As many of you know, my '14 981 CS has some pretty messed up door panels... with the driver side being the worst of the two. I decided to find a way to fix it myself, at least to an "acceptable" level so that I don't have to look at that horrible gap everytime I go to open my car door.

My first attempt is documented below with great early success. I used high-strength 3M tape in 2-3 inch strips ( ) and took about 45 minutes total. It looks REALLY good as of now, but I have to see if it will stand the test of time. If it doesn't, I'll try some other ideas I have in mind, but I figured I'll give this one a shot since it is easy, cheap and pretty straight forward. The pictures below are self-explanatory!

 

Nice job, that is a huge improvement! It will be interesting to see if the double sided tape will hold up to heat when everything starts expanding.

I wonder if you could drill holes into the backing plate and then use something like fishing wire or maybe something slightly heavier and sow it together? Without seeing it in person it’s hard to see exactly how it all comes together.

 

The double sided tape is quite strong. I called 3M and told them what I was trying to do and this is what their application engineer suggested. Apparently it is very resistant to heat, but I also know the thermal expansion forces will definitely increase in the warmer months, so we will see.

The use of wire to "sew" them together is definitely possible. I have a few things I want to try first until I go to that permanent mechanical fastening route (using wire, metal clips, etc). I'm hoping this works long term or some other bonding agent.

 

Good god that's the worst warping i've seen. Nice improvement!

 

Thanks!

yah it was pretty horrendous -_-

 

Looks great! And I bet that 3M tape will hold well as it is meant for outdoor emblem service in the weather elements. A big improvement!

 

I was thinking a more permanent situation would be epoxy, thought I'm not sure what that would do to the foam lined panel.

 

Nice work! I've also never seen it that bad. Yikes.

Unless you have something like a window regulator go bad, you shouldn't need to remove the door panel but if you do, seems like you'd have to remove and clean up all the tape residue before reapplying it. I wonder how well earth magnets would work...

 

The tape is between the hard plastic "skeleton" of the door panel to the foam lined soft door panel, not directly to the door itself. The tape can stay there for as long as it holds up.

 

Now that sounds like an interesting idea...

 

Jeeze!! That is the most extreme door panel warping out there. Damm!

An auto upholstery shop local to me has done quite a few of these. The driver side door panel on my 2013 981 had lifted about 3/8 inch in the middle when I removed the panel and took it to the shop. They use a urethane adhesive similar to what is used to install windscreens. They rough up both the plastic base and the foam underside before gluing it down under pressure. So far it is much, much better. Not perfect but "acceptable". This is such a black eye on Porsche. I'm amazed they haven't spoken up about what causes this and what they have (or have not) done to correct it.

 

I don't mean this disparagingly, but you must be a newbie to the marque. Porsche ain't exactly famous for sticking up the corporate hand to claim an error.

 

Oh, I'm familiar with the "Porsche Tax" of ownership. I guess it's just that Hope Springs Eternal. (I'm satisfied with my door capping fix never the less...)

 

As they like to say: "Das ist nicht a bug - ist a feature!"

 

Nice job! If the adhesive ever fails on the tape, you could try this 3M product also. Stickiest stuff made on earth. I used it to hold down some stretched leather over the gauge cluster on a Cayman when it came up one time.