Door Card Covering

[Welly]

Hi all,
Its got to that time where the missus wants some texture to the door cards we have, they are just 3mm ply all round at the moment. Im thinking of buying some vinyl from somewhere and gluing to our existing cards but would like a bit of texture / foam feel to it. I am thinking I could get some thin foam and glue it to the card and then stretch the vinyl around the foam and card then glue at the other side???? Does this sound about right or am I way off track?, has anyone done this already that can point me in the right direction, don't really want to fork out £450 for full door cards if I can do a little myself.

Cheers.

 

[Webbaldo]

Just done similar

I bought pre made plywood cards and did the rest. If your existing cards are ok, just reuse the plywood

Take a rough size of vinyl, 2 inch overlap all round the doorcard, get some 6mm foam (same size as vinyl) and spray glue the vinyl onto the foam.

You don't have to but I ran it through the sewing machine 5 times to get the lines, plenty of youtube guides on how to do this. The thread, clamps the foam down, giving the ridge look.

Then spray glue (use high temp, like trimfix) foam side to door card, smoothing out.

Turn round, and peel away/cut the FOAM only from the edge of the door card, leaving only the 2 inch vinyl flap. This is important as if you tried to staple the foam and vinyl to the back it would be to thick and look crap.

Turn back over and using 4mm staples, pull and staple all way round, being careful with corners. Make cuts for corners where necessary to get a smooth bend. I never bothered with glue at this point, some do.

Then cut out the holes (if any) and staple the spare back.

One thing, the premade doorcards had holes for VW clips, I'm just ignoring these and using stainless screws/cup washers to fit.

Hope this helps.

Works for other cards as well, this pic looks crap but all cards have the matching ridges

 

[Welly]

Just done similar

I bought pre made plywood cards and did the rest. If your existing cards are ok, just reuse the plywood

Take a rough size of vinyl, 2 inch overlap all round the doorcard, get some 6mm foam (same size as vinyl) and spray glue the vinyl onto the foam.

You don't have to but I ran it through the sewing machine 5 times to get the lines, plenty of youtube guides on how to do this. The thread, clamps the foam down, giving the ridge look.

Then spray glue (use high temp, like trimfix) foam side to door card, smoothing out.

Turn round, and peel away/cut the FOAM only from the edge of the door card, leaving only the 2 inch vinyl flap. This is important as if you tried to staple the foam and vinyl to the back it would be to thick and look crap.

Turn back over and using 4mm staples, pull and staple all way round, being careful with corners. Make cuts for corners where necessary to get a smooth bend. I never bothered with glue at this point, some do.

Then cut out the holes (if any) and staple the spare back.

One thing, the premade doorcards had holes for VW clips, I'm just ignoring these and using stainless screws/cup washers to fit.

Hope this helps.

Works for other cards as well, this pic looks crap but all cards have the matching ridges

This is fantastic, many thanks for this. I am thinking of trying it on the rear hatch panel first as a tester, where did you source the foam from?, I have looked and found 6.3mm foam on e bay but it is asking what density I want /soft/med/hard, might have to have a think on that. Yours look great by the way.

Thanks again.

 

[arryhancock]

Iv done mine ordered the 3mm foam online didnt ask what density but it is soft to compress, glued and stapled the vinyl on , iv used black from dunelm the thinnest i could find and it stretches well

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

 

[Zcat7]

I looked at doing this but due to being time-poor I ended up buying finished panels. One thing I remember finding out is that you ideally should buy scrim-backed foam as this helps stop the stitches from pulling through the unprotected foam (and hence keeps the detail lines sharp). Looking at the material that my door cards came with, the vinyl already has about 2mm of scrim-backed foam bonded to it so maybe you can source some of that stuff from the off?

 

[Zcat7]

Lovely job by the way Webbaldo!

 

[kevinhall]

Good job Webbaldo, hoping I can get the lines on mine that good

Scrim foam like this from Woolies is the sort of stuff you want I think Welly
http://www.woolies-trim.co.uk/p-1562-scrim-foam.aspx

 

[purpledog07]

Good advice. You can definitely do it yourself, I made hide leather covered cards in similar fashion with no experience in trimming. No staples, just high temp brush on upholstery adhesive that has lasted 5 years so far. The leather is only glued on the back where its folded over and the foam is glued to the board. I wish i had spray glued and stitched lines though as this does give a nicer, firmer finish. More recently I recovered the front seats with vinyl leather and pleated in the same places as the original and they came out great, not perfect but close and much more comfortable. I kept an old door card cover so may get round to redoing the door cards all round one day.
I got proper auto vinyl (hard wearing and resistant to mould etc and leather hides from www.martrim.co.uk (coach trimmers and suppliers) somewhere oop narth. Leather is the expensive way to go or vinyl is very cheap and its hard to tell with the eye. I went for vinyl on the seats after seeing the leather get scuffed and damaged so easily. If you use your bus vinyl is a good option.
good luck whatever you do

 

[Welly]

Thanks all for the advice, I have just ordered vinyl and foam to be delivered this week so fingers crossed I may have something to show for it next week.

Cheers