Who has had there door panels redone?Mine are in good shape but that crapy fabric has to go.Looking for ideas,pictures?

I had the cloth replaced on the door panels on my Æ97 as the original was worn completely through. Cost me $30 each plus material which to my utter horror was like $55/yard for 2 yards of "Toyota" seat material. Even at that price the guy couldnÆt get the exact match so got something slightly off color but not noticeable. The metal panel with the fabric was held on to the rest of the door panel by tabs coming out of the plastic part of the panel that are melted and pressed flat like a rivet. The guy cut these off, pulled off the old cloth, sprayed adhesive (contact cement type)all over the metal panel, laid the new cloth on it and then cut off the excess û must have took all of 5 minutes. He then put metal screws through this panel back into the rest of the door to hold it back on. Each screw made a small but noticeable white spot on the door panel plastic where it almost came through, one even did slightly before he backed it off a turn or so.

All in all, it still looked 100% better but for what I ended up paying, I expected a lot more.

Pics?

I also did mine. Got an upholstery shop to order from Toyota the original cloth seat fabric. Looks great. I put it on myself as was mentioned before with the spray-on adhesive. Looked great.

It is wearing again, so I am thinking about putting leather on this time. Toyota really was stupid for putting that material on a door panel that gets so much wear. Other than that I love my T-100.

Hope you get it done as it will look great when finished.

I will take a pic later this day and will post for you. My color is light blue.

Brad

I took some pictures of my door panels but am clueless how to post them. (anybody???) I pulled one of the panels off to get a shot of the back side, the part with the fabric glued on is plastic also, not metal as stated before (it's been a year, I forgot). I turned one of the screws out that was used to reattached the panel, it was 1/2" long with a washer. I would go slightly shorter than this or use multiple washers to keep the screws from marring the lower door panel like happened to mine.

Pulling these door panels off only takes a minute. On my '97, there are two round caps with screws behind them torwards the front (pry these caps off with small screwdriver), a screw in the door handle plastic piece, a screw in the plastic grab area in the center of the door, and three screw like fasteners at the bottom.(loosen them couple of turns and they will pop out when door panel comes off). The eletronic door/window controls have a snap in the front (pry up gently to unsnap) and then pull forward, wireing unplugs. Start unsnapping the door panel from the front and go around torwards the back. It's easy and you can replace the blown out front speakers at the same time.

If this comes up again, I would definately do it myself this time - a little extra care and attention to detail make all the difference not to mention saving some $$$.

Pix--must be webhosted; www.photobucket.com or imageshack.com are free. Also read our FAQ above in the header for formatting size. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

Nice writeup BTW.

Of if you like, you can just send the pics to me at jericson -at- tds -dot- net

I'll host them on Photobucket and post them for you. Either way, we need some pics. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Joel

OK, see if this works OK:
Drivers Side, Right above speaker and 2 other places along thin strip below cloth you can see white dots where screws used to re-attach almost came through - totally unnecessary.


Passenger Side: poor job pulling the material tight when glued



Back side:

Sorry, previous post got saved before I wanted.

Back Side: Can see where the original plastic tabs were melted to hold panel on. Was re-attached with 2 screws in front and 3 on bottom - 1/2" screws with washers which were just a bit too long.


All in all, not really a great job but 100% better than before where cloth had worn completely through. It's been on a year with no apperent wear or additional ripples from failing glue. I think most anybody can do this themselves but prepare to be shocked at the price of matching Toyota cloth.

Heres how I experimented with mine:





The fabric that I used doesnt stretch very much so I had to cut it in sections and sew it back together. As you can see, it is starting to come off (had it for about a year). I just used the upholstery glue in a spray can. I am planning to modify the panel to make it less complex, so it will be easier to mount the fabric and hold up well.


Theres a couple of T100s with a custom interior on cardomain.com