Hi Boys and Girls,

The inner door panels on my truck are in fair condition at best, especially across the top. This upper edge gets the brunt of wear and exposure to the sun. It's been dry and crumbly for a long time, but now I'm starting to see a couple of small cracks.

Has anybody successfully repaired this upper edge? I've seen some guys refinish the entire panel, but there isn't much meat left across the upper edge under the crumbly bits. I'm afraid if I sand off this loose stuff, what's left will be paper thin and will quickly fail.

I'm too cheap to spring for reproduction panels just yet. I'm thinking of some sort of thin pad (or similar) I can loosely attach across the top. Rather than some sort of repair that blends in and is (theoretically) invisible, I'm thinking of something separate that doesn't look too horribly out of place. Any ideas?

i experimented with some thermoform plastic sheet, but I couldn't get it to follow the contours very well so it looked kinda funny. Plus, I'm afraid this plastic may soften on a hot sunny day, so it's probably not the best material choice. Ideally whatever I fabricate can be attached in a removable manner, as I don't want to bond it to the existing panel.

Any thoughts? My latest thought is an upholstered pad, maybe 1/4" thick on a thin sheet metal backer. I could secure it with some strong magnets hidden under the top edge of the door panel.

 

I think anything you come up with is going to look added and more so if you want to make it removable and not look right in my book.

I was going to say knock off the loose powder stuff and put on a few coats of fiber glass rosin to make it strong again.
Could add the glass if you wanted too to make it even stronger.
To add texture back SEM sells a textured spray but mine would not come out of the cans so cant say how it looks.
I have seen posted to use spray on bed liner like you can get in the parts store cheap. Spray that on and it will give texture to the panel before you use SEM paint to color them back to your color.

My door & panels had the powder and I sanded them down and them washed them really good to get the powder off, let dry and painted them, that is when I found the textured did not spray.
I was in a rush to get the truck on the road for a show so they are not great but not bad looking either but I will be replacing them at some point.

Oh mine has some cracks and a missing chunk I used Plastex (powder & rosin you mix) to fill in the cracks and made a form for the missing part and layered it in to build it back up before painting them.
Dave ----

 

Here's what I eventually decided to do. This first shot shows the original condition of the door panels. You can see cracks all the way through:




I made an upholstered pad to cover the damage, and hopefully limit new damage. I cut a strip of thin galvanized sheet metal to fit the top of the door panel. It's not obvious, but the panel width tapers slightly towards the front. The new pad is approximately 2.25" wide at the aft end, tapering to 2" at the front to match. I made several slight bends lengthwise to give the panel a slight arch. The door panel is actually flat across the top, but the pad looked better with a little curve to it. I added a thin layer of foam (1/16" thick") and then wrapped the top with marine vinyl. This view shows the bottom. Note the hole for the door lock button:



To secure the pad to the door panel, I didn't want to use glue or anything permanent in case I decide to make a different (read: less hokey) repair in the future. I taped three powerful disc magnets underneath the top lip of the door panel. The tape is just there to keep the magnets from falling if you were to remove the pad:



Here's an installed view on the passenger side. Note how the hole for the lock button helps index the pad to the door panel, and keep it from shifting:




Is this repair perfect? Not at all. Is it cheap, thoroughly adequate, and doesn't look too bad, especially if you stand way back and squint while wearing dark sunglasses? You betcha. Total cost about $25.

Marine vinyl source, half a yard was plenty. I purchased tan and it was a fairly decent match for my truck's beat-up interior:

https://www.joann.com/marine-vinyl/p...449&quantity=1

EDIT:
Do not use 3M #77. See post #6 for update.

3M #77 spray adhesive:

https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/company-...3242460&rt=rud

 

That's an excellent repair Karl!

The door panel on my Bullnose is flaky and damaged but there are no holes yet. I planned on scuffing it and shooting it with spray paint like Dave mentioned. Make sure you use adhesion promoter available at any auto parts store before painting. I did a similar repair to the lower B pillar covers in my 71 Oldsmobile and the paint ended up peeling because I was cheap and didn't use the adhesion promoter.

 

I think the repair looks perfectly acceptable and is an example of thinking outside of the box!

 

A little update. Do NOT use 3M #77 spray adhesive. When parked in the sun, the truck's interior gets warm enough to soften the adhesive and loosen the bond.

Per page 3 on this chart, #77 is rated for 65C or 149F. I don't think things got quite that warm, but the bond failed:

https://multimedia.3m.com/mws/media/...oduct-info.pdf

Per the same chart, #80 is good for 150C or 302F. If the interior ever gets that hot, I've got bigger things to worry about...

3M #80 is readily available from many sources. I picked up a can at my local Home Depot:

https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/p/d/b40069410/

I also increased the overlap to provide more surface area for the adhesive. I then added a strip of Gorilla tape across the bottom as a back-up to help secure the wrapped edges. Also note the new L-shaped strip of thin metal, secured by the tape. This strip is positioned to hook over the outboard edge of the door panel near the vent window latch and is not visible when installed. This helps keeps the front of the panel from moving side to side. (The aft end is indexed by the door lock button.)