86 Door panel restoration

[86MclarenCapri]

My car came with the standard door panels, and I wanted to upgrade. I found a pair of complete panels on eBay and snapped them up. I have a friend who does boat tops and upholstery, so I figured I could have her recover the arm rests in grey to match my car.

So. The armrests were a mess. They were dry and cracked and, really, the only thing holding them together was the glued on vinyl. They had been previouly 'repaired' by gluing on more plastic on the cracks. the parts of the lips that the screws screwed into were all broken off.

I have been working on my sailboat and still had my fiberglass stuff out, so I took on the rebuilding of the panels.

Now, they were cracked and brittle. I super-glued the cracks together to try to keep them in one piece. I removed the old plastic glued on pieces and tried to re-use the old plastic pieces that I pulled out of the vinyl. I planned on laying down some fiberglass but I really had to reinforce the lips for the screws. I probably went overboard with the repairs, but I don't want to do this again. That and I was in fiberglass mode.

In this pic, I have glued the cracks. I couldn't clean up the old adhesive because the pieces couldn't handle it.



This is a shot of the front top of one of the panels. they had glued a big piece of plastic behind it, I super-glued it together.


This is a close up of the insides where I glued the cracks and sanded around the lips.


Next: on to the repairs.

[86MclarenCapri]

I figured that I would reinforce the lips with metal and use resin to glue everything together. I understand that it would add weight, but it wouldn't be that much and I have just replaced the cardboard on my door panels.

Now, I could have just glued plastic to the lips and the sides around the lips, but the armrests were out of shape and I didn't think that plastic would be stiff enough. I considerede using the bumper repair and bondo kits, but.. I'm more comfortable with glass.

these are the tools I used:


I picked up some metal mesh material from my local Ace hardware store. I had the aluminum and steel stock that I was using for my boat repairs. I used the stock as a press to bend the metal into shape and I wrapped it around the ends so that I had a backing or cover for the lips.

The tin snips and flat pliers were invaluable. I also had a ton of small clamps lying around from other projects.

I cut strips of the metal so that I could shape them to the lip,


This is a shot of one of the tabs (lips) that I reinforced. I wanted to wrap the metal around the lip for support. I repeated this for every edge of the arm rests.


I had some fiberglass battens laying around, so I cut them up and used them for a straight edge to pull the armrest into shape. They are the green/red pieces that the clamps are holding.

For the glue, I used West Systems epoxy with adhesive/filler. I mixed it up pretty thick and smeared it into the metal and all over the lip. I used packing tape on the back side of the metal pieces to hold the epoxy and keep the clamps form sticking. I backed that up with wax paper. I will have to go back and clean up around the repairs, but I can't until I get the rest of the panels are reinforced. The epoxy won't set up fully for a while since it has the adhesive in it, so I plan on adding strips of glass cloth along the sides so that it would fully cure. I also need to fill the gaps where the screws had pulled out before.

This is a pic of setting up one of the lips.


I repeated this for the tops and bottoms, which was a pain because I could only do one at a time, which means one lip a day.

I also laid some woven glass cloth on the upper panels that were cracked (in the first post). I did the inside first, I will sand the outside to get rid of the lumps from the glue and then I'll add another sheet of glass to reinforce both sides and smooth it out some.

That's where I am for now. I'll add more detail as I finish each step..

[86MclarenCapri]

So I have glued on the metal reinforcement brackets and I have reinforced the top corners and pull-line holes.

I am adding another screw point to the top of the panels and I'm gluing some reinforcements to the back edge (towards the back of the door panel) to help reinforce the panels.

This is a better pic of the one layer of glass I applied to the inside of the upper corner of the panel.


This is where I added glass to the pull line hole. Definitely needs some cleanup, but should make it much stronger.


And this is a shot of the upper and lower lips after the clamps have been removed. The brown stuff on the top of the bottom lip is the resin, it will get cleaned up later.

[86MclarenCapri]

The speaker grill panels were pretty rusty, so I soaked them in some rust eater. The picture below is what happens when you don't coat them after they soak. they rust again. I am soaking them again and will paint them as soon as they dry.


I wanted to zinc plate them, but I don't have that process set up, yet. I'm plating parts for my 67 Mustang. I think I'll use a Rustoleum product and let it cure for a while before I spray on the adhesive for the cloth covers.

Update:
I soaked them a second time but I dried them off and left them on the stove so that they wouldn't rust. I painted them--I'll post those pics later

[86MclarenCapri]

Some more updates!
I added some extra reinforcement panels on the trailing edge of the arm rests. I might add another lip to secure them, but I really just wanted to add some strength to that part of the panels.



I also added another lip to the top part of the panels and I glued some plastic pieces over the holes for the speaker insert screws. They were pretty worn out. I had a small plastic I-Beam piece left over from my remote control sailboat projects (I know, another expensive hobby). I reinforced the small piece in the middle of the speaker panel (the light grey cross piece).

[86MclarenCapri]

I FINALLY got to do some sanding!

I used a grinder to get the extra superglue off (It was REALLY hard) and then used an orbital palm sander to level out the resin that had oozed everywhere. I know the top part is padded with very dense foam, but I just HAVE to make it nice and smooth. If I don't I will know about it and--much worse, my upholstery person would tease me relentlessly.

I am going to have to use body filler to smooth out the cracks but it won't be that bad. The front upper sections are really bad, and I'm thinking about adding a layer of glass to the top. I'll probably just fill the area to smooth it out and add another layer on the inside.



And a shot of the front sections


I still have some sanding to do and I'll need to reinforce the lip where you stick your hand in to grab the door handle. They are in bad shape on both panels...