pooby1992

I have a '98 CX that I just picked up and the drivers door panel has the typical collapsed plastic under the upper portion of the panel. I took it off and discovered the previous owner had already tried to fix it with about 10 pounds of goop slathered all over it. It's pretty much unrepairable now.

I bought a pair of panels that are only just beginning to crack, but still intact. If I can somehow reinforce the plastic these could be better than new. I tried searching and the only threads I found were old and pics didn't work. I figure I only have one shot at fixing these. I could paint some kind of epoxy on them, but first I want to research what others have done. I want to fix these, install them, and never have to worry about them disintegrating under the vinyl.

Anyone have a specific product that works with pics, or a link to a good thread?


Thanks!

tony_2018

Search....Its been discussed

pooby1992

I searched "EK door panel" and got a list of threads that have nothing to do with EK door panels, lol.

"EK door panel repair" turns up a list of EG, Del Sol, and CRX door panel threads.

Norlael

the search function on this site has a lot to be desired. I find it helps to go to google and type something like "ek door panel repair honda-tech" returns alot more useful results.

the problem with this site is it will return every result with "ek" in it then every result with "door" etc..

pooby1992

I tried that too. Guess what is at the top of the list? THIS thread. Everything else I can find is either not this topic or links to a thread with old pics that don't work.

I guess I can just fiberglass the hell out of them. I was just hoping someone had figured out the perfect way to fix these. I don't want to try something and have it fall apart. Once the plastic starts to disintegrate I'm pretty much screwed.

tony_2018

I was part of a discussion about fixing these door panels, so I know its here.

purgat0ry

iTrader: (3)

put the following into google
'site: https://honda-tech.com' followed by the text you wish to search on.

90si-rex

I'm doing exactly the same repair right now, and my plan was to use some kind of fiberglass resin to strengthen the replacement armrests. I think Bondo makes a fiberglass resin repair kit that comes with pretty much everything needed for this type of repair.

lostforawhile

put some pictures up so I can see exactly what you are dealing with. I may have some ideas

Marvin1985

iTrader: (5)

Are people slamming your doors that hard? Use some metal mesh and resin I guess on the back

sidewayz2013

Or visit a junkyard. Coupe ones are similar, I think.

90si-rex

This is what I did, and the replacements still need to be reinforced, which makes sense when you think about the fact that my broken ones are 14 years old, and the replacements out of the junkyard donor are also 14 years old...

sidewayz2013

Lol good point. Usually when I go, I find stuff that hasn't quite broken yet. And at what points on the panel were you planning to reinforce?

90si-rex

My panels are good, not sure about the OP's though. I'm reinforcing the armrests in the door panels. And redoing the upholstery on them while I'm at it. At some point before I owned the car it looks like someone put an elbow through top of the armrest near the controls for the window. Grabbed a set of complete panels with the plan to just replace the whole thing, but they were in worse shape than I thought, but the armrests were good, so my plans changed a little...

94 accord typeR

i asked this question once and was told to re-upholster them. i really like the OEM look and just strengthened the arm rest portion. use DOW Great Stuff Door And Window Foam (google search). the regular foam will bow and misshape wood window frames . this was done about 6 months ago and is still holding strong. i can place me whole body weight on the arm rest and it wont budge (of course if haven't tried to break it)

sidewayz2013

Maybe its a coupe and hatch thing... My sedan panels were fine, til I decided to wrap one in vinyl, and promptly dun fucked it up. But that's the only thing I've seen wrong on door panels.
I never really look at the coupes or hatches when I'm at the yard for door panels. On my build thread I've detailed what I'm doing to my set of 4. I should update my sig lol...

90si-rex

Interesting idea...I'm assuming you just spray it in and let it cure?

pooby1992

It was damaged when I bought it. I've seen this plenty of times before but I've never damaged a panel myself.

I called junkyards and got laughed at. I was told they get calls for late 90s Civic door panels daily. I live in Arizona and I imagine the hot weather is harder on interior plastics, but door panels disintegrating like this is not normal.

Here's some pics.

I removed the damaged panel from my car to discover this: apparently someone already had the idea to fix it with some sort of glue. The problem is the plastic was already so busted up they just fixed it in the damaged condition.




This is what it looks like from the front. It is much more obvious in person than in pics, but you can see how the vinyl looks all bumpy. The vinyl is also peeling off at the top where the plastic is cracking into small pieces and also where it is harder to get into to fix it.




This is one of the "good" panels I picked up. You can see where it is already cracking along the top and someone has already put some glue on it, to no avail.




Right now the plan is to use my hopelessly busted panel to experiment on to find something I'm happy with.

This will be my first trial: Some extra strong plastic epoxy with fiberglass sheets.

pooby1992

Interesting idea. Did you just use a knife to trim it after it dried? I don't suppose you took any pics of your work?

lostforawhile

you need to take the panel and strip all the vinyl off first, then you reinforce all the plastic from behind with fiberglass matt, before recovering, i used spray adhesive to cover the inside with matt first, then soaked it with resin, We have the same issue on third generation accords, with the panels at the top of the doors. There are some really nice looking imitation vinyls online, you can use to rewrap it. Don't buy the cheap junk at walmart etc, it's far too thick for this kind of work, as you need to stretch it

pooby1992

I attempted peeling the vinyl off the bad panel. The problem is, where the panel is cracked, the vinyl is the only thing holding the broken pieces together and pulling on the vinyl is causing uncracked areas to crack. If I had a perfect panel and was just trying to reinforce it as a preventative measure that would make sense, but with what I'm dealing with I think it may ruin a salvageable piece.

lostforawhile

you can reinforce it from behind first, I say to use matt instead of cloth because you don't end up with bubbles, folds etc, adhesive the matt in there to the back side of the plastic, soak it with resin with a paintbrush, and let it cure, then you can peel your vinyl.

pooby1992

Thanks for the info.

So, you use regular fiberglass resin? It adheres well to the plastic?

90si-rex

I'll be able to let you know tomorrow if and how well it works. I picked up my fiberglass repair kit the other day and plan on fiberglassing it tomorrow.

lostforawhile

it is plastic, the surface needs to be clean, but mine adhered well and that was years ago