Got bored of looking at my ugly door panel fabric, so I decided to do something about it.

Much thanks to 151 Proof for writing the original, I followed it almost step by step and decided to take some clear shots and show how I did it, with a couple changes.

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=473878

I have a DX, so manual window cranks and no pocket, plus the armrest part only has a tiny pocket, so no electronics, and no tweeters. Much simpler.

Project only cost me about $22, so no biggy. Bought the crap during the day and did it at night, as most of my DIY projects turn out. Depending on how you work, you'll need pretty much ONLY a phillips screwdriver, flat head screwdriver, and 3 things you must purchase or already own.


fabric store I went to had 3m adhesive spray, so i bought a can. tested out on an old box to get the feel of it. Kinda like silly string. it will squirt of some foamy adhesive in a straight line up and down, so get ready to move it around whenever you use it.



fabric. YUMMY. I knew I wanted red, so asked some little old lady at the store what kind of options I had. This stuff (some weird oxy-crazy synthetic crap) ran me like $13 for a 3 yard long, 1 yard high piece. MORE than enough. the stitch and thickness of it looked damn near perfect, and it had a thin white fabric on the back, which I knew was nice because I would be spraying adhesive too.


haha.


32x 12 x 1/2 inch sheet metal screws. You need 32 minimum (assuming all the upcoming rivets will work), so if you're prone to lose ****, buy more. I eyeballed the width, but 12 looked to be a pretty thick and bulky size that would screw into plastic and hold still. worked out fine. I had a random assortment of washers at home, and ended up only using 3 washers total, do you MIGHT want to buy some if you dont have any. Ace Hardware had these for 11 cents a piece. sacrificed my dinner at Burger King for buying these.


get the plastic crap out of the door before pulling the panel off. for my DX, the part around handle and pocket were held in by one philips screw each, and to get the crank off, I used a paint can opener (with little curved end) to reach under, latch onto the hook and pull it out, then pulled the handle off.


inside of the panel. all those little plastic rivets are the bitches that hold the fabric in place.


11 years of dirt, grime and fading will soon be fixed.


The rivets are basically, MELTED into the plastic backing of the fabric, a couple werent, so some I used the flat head screwdriver to pop the top off (break it off) and some I had to dig the flat head under it and brake part of the plastic, but it worked. Each one had part of the original rivet hole open, so later on I can put a big fat screw in it.


SOON... sooon... you will meet the trashcan.


after peeling the original fabric off. I didnt bother even cleaning it up.


laid the fabric out on table (backside UP) and the old fabric (STICKY SIDE UP, NOT TOUCHING FABRIC) and traced the lines. just made dots where all holes would be because after fitting I planned to cut the larger holes.


lay it out and make sure everything works first. Should be a little off, but work. You just have to smooth it into place.


use the adhesive spray, spray both the top side of plastic backing and back side of new fabric, pick a center point (for me it was the window crank hole) and get everything aligned. they'll stick together, so just tug and fit it into place. All the holes should be within an inch or so of the original hole (the rivet holes) and the main coin pocket, handle and window crank holes should be in place. Smooth all the bubbles and creases out. Just work it and tug it into place, then let set. Set it back into the door panel, put a screw (and possibly washer) into a hole on both side and screw them in (I don't plan on doing this again, so pretty much just hand screwed them and made new holes). With one on each side, and it can stay in with it's own power, go around and starting putting them in the other holes. might have to tug the plastic part of the fabric a bit to reveal holes and get it lined up.


Mine had a little crease near backside, but who cares. Overall came out pretty damn decent. MUCH better than before.


Back in place. Maybe I should clean up all those dirty hand marks I made.


Ahhh.. there we go. VIOLA. Done for now. It's 3:44 am. Maybe tomorrow I'll take some day shots. The color is really nice red, fits my Milano Red very well, or so I think.

------

Oh, P.S. to do the other door, open all my images in Photoshop and go to Image -> Transform -> Flip Horizontal and read the DIY over again.

Haha, good luck to anyone who tries this themselves. Hope it turns out cool. If you have any question, PM me, IM me on AIM, whatever you want. I'm open to help. If the images don't show, let me know. I'll rehost them. Dunno how long ImageShack.us will keep them up.

 

ooooooooo, looks nice. and a cheap mod. i think i shall invest in this too.

 

good stuff man!!

 

Maybe I should go to the junkyard and get some speaker-cover grilles since my car came without them, haha.

 

hmmm, and here i was thinking of just buying new door panels....

 

I used Armor All Protectant Wipes (yellow canister, bought at AutoZone) to wipe down my entire interior, and they worked DAMN WELL. Brought a whole lot of life back to the black interior paneling. Cleaned up everything, dirt and grime, from my door panels and now they shine black.

 

Nice camera, and did you photoshop in some pictures of a person posing or was your shutter open for an extended period cause he looks like a ghost.

 

thats me, the shutter was open for about 25 seconds. yep.

using a 300d Canon Digital Rebel, didn't take time to get good lighting or make shots artisticy, just wanted to get my door panels done, LOL. Did use a big *** tripod though. Kinda have too when most shots need 3 seconds or more of open shutter and poor lighting.

 

I figured cause there is also a reflection of you in a different pose coming off the car. Creates a nice photographic image by accident though, some of the best kind. Glad I can still recognize those sorts of things.

 

man i don't think i'd ever do this but...GOOD write up!

 

what the hell is with the ghost by your tire?

 

he's trying to jack my rota's from inside my garage.

dirty ghost thieves.

 

holly ****! I didn't even notice that

That's nuts


nice write up, but that's too much rice for my liking
no offense

 

 

FuXK ...that's hot ...Come over and do my car like that ...

I will pay you ..


What store did you get that fabric from..

 

that is niceeee

 

Asked my 70 year old neighbor what the best fabric store was in town, she told me some place called "Hancoch Fabrics" like 3 miles away. Went, it was an entire fabric outlet, tons of old ladies, me. Kinda creepy, but worth it. Just found some lady that worked there, told her I knew nothing about fabrics but needed a fine stitched cloth in red for the interior of a car, she helped me out.

 

day shots

 

ha ha ..... i just got me some red leather today to do the same thing..... very cheap diy....

 

damn thats nice looking....

 

This isn't meant to be any kind of putdown, but it's funny how "car guys" will sew and do stuff like this to make their car better.

 

Very nice

 

Looks great but you should try and smooth the wrinkles on the edge near where the door meets the 1/4 panel.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Blazin Civic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Looks great but you should try and smooth the wrinkles on the edge near where the door meets the 1/4 panel.</TD></TR></TABLE>

i 2nd that... it is damn nice though

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Blazin Civic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Looks great but you should try and smooth the wrinkles on the edge near where the door meets the 1/4 panel.</TD></TR></TABLE>

yea i just noticed that but it looks hot otherwise