alright here we go. i read a DIY on this once before. it was for the "reccaro red jersy material" and it was PRE CUT to the shape of our inserts. in my opinion it came out DECENT, so no hate to the op of that thread, but this way seems to be more dead on. in that post the op did NOT even remove his card from the door. therefore making my process completely impossible and different than his.

TOOLS:
interior trim tool
philips screw driver
xacto knife
sissor
Hi-Tac 76 3M adhesive
2 yards of red "suede" (leaves room for error (purchased from Jo-Ann's fabric supply in my case))
masking tape
butter knife (a clean one lol)


in this post you will NOT pre cut anything at all.

first start by removing your door card. im sure you all know how to do this. once you do this you'll have a bare naked door card in your lap.
now flip it over to the back side and break the "plastic welded bond" off of the two tabs that hold the edge of the piece adjacent to the door insert. these two tabs are circled in the picture below. once those have been severed, you can pop the two tabs inward and the whole piece will lift up on one side on the front of your door card. the tabs i'm referring to have the arrow pointing to them in the photo.



now with those tabs separated and popped out only one half of this piece should be held to the door still, looking like this on the front of the card:



now proceed to mask off with tape the entire outside of the door insert. covering all black plastic to be sure not to get glue on it later when you spray it.
the masked off door insert should look like this:


(don't mind my foot, i was in my PJs :gheywa

now spray a generous but even coat of your 3M adhesive.
i unfortunately spaced out on this step and did not photograph it, but it is easy to do so don't freak out that you have no photo to compare to. similar to painting, just a generous, even, coating. and BE SURE TO GET IT INTO THE CREASE ALL THE WAY AROUND THE CARD SO YOUR EDGES WILL STAY IN ONCE YOU TUCK AND CUT AWAY THE EXCESS. DO NOT get it on the plastic of the door card because it is a bitch to get off and you don't want to get any goof off or anything on your suede. the 3M adhesive i used recommends spraying both pieces of material. ie; the suede and your door card. but trying to do so leads to complications later on, so try if you wish, but i did not do so.

now apply your fabric and smooth it out to have no wrinkles or air bubbles. once its smoothed out completely, go around the edges where there is a crease into the door card with your butter knife. the applied fabric and tucked material should look like this at this point:



let adhesive dry. leave extra fabric where the arrow points because this part will be behind your plastic piece once its secured with the tabs afterwards on the inside. be sure to use your head when trimming and tucking and account for the contours that wont work with just tucking..

be sure to have a steady even line when cutting the bottom part of the fabric, as there is nothing to tuck down there and it just requires a a good steady hand to cut it straight. if you didn't use enough adhesive it will lift later on! so be sure to get a good coating on there!

now once you trim everything with your xacto knife it should look like this:


(theres that damn foot again:mrolleyes

now flip your card over and press the two tabs back into place and it will hold securely. i promise. if you are parinoid of it for SOME reason popping out, you can "plastic weld" by melting the plastic with a sottering iron. now, if you feel comfortable with doing this, you can remove the entire arm rest part of the door card in this manner, and "weld" it back together after doing all of this. thats up to you, i personally did NOT feel comfortable doing this, and my inserts came out perfect. its up to you

in case you're too lazy to scroll up, here is another photo of the two tabs that i'm referring to. they have the arrow pointing to them:



now re insert your door card into your door and enjoy your fly *** fresh JDM look yo.

and yes i also find it funny that i did the DIY on the drivers side, and photographed the passenger. but they both look awesome!



something else to consider while doing this DIY:

do your door handle pieces black (DIY somewhere on this site), as you can see mine is a little worn in the photo above. i truly hope this helps and was comprehensive enough for you guys, if you have ANY questions at all feel free to comment on here and i'll be sure to answer the question for you. this was my first interior upholstery job, and it came out great! i wouldn't hate seeing someone do a different color, like maroon or dark blue! let me know what you think of my write up and final product!

 

Good write up and final product looks great!


The pics are a little rough though lol

 

ahaha i knowww im sorry i just dont have a camera anymore so i had to use my shitty 9th grade side kick lx phone lol

 

cheers mate on the DIY !!! Im interested in doing it, just one question, when you took off the original inserts, did you sand down for a better grip for the adhesive, or you sprayed a generous amount ??

cheer man will show you mine when its ready