Door panel vinyl repair?

[Anthony S.]

Members, any advice on how to successfully repair small rips / tears in the vinyl on the door panels? I did a search on this topic and
did not really find a complete/satisfying story. Also found that there are people who specialize in this service (ie for car dealerships) and that is one option
to get the repair done... thanks T

[Pat M.]

Re: Door panel vinyl repair?

Anthony, I had a small screwdriver puncture wound on my 70's repo panel, and I took it off, carefully drilled out the plastic backing (originals don't have a plastic backing), applied a glue (Leech adhesive F26) to the back of the vinyl, then layer by layer applied the same glue to the front, and then sanded each front layer until it was flush. Then I spot paint sprayed the front, and feathered it out, and you can hardly tell it's there. Original panels man be more tricky, but this worked for me. Good Luck.

[John D.]

Re: Door panel vinyl repair?

Anthony, As you mentioned get the pros to fix this issue. The recon guys can repair it like knew. Not to far from my house is a business that prepares dealer used cars for the auctions, etc.
It's amazing the repair work they can do on upholstery in short order and quite affordable. JD

[Don L.]

Re: Door panel vinyl repair?

FWIW, I did all the research I could stand when my hard top's headliner had a 1" crack in it. I went to SEMA and all the FLAPS, looking for just the right stuff so I could fix it permanently. I spent some time, trying to gather the courage to do the repair myself. Then I got a contact that pointed me to one of the aforementioned "pros".

In the end, $60 fixed the crack and a half dozen or so "pock" marks with no way to ell any damage was ever there. This local guy (Michigan) told me he gets most of his work from dealerships. Would be a good idea to go to your favorite dealer and see what they do/who they use. Worked perfectly for me...