ABS Door Pockets & Square Weave

[Solamar]

My car came with trashed door cards and no door pockets. I know the obvious route would have been RSR style door cards. I'm all about weight saving, but have always felt the 911 door cards and pockets were part of the iconic look.

I briefly searched for used OE door pockets but quickly realized that most never survived the first 20 years. Fiberglass repos are available, but I've heard they sometimes require a fair bit of re-work to fit correctly (and I despise working with fiberglass). I bumped into ABS pockets on Ebay, found the original source and bought a pair.

I chose to re-carpet my 911 with German Square Weave carpet. After doing the floors it was very obvious that the stiff square weave material was going to be a substantial challenge forming around the pocket contours. I PM'd everyone I could find that had square weave on their pockets and got a wide range of techniques/tips. Most involved cutting darts to form the carpet around the corners.

Fortunately Autos International is down the street from me and they were kind enough to show me most of their tips. Primarily, no cuts/darts, just lots of heat, pre-forming, more heat and pressure.



Sand all parts of the ABS that will get glued (I used Dap non-eco friendly contact cement).




Glue just the edges, not the body. Start at the top and align the carpet with the very top to get the correct reveal when you fold over the vinyl.



The corner below, closest to the glue can with the single clip, this is your start point. Important to have this corner perfectly aligned.


With the top glued and clamped, start heating the corners of the carpet and forming it around the pocket corners, NO GLUE at this point. You want the corners to start holding the finished shape by repeated heating and forming.

[Solamar]

Trim the extra carpet to make forming easier. When done the front and bottom flanges will have carpet wrapped around to the inside, but short enough to not be visible from the inside. The back edge gets cut flush with the inner face of the pocket so leave it long for now (this will make sense later).


Now glue the bottom and side edges. I pinned up the front and back corners and started gluing in the bottom middle and worked my way to the corners. I made a 'tool' from a scrap piece of aluminum that I rounded and polished the edges on. That tool wound up being extremely important to work the carpet into the bottom flange and force the shape around the corners.





Next I glued the top vinyl trim






I should have done a better job with the "dry fit" earlier on. Just realized the back edge is too deep and the pocket lid won't cover the pocket. Cut about 1/2" from the back edge of the ABS

[Solamar]

I waited a day for the glue to fully set, then formed the carpet over the bottom flange




I'll let the glue set for another day, then trim the carpet flush at the back edge of the pocket.

So far I'd say It's gone better than I imagined!

[jac1976]

Very nice work.

[WolfeMacleod]

Originally Posted by Solamar

I bumped into ABS pockets on Ebay, found the original source and bought a pair.

I see two possibles. World Upholstery & Trim, and Jorg. Which did you get?

[Solamar]

Originally Posted by WolfeMacleod

I see two possibles. World Upholstery & Trim, and Jorg. Which did you get?

Jorg. Couldnt buy them directly but found a major reseller with a great price.

[Litle brother]

Great work


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[DaveMcKenz]

Beautiful job!!
Thanks,
Dave

[RFP]

Beautiful work, indeed! I too have the ABS door pockets and found them to be absolutely perfect in fit and finish...

[Solamar]

Thanks for all the positive comments!

Finished up the last step this morning. Wanted the glue to fully set up so I could trim the carpet correctly at the back pocket edge (back meaning toward the rear of car). This edge does not have a flange so you want the carpet glued to the thin face sandwiched between the door panel and the pocket, but trimmed so it's not visible from inside the pocket.

I left the carpet a bit long here, but only put glue where it starts to wrap around. After removing the clamps I cut the carpet with a straight edge razor




And done. Now to fabricate new door panels. I'm using a material and technique that I don't believe has been tried before. Should be interesting if nothing else...

[Discseven]

Nice piece of work Sola. Backstitch on trim... beautifully done me thinks!

[Iciclehead]

Nice work, I have mine yet to do. I was going to reinforce some of the key points on the fibreglas as I have had fibreglas crack over time if too thin and figured I would get in early.

I the World Upholstery carpet set to put in, so this is very relevant.

I am going to flock the interior of mine with normal flocking process (slow drying enamel paint with fuzz blown on), I did that on my previous car and the result was a perfect and durable imitation of the mouse fur that we see so commonly. It'll need the fibreglas to be scuffed first of course...

Nice, nice, nice...

Dennis