markmaz

Although I am a relatively new SC300 owner, I believe that
there is a "design" problem with the upper most part of the
door, close to the window, which causes the vinyl to tear
because the panel separates when one is crusing in their
car with the window down, and their arm on the top part
of the door.

Has anyone else experienced this tear in their vinyl? If so,
without replacing the whole panel, how did you repair or
cover the tear?

We paid some so called "expert" $200 and told him to take
the door panel off and reinforce the part underneath which
had broken in two, thus causing the rip in the vinyl. Well, it
looked half-way decent for about 3 weeks, and eventhough
my wife is the primary driver of our SC, and I doubt she drives
too often with her arm resting on the top of the door, the darn
thing has begun to tear again.

I'm thinking about doing some interior pinstriping or getting
some of that reflective silver or gold (gold might look better
with the beige interior) and cutting a piece to cover the tear.
I would then cut the same size piece and do the same for the
passenger side door. Or, was thinking about getting a custom
SC300 or Lexus sticker made. Shoot, it doesn't have to be
any bigger than 1" high and 1" long to cover the darn spot.

So, what do you guys think, and what have you done to correct
or hide yet another Lexus design flaw in this $40K+ car.

MarkMaz in Atlanta

Taka

I'm not sure if it's related to your topic but links for "How to fix the split in the door trim"
http://www.hotkey.net.au/~cheets/soa...im_problem.htm

I remember there is thread with picture of fixing tear in vinyl, can't find the link

CmputerWiz

The passenger side of my car has that same problem. I just noticed it last week

To buy the new pieces from the dealership is about $225 per door, and then you could resupport the back of it with something before you put it on the car... I bet carson toyota or whatever that place is could likely get that part to us for cheaper.

SR

The Ikon

Taka, found that link yet?

DA51

I repaired my door panel with ABS cement. First you have to take off the large bottom panel, then the top surround panel.
The area at the vent breaks, at least on mine. I used strips of fliberglas and pushed it into the ABS cement on the backside.
I bought a Permatec vinyl repair kit ($6) from Walmart.
Matching the color is an art.
You have to use a HOT iron to cure the paint.

DA51

The filler is actually a glue, then the color is laid on top.
As I said, matching the color is most difficult.

mikeloc24

PerryinLA also did a thread on repairing the cracked window sills, do a search and see how he fixed it.

AaronE

I just did a preemptive strike on mine this weekend. The plastic underneath had finally cracked all the way in half and was starting to push hard on the leather, so I got in there armed with super glue, JB Weld, and a smal block of wood. First I glued the two halves of the plastic together. Then I cut the wood to the right length and made it have a triangular cross section. Finally I slathered a liberal amount of JB Weld on all but one face of the wood and pushed it in there. Seems sturdy so far.

I did wet the leather at the crack and then applied a hair dryer to shrink the leather back (it had gotten stretched by virtue of the split in the underlying plastic). It's not perfect, but it'll do, and it won't get any worse...

I recommend everyone check their door sills ASAP before the leather starts tearing. I noticed that I have TWO cracks on my passenger side. Simply push around the top and see if a line forms in the leather...

-Aaron

CK6Speed

iTrader: (1)

That probably is the first mistake people make. Well, I can't say it is a mistake but a style that causes damage. I personally never rest my arm on that part of the door but only on the arm rest. Unfortunately, I bought my car used so I did have a crack in that panel but fortunately it did not tear through the vinyl yet. What I did was take that trim off, peel back the vinyl from that area on the door, repaired the crack in the plastic with a plastic welder (Basically it is like a soldering iron with different plastic filler rods), the stuck the vinyl back on using 3M spray adhesive. It is good as new. What I did not do yet but you should do is reinforce the area so it doesn't crack again. I didn't have the right materials so I'll save that for a latter project.