While dusting my interior I noticed that on the passenger side door panel it seems to be delaminating. The vinyl is coming up in the groove at the top of the doors arm rest.

Any fixes for this aside from spending $750 at central for a new panel?

 

Mines doing this as well on both of my doors

 

Mine is doing the same thing most fix by installing the arm rest you can by for that same spot. Thats the cheaper fix..

 

Very common problem and one not always solved by an arm rest installation. Many times the delamination extends up much higher onto the vertical surfaces of the door panel.

From what I've seen so far, most (good) repairs involve lots of dead presidents.

 

I tried a heat gun to re stick the vinyl,and it worked,but only for a week or so.
I thought about installing armrests,but I see a problem with them being mounted to the same vinyl that's coming unglued.
I know this is no help to you,but if you were considering the heat gun method,don't bother...

 

Mine is doing it too.

I am planning on pulling the door panel to replace the top weatherstripping and thought about going from the backside with a few small holes to inject some adhesive which I could then "smooth" out from the front by pressing the material that has lifted back down.

I figured if the adhesive looks obvious from the fornt, I could install armrests to cover it but I think attaching armrests on top of the delaminating material will just make it worse?

I hope to do this within a week or two so I can repost if it works.

 

I have considered the exact same thing. Haven't explored it much lately as I have other projects going on now.

Short of getting/buying some sort of professional glue spraying/injecting gun that could outfitted with a nozzle small enough to insert into any holes you drill into the backside, I don't know of any readily available, inexpensive, equipment out there that you could use. The commonly available spray adhesives don't come with a small tube to enable the spray to be sprayed into a small hole. Syringe and using a liquid glue maybe?

The concept is great, the equipment to carry it off however may be more of a problem. Keep us posted. If you have some success, you would be helping a great many here who are in the same boat.

 

Lonestar,

I think it would have to be a liquid that you could inject into just a few holes and "move" it around from the front side underneath the leather material with a squegee or something like a credit card. I have used a product in a caulk gun tube before that we used to inject under the hollow voids of flooring (I'm a building contractor) that was made to flow yet had great adhesive strength. It was $25 a tube but one tube would likely do both door panels. It has the consistency of Elmers glue yet far better holding power and its water based so I don't think it would have any harsh effects on the panel itself.

My only concern is can it stand up to the heat that builds up when the car is parked during a day at the beach or something as the days here in FL like they are in TX get quite toasty!

I guess it really can't hurt to try as after all a new set of door panels is what around $750?

 

Hey, I hear ya on the need to get it uniformly spread around. My latest thought (since I have the separation that extends a few inches upwards onto the vertical surface as well as the arm-rest), is to make a curving, or "biased" type slice in the vinyl where the armrest portion is, leaving a "flap" that could be raised just high enough to get up in behind the upper section on the door panel (about 3" to 4" or so). After injecting or spraying (which ever one), make sure the vinyl is smoothed down and let the glue set overnight. Then take my aftermarket Vette Essential door armrests and attach them directly over the "slice" that was made on the factory armrest.

Buying new door panels, even if someone had money to throw around and didn't care about that part, seems to me to only be avoiding the inevitable. It's going to happen again. The vinyl, over time, begins to dry out somewhat and shrink and in that particular section of the door, with the transitional compound curves, etc, pulls itself away from the substrate.

I fully expect that if I were go with my idea, the opening created by any semi-circular slice of the vinyl, would wind up being about 1/4" wide. Easily covered though by the aftermarket armrests.

Just puzzling on this right now, since once I take an Exacto blade to the vinyl, I'd be committed.

 

Thats the way I'd tackle it Bob

For those who haven't seen them, these are the VE armrests:

 

-Dear DeeGee ;
First of all, congratulations for your brilliant ability to fix your car's armrests. It looks awesome indeed !
As far as I am experiencing the same problem on my C5, please, let me know where can I get an armrests like this.
Deeply appreciate!

 

From my understanding, the substrate that the vinyl is glued to disentegrates, shooting glue in will most likely NOT work. I think the vinyl has to come off and the base repaired before anything is glued back down.

 

The folks at VE have been offering this as one of their products for several years. It was not designed nor intended to "fix" any problems with delamination of the door vinyl. Because of it's location however, once installed, it just so happens to also help with the problem on the horizontal (only) armrest.

www.vetteessentials.com

 

Doug,

You might be right as it might be like when a headliner falls. Its not just the glue joint but what it adheres too.

I was just thinking maybe if you got enough adhesive in there it might make a bond??? Not really sure until someone tries it I suppose?

 

I was thinking the same thing until I recently saw a little of what lies behind the vinyl and there is no foam layer or other material present on the door from what I can see. There is a very thin layer of foam directly bonded to the backside of the vinyl, but it stayed intact with the vinyl and lifted up right along with the vinyl it's attached to. The vinyl appears to be glued directly to the door plastic. There is a "pebble grained" type pattern present on the door itself, plus there are a number of small holes on the backside of the door from when it was manufactured. I'm thinking the numerous small holes are/were for glue injection and/or air to be evacuated in a vacuum forming machine. In other words, I think glue is applied, the vinyl is layed down and the panel is placed in a vacuum forming machine and it gets "sucked" up against the door panel.

 

I wonder if you could not use those same hole to your advatnge when trying to re-adhere it by using a shop vac or similar to hold it in place until the glue dries?

 

The main problem of the vinyl having shrunk in the first place is the real key. By shrinking, it puts lateral stress all over the door panel, especially in the concave sections.

I think in order for your idea to be successful, the entire vinyl would have to be lifted away, a really good industrial strength glue applied, and then the entire door would have to be placed in a vacuum suction machine large enough to put a good vacuum on the entire backside of the door at one time.

I'm seriously thinking more along the lines of Deep South Vettes or Car Skinz custom door panels. The cost should be (hopefully) about the same as buying new door panels, and at least you wouldn't be facing this same problem all over again in another few years.

 

LS,

I agree as I was just looking at mine at lunch time and actually the entire vinyl skin has pulled away from the backing\substrate. You can push in it say 1/4"-3/8" of an inch. So it has shruck and tightened considerably.

I guess I really never noticed that as much as I noticed the folding\ribboning where the horizontal meets the vertical portion. It would appear the only areas that hold any are the ones where it ends on the edge and where things like the door handle mounts.

Mike

 

mine are doing the same.


I brought them to be covered with leather and that will cost me 150€ per panel.

they will be ready next week.

i'll post pics.

 

That seems to be a pretty good price (depending on the exchange rate and the quality of the work).

Give us a heads up on how things turn out.

I am seriously thinking along these line as the ultimate solution as well. Of course there's also the "bling" factor too. I'm thinking all black with silver stitching to match the silver stitching on my seats and keeping my tutone VE (black/silver) door pulls and tutone VE armrest pads.