I totally MacGyver'd my old door panels today… and it worked!

[kingkida]

My floppy, beat up old houndstooth Ranger panels on my 75 Bronco were looking like crap for years. All the "professionals" I took them to said they were unrepairable, saying that the clips would no longer hold in the old, deteriorating backing. I bit the bullet and purchased new ones, but when I opened them, I wasn't happy with quality of the reproduction, so I decided to try to fix my old ones myself.

I used Gorilla tape on the back to secure all the busted up parts, and a lot of velcro tape around the edges to help secure it to the door. Thirty bucks and three hours later, they look like NEW. I'm so happy I could spit. I'll post some pics tomorrow for posterity.

 

[DirtDonk]

Well? It's most likely tommorrow somewhere! Post up those pics!
I'm sure a lot of us would be interested to see a nice simple fix like this. I'm sure some of the old panels are beyond repair, but a fair number are probably just mildly torn and maybe warped, but fixable.

Congrats on just going for it. And speaking of warped... Were yours still fairly flat? I see you're in CA and in a relatively dry part, but I've seen plenty even in the desert that finally just could no longer stay flat.
Can't wait to see how yours faired.

Paul

 

[sprdv1]

lol, glad you got it worked out.. $30 ain't too bad

 

[half cab]

Splits ain't good around here especially if Bax is around!

 

[motoman]

The suspense is killing me!!!

 

[kingkida]

I'll post some pics tomorrow. Got caught up in work. As far as the original condition of them, they were warped, the houndstooth part became unhinged from the cardboard backing, and most of the divots for the clips were unusable. I'm telling you, Gorilla Tape works like magic. Again, I'll post pics tomorrow.

 

[kingkida]

I did however buy new door cups, which really helped spruce up the look.

 

[kingkida]

There ya go. These were deemed unfixable by local upholsters. Apparently, they never watched MacGyver.

 

[kingkida]

The black armrest and door cup are not stock color (they were originally brown, which I couldn't find anywhere) but I actually like this look. My wife thinks they are "edgy." ha.

 

[broncodriver99]

Wow. Those turned out great.

 

[gnsteam]

Those do look good. Got any before pic's?

 

[DirtDonk]

Yeah, very smooth.
If you decide to go back to the Brown color, you can use vinyl paint (upholstery paint?) to color match them. Those I've seen have come out very well and the color seems to last a long time.
Shops do it all the time from what I hear.

Does look good in black though.

Paul

 

[half cab]

Agree they look real good!

 

[broncojo]

Yea nice job.

 

[markperry]

They look brand new....Nice!

 

[Rox Crusher]

The black armrest and door cup are not stock color (they were originally brown, which I couldn't find anywhere) but I actually like this look. My wife thinks they are "edgy." ha.

As long as she doesn't start saying "those really pop"

Lol

 

[Rox Crusher]

Nice job on the door panels.

This thread has a really great theme to it.........should be a Macgyver thread for similar fixes

 

[blamejane]

No wonder you're thrilled, those do look great!

 

[Dan's73]

Did the same thing a few years ago, same houndstooth vinyl too....very nice feeling doing something others told ya couldn't be done, huh?

 

[707Bronk]

When you said you McGuyvered them, I was hoping it wouldn't turn out to be McGrubered.

But, those look GREAT! And they said it couldn't be done...