Guys,

Is there anyway to fix this or do I need to buy a new one?? Is this particular piece removable or will I need to look for a whole new door panel??

 

Mine don't look like this yet, but is there any way to prevent it as well? Like maybe some tiger hair underneath? As far as your situation, you could probably have an upholsterer fashion you a leather piece to match, doing the same tiger hair thing to fix the plastic...

 

Search

 

it is removable by taking off the door panel. You can fix it or buy a new one.

 

Very common problem.
Very fixable.
Need to remove the piece, reinforce the back with fibreglass and have a vinyle repair shop fix it.
When they did mine I couldn't find the section that had been cracked after the repair.
Reinforcement in the back of the cracked section is the critical part of the whole repair.

Rob

 

Awesome - now why didn't I think of that

Jonny

 

Thanks man,

I will pull it off next time I get a chance and get to work on the fiberglass. Did u do your own fiber work and then drop it off at the vinyl repair or did they do everything??

Peace,

Jonny

 

Jonny
What I did was to contact my Local Lexus Dealer and asked them who they used to do their Door vinyle Repairs.
They were very reluctant to give me any information.
Reason being is they did not want to admit that their mechanics ever damage any vinyle when they are doing customers repairs.
The problem with the the piece that is cracked on your car is these units are injection molded with the vinyle on them.
Once they crack like yours has they can't just do a vinyle repair.
They have to glue the injected piece back together, reinforce the back of it to strengthen the area, then repair the vinyle.

The 1st time I had it done they only repaired the vinyle and it cracked again in less than 3 weeks.
That is when I took the unit off and had the vinyle repair guy come out and reinforce the piece and then do the vinyle repairs all over again.

That was 8 months ago and all is still well.

Most of the vinyle repair places that do cars are mobile.
They will come to the car and repair it wherever it is.

Check around 1st and find a goo establishment.
You get what you pay for especially in these kind of repairs.

I watched the person do the vinyle repair and there is a real art to doing it so it is totally invisible.
The art is mixing the vinyle for an exact colour match.

Rob

 

Rob,

Thank you very much for the great reply - it helped a lot!!! I will keep everything in mind that u said. I was going to do the fiberglass work myself to save some $$$

Thx again man,

Jonny

 

I recently went through the process of repairing both door panels and the door window trim. I used 120 grit sandpaper, 5 minute epoxy and popsicle sticks. It took me a few hours to do them all and it is stronger than new now.

What I did was scuff all the cracked areas w/ sandpaper and clean with alcohol. I then cut pieces of the popsicle sticks to the size I needed as reinforcement. I laid a bed of epoxy and placed the sticks in and then covered the stick with epoxy. Waited a few minutes for the epoxy to harden and then move on to the next area. I was very careful to line up the cracked edges very evenly and in a few places I used masking tape on the finished side to keep it lined up properly while the epoxy dried. I was totally amazed at how good it looked afterwards. I couldn't even tell it was cracked except for a few places (they were my first fixed areas). I decided not to even bother with having a vinyl repair guy fix it perfectly as no one notices unless I point it out.

Go to work on that panel!

 

I'm not sure if your trying to mock my suggestion to search. I searched for 3 effortless minutes and found a solution to your problem..

Click here

 

Pics man, plllllease!!! I gotta see this work. Very impressive.

Thx man,

jonny

 

Here they are. I don't have any of the backside.

 

Damn man,

I can't even tell where the problems were to begin with - awesome job man!!

Peace,

Jonny