jsheiry

SOLD
Pulled these classic gray door panels out of a relatively low mileage car, NOT low sun exposure car (Texas) Bought some matching vinyl and had local upholstery guy (after much searching for someone with machine capable of sewing thru doorpanel replace top section.
Here are some before and after photos. If you have classic gray then you know what happens....brown, purple, yellowish sun burning.


Before with sunburning

After with new vinyl installed on top section only.

Boeing 717

Looks great J.

rogerstopford

I have exactly the same problem with a grey interior - can you tell me the vendor and part number of that vinyl? Great job, it looks really good.
Thanks

jsheiry

I will get that info from shop I bought from, it was compared and selected from a card full of samples.

Daniel S

They came out really nice.

ryan@usaimage.com

I did the same thing on mine. The shop I went to had a good match and the vinyl even has a thin foam on back for an even more comfy arm rest.

jeff968

These came out great and look to be a smart fix. That said, they won't look "correct" due to the vinyl material being applied. If that is fine for you then great, but if I was looking for a more "correct" solution I would locate black door panels (which are usually fine and don't suffer the same issue with the sun) and paint/dye the upper sections classic grey to maintain the original appearance and get the color. Not to take away from the fine job here. Just my two cents for the stock purists.

jsheiry

Jeff, are you suggesting the original material was not vinyl at this location and leather ? I looked at paint/dye methods and felt that paint/dye & stock purists did not go in the same sentence.

jeff968

John, it is a vinyl/plastic but it is injected molded, not wrapped. Once deteriorated I agree, the wrap approach would be the best. But you will always see evidence of the warp. The purist would obviously want a nice NOS classic grey door panel

Eyeman

I agree this repair looks great and would work great on any car that you are just trying to get to look better. Jeff is trying to get his cars to the #1 or #2 concours type levels. I would think it would be very hard to dye black to match especially since some of the panel is more plastic than other parts. It would seem easiest to try to leather restore/dye the burnt panel.

I notice both of your cars above have black interiors Jeff. How is it going with your red interior car? Was everything in good shape or are you having to do some dying, etc?

Eyeman

That also reminds me, is leather that's in the best shape still soft and not shiny? The guy that restored my seats took it on himself to restore my steering wheel. It went from shiny to a soft matte finish. I don't remember my steering wheel ever looking like that. I guess I should just drop by the dealer and compare.

jeff968

Lucky me. The upper section is black! That said, the dash has cracks. The sprayed vinyl dyes look and hold up great. I have used them with great success.

jsheiry

The panels I covered were not water damaged and warped like two I just put in the trash can but very good panels that were sun burned. They have no warping to my knowledge.

I also have a set of classic grey / lite grey door panels that someone before me dyed the tops grey and they look OK from a distance but when you look closely they have lost most of the vinyl grain from the paint process smoothing them out. Its almost a dead giveaway when I see panels and dashes that have been dyed/painted is the grain in the vinyl gets smoothed out to some degree.....clearly better than sun burn and purple.

It very probably is injected molded underneath....but is very clearly wrapped in vinyl on top of the molding process (glued/fused to) and around the edges as you can see it glued down/stapled down in various places. Perhaps they even laid the sheet vinyl in the mold and injected and pressed all at the same time leaving the edges free and loose to be wrapped around and glued/stapled to the card. See pics below

jeff968

Classic grey is a great color. I had a 968 with classic grey. But the sun does nasty things to it. I have seen the upper panels start to develop small holes as it deteriorates. But my classic grey dash was always perfect.

royalschwarz

I've had great success with SEM color coat to dye interior panels. If done correctly, you don't lose the texture of the vinyl/leather as it's more of a dye and not necessarily a paint. Put next to factory panels, you can't tell the difference between SEM coated ones and OG. As well, it doesn't wear off like paint can. But the biggest problem may be finding it in a close enough shade that matches factory grey. If nothing else, dying the entire interior will alleviate any noticeable color differentiation.