Hey people, As everyones does my targa interior cover pealed back and looked crappy so i decided to recover that and then that looked just as bad without the roof done and then basically that turned into me fully retrimming my interior. I have everything basically done apart from the doors and the seats however i think i might get the seats done professionally cause i reckon that would me a major pita, but im willing to give the doors a go, so has anyone had any experience covering the door trims that can give me some advice?
maybe a tech article has been written or could be? - this is something im very interested in too.. Thanks!
I finally decided to give it a go myself now that I have a bit of spare time drivers side was the first one to be covered, Its really not as hard as it seems, although quite obviously it depends on what you want to cover it in, I just used vinyl to replace the existing vinyl, and i used like a faux fur type stuff to replace the tweed, I also used a contact adhesive from bunnings called parfix ot something like that anyway, about $12 for 500ml, I found that with the vinyl the best advice that I can give is dont use too much glue in 1 area as it will stay built up and you may see it as a bulge or a bubble through the vinyl, what I did was I removed the window scraper thing what ever you would like to call it and I placed the vinyl under that first and replaced it on there so it sandwiched between the 2 pieces, then i brushed the glue onto the 2 pieces and let it dry to a non tacky state as per the instructions, and then starting at the middle of the door I started rubbing the vinyl down with my hand while using my other hand to make sure that it didnt stick in the wrong spot. when i got to the back "b pillar" end of the door i cracked out the heat gun and warmed up the vinyl so that it is more pliable and it molded to the curves alot easier,and when I got right to the edge I tucked it under and making sure that it was tight I stapled it and cut off the excess, then I moved onto the front part of the door, same deal, I heated up the vinyl and as I started to lay it onto the door I started by running my thumb into the creases that follow the shape of the door and then stuck the rest of it down working from the crease out and stretching it sliightly as I stuck it down. When I got to the edge where the little screw hole that is indented into the door is I heated it again just to make sure that it was at its most pliable state and pressed my thumb onto the vinyl and into the hole then once that stuck i stuck the rest of the vinyl around that down, Then you can use a knife or scissors to trim it to the shape of the vinyl on the door leaving about 5mm over the edge of where the little groove is and you can also cut slits into the vinyl that is covering the air duct hole and the hole for the window controls and then push the vinyl around the edge and staple it on the back, then I used a rounded blunt piece of plastic to push the vinyl into the groove and thats it, then basically the same principal for the bottom piece of vinyl around the speaker, I used the heat gun to heat up the vinyl so that I could stretch it around the bottom corner of the door card so that it wouldnt wrinkle up. Now this is the main reason that I picked fur for the replacement for the tweed, and that is because you can lay that over the top and because it doesnt really have a definate edge it has the ability to cover up things, like for instance where I tucked in the vinyl into the groove, some parts of that wouldnt stay tucked in so I layed the fur over it and tucked that into the groove as well and you cant even notice it, basically when you are covering the tweed you need alot more glue because the tweed itself soaks up alot of glue, also because it is porous you can apply the glue and then cover it straight away rather than applying it to both surfaces and waiting for it to be touch dry. I think they turned out rather nicely well the drivers one is the only one that I have completed so far because I didnt expect to use so much glue on the tweed, so I need to buy more and then hopefully tomorrow I will have no more door trims sitting in the garage. If you want pics I can organise that, unfortunately I dont have a step by step guide of pics, only the finished product.
Owen, thanks for taking the time to write that up. However, please understand that it is very difficult and annoying to read. I understand that not everyone's English skills are perfect, but knowing when to use a full stop, paragraphs and general grammar would be a great help to anyone trying to follow your excellent guidelines. Please don't take this as an insult, just some advice. Elie
And good advice it is... hey Owen post up some pics mate! Did the sections that covered the Tweed look expanded or larger due to the Tweed being still on there?
I hope you don't mind - I'm redoing my interior and wanted some tips I hope you don't mind the subtle edit. I'm doing my interior trimming and needed some good tips. I had to do a subtle edit so I could read this a little easier. Cheers, Pete I finally decided to give it a go myself now that I have a bit of spare time drivers side was the first one to be covered. Its really not as hard as it seems, although quite obviously it depends on what you want to cover it in. I just used vinyl to replace the existing vinyl and I used like a faux fur type stuff to replace the tweed. I also used a contact adhesive from bunnings called parfix ot something like that anyway, about $12 for 500ml. I found that with the vinyl the best advice that I can give is dont use too much glue in 1 area as it will stay built up and you may see it as a bulge or a bubble through the vinyl. What I did was I removed the window scraper thing what ever you would like to call it and I placed the vinyl under that first and replaced it on there so it sandwiched between the 2 pieces. I then brushed the glue onto the 2 pieces and let it dry to a non tacky state as per the instructions and then starting at the middle of the door. I started rubbing the vinyl down with my hand while using my other hand to make sure that it didnt stick in the wrong spot. When I got to the back "b pillar" end of the door I cracked out the heat gun and warmed up the vinyl so that it is more pliable. It molded to the curves a lot easier and when I got right to the edge I tucked it under and making sure that it was tight. I then tapled it and cut off the excess, then I moved onto the front part of the door, same deal. I heated up the vinyl and as I started to lay it onto the door. I started by running my thumb into the creases that follow the shape of the door and then stuck the rest of it down working from the crease out and stretching it sliightly as I stuck it down. When I got to the edge where the little screw hole that is indented into the door is I heated it again just to make sure that it was at its most pliable state and pressed my thumb onto the vinyl and into the hole then once that stuck I stuck the rest of the vinyl around that down. Then you can use a knife or scissors to trim it to the shape of the vinyl on the door leaving about 5mm over the edge of where the little groove is located. You can also cut slits into the vinyl that is covering the air duct hole and the hole for the window controls and then push the vinyl around the edge and staple it on the back. Then I used a rounded blunt piece of plastic to push the vinyl into the groove and thats it. Then basically the same principal for the bottom piece of vinyl around the speaker. I used the heat gun to heat up the vinyl so that I could stretch it around the bottom corner of the door card so that it wouldnt wrinkle up. The main reason I picked fur for the replacement for the tweed is because you can lay that over the top. It doesnt really have a definate edge it but has the ability to cover up things for instance, where I tucked in the vinyl into the groove, some parts of that wouldnt stay tucked in so I layed the fur over it and tucked that into the groove. You cant even notice it, basically when you are covering the tweed you need alot more glue because the tweed itself soaks up alot of glue, also because it is porous you can apply the glue and then cover it straight away rather than applying it to both surfaces and waiting for it to be touch dry. I think they turned out rather nicely well the drivers one is the only one that I have completed so far because I didnt expect to use so much glue on the tweed, so I need to buy more and then hopefully tomorrow I will have no more door trims sitting in the garage. If you want pics I can organise that, unfortunately I dont have a step by step guide of pics, only the finished product.
Thankyou Cool300ZX for editing this as I was kind of in a rush before I forgot the steps that I took then didnt think to fix it before posting. Also, to add if you can avoid it dont place the vinyl down and then lift it off to place it back down again as I noticed that the glue formed little lumps from where it came unstuck and that as I found out the hard way shows up through the vinyl so now what i have to so it unstick the vinyl and remove the glue and start again, or just not look over at the passenger side which is probably what I will do for now atleast. They probably did but it isnt really noticeable as it is only really the thickness of the fabric used to cover it that would make it thicker, but I think it still makes more sense to leave the tweed on unless its already falling off, simply because underneath the tweed is 20 year old foam and then when you dig into that you have to replace that and then it just becomes a PITA and the fur that I used seemed to stick really well to the tweed. Finished Drivers side Passenger side just needing fur and reassembly Just incase there was any confusion, this is what I was talking about when I said making slits in the vinyl to curve it around the back The interior is coming along nicely, alot of work but atleast I can appreciate that I have done it all myself in the end. Just some more pics of the interior if anyone is interested. Dash Roof Behind the seats Boot Pretty much all of the plastics around the boot were sprayed with 3M vinyl spray, which while they recommend that for these plastics and say that it wont chip off, its all lies, it still chips. But im going to eventually when I can afford it pull them all back out and invest in a sewing machine so that I can sew up some seams cause the vinyl doesnt like going around such tight corners even when heated. Might have a go at the seats too.
Looks like the abominable snowmans car :rofl:. No seriously it looks like a lot of hard work and I cant wait to see the end result.
Good on ya for having a go. Its starting to look good. I'm not a big fan of the fluffy stuff, sorry. Bit like Murci and the stealth zed, learning as you go, and the pride knowing you have done it your self. When you are doing these jobe you have to be your own worst critic, by picking holes in the job and correcting it. The vinyl should be easy to clean, but the fluffy stuff will be a lot harder. Keep an eye on the fur as sun can fade/change colour possibly yellow the white in places over time.
Well done! ...you've put a lot of work into that mate, well done! Makes me think about redoing mine now that I know you can go straight over the top of the exsisting Tweed! Looking forward to the end result.
I know being my own worst critic sucks cause now i have to do the whole passenger door, I would say that I stretched it too much and overnight with the cool it shrunk and started pulling out of all the corners Yeah I was told by several people that it turns yellow, only after I started putting it all in, but its alright if that starts to happen I will probably pull it all out and redo it again, you know how Z mods go, they are never finished cause once you complete something your like, alright now I want something else to do. depending upon what you are putting over the top if it you may need alot of glue like I said before, as the tweed really soaks up the glue, if your putting vinyl on it there is some in places like spotlight, called zephyr vinyl, it has a material/mesh backing, it seems to stick alright with the glue that I have used.
