrest as it dries, negating the need for any ply

[fab]

yes i see where your coming from but you need quite a bit of pressure to straighten the collapsed part, hence why I used the ply-wood. after using some of the foam my thoughts are its too messy and would not have the strength to hold the panel straight to iron out the crease's in the vinyl and support it for that matter.

My method worked great for the passenger side and it's holding very strong.
It could have worked better for the other panel but it's cracked from one end to the other. And once it does this it's extremely difficult to get the arm rest even.

Possibly, you would need to cut away (and very straight) the cracked areas so you are left with a rectangular shape where by you can place a piece of wood in that area and hold it in place as i did above. But you need the skill of a craftsman and the patience of a saint!

[MatBrown]

Wish I had better news today but sadly no. The drivers door card is too far gone. I can add the support to it as I did with the passenger door card BUT the creases are visible.
As for the expanding foam well according to the instructions the max depth/width it can handle is up to 25mm. The gap behind the plywood for the door brackets is much bigger. Anyway I do not think it would have the strength to push the door card straight.

Hopefully my attempt will inspire others to give it a try and perhaps someone with more skill and patience can get the job done.

Mat if your reading..I still need that door card :lol:

See you.

Fab.

Roger.


Mat.

[tutuur]

what do door cards cost then?

[fab]

last check in 2006 was £102+ the vat,so about €150 in real money :lol: