door panel restoration

[PC-85-928S]

I want to spruce up my black door panels on my 1985 928S US.
They are in decent shape.
I need to re-glue some vinyl (brush not spray?)
repair some hair line cracks around the arm rest mounting holes. (silicone?)
fix some cracks in the pressed board areas (gorilla glue?)
repair 2 lower mounting holes on pressed board (hmmm)
will post some pics

any advice or suggestions?

I want to replace the plastic that prevents moisture from entering the door.

Has anyone ever used a better material, like dyna mat
I don't think that is waterproof, but could be great for noise

previous owner just drilled some sheet metal screws on the bottom of door panel
(not my style)

[vandenham]

I fixed up the passenger door panel on my 78 928. The pressed board was broken and the leatherette was coming away from the edges. The door was not adjusted properly and difficult to close - I think many passengers had pulled on the door panel so much that it was broken in several places.

Here are some of the things I did to get it fixed:

• used spray adhesive to re-glue leatherette directly to the pressed board
• used gorilla glue to re-attach the leatherette that wraps around to the back of the pressed board. I had a number of squeeze clamps to hold it in place while the glue set up - and slowly worked my way around the whole panel about 8 inches at a time. More clamps would have made it go faster.
• used fibreglass to reinforce areas where the pressed board had been bent/broken. I used two layers of fibreglass cloth to make sure it was stiff again.
• used fibreglass to cover the old holes that held the fasteners. Then I drilled out the holes again so I could install new fasteners.

I cleaned it all up, adjusted the door so it would close properly, put it back on using the correct fasteners (no more screws along the bottom!!) and now it looks like new. The fibreglass was just a kit from the hardware store and quite easy to do.

Rick

[PC-85-928S]

how does the fiberglass work?
this seems like something I would like to try

[vandenham]

I am sure there are experts here that can tell you better, but here is what I know from using a kit.

The fibreglass kit contains fibreglass cloth, fibreglass resin and a hardner. You cut the fibreglass cloth and lay it on the area of the pressed board you wish to repair. Then you mix some fibreglass resin with the hardner. Now take a brush and spread the mixed resin on top of the fibreglass so it is completely covered and soaked through to the pressed board. Take the second sheet of fibreglass and do the same thing.

The trick is that the resin starts to harden up in a few minutes so you have to work quickly to get it spread before it gets too hard to work with. It also ruins the brush and mixing bowl so make sure these are disposable.

The fibreglass hardens up nicely and makes the pressed board quite rigid again. It is also very thin so does not really affect how it attaches back to the door.

[riber.bentsen]

Originally Posted by PC-85-928S

previous owner just drilled some sheet metal screws on the bottom of door panel
(not my style)

That would be Porsche-style, those were factory

[PC-85-928S]

2 factory

they did extra, not pretty