Problem.
The door panel was peeling away (down) from the driver controls that run the mirrors, door locks and power memory controls. It just left a big gap underneath that looked horrible. Its been there a few years, but I never knew how to fix it.
Solution
I've previously used 3M trim Adhesive 03609 (napa, pep boys) or Automotive attachment tape 06380 (auto shop, sold only by the case) so I picked up some 03609 (would rather use 06380, but friend with a body shop is 2 hours away)
It's 1/2" wide and about .045 thick.
You'll also want a 10" long piece of wood (I used metal wrapped in an interior cleaning towel) and two clamps. I used big spring ones, like giant clothes pins.
I removed the control panel (damn carefully!) with a long thin screw driver. There are two holding tabs - one about 1" in from the back, and one about 3" ahead of that, and two clips that hold the front edge. Pry carefully so you don't damage the panel.
I was not able to unhook the wires, so I left it lay there, it was only slightly in the way.
Depending on how far yours is peeled will depend on how much tape you can use. Mine was peeled the entire length of the control panel and down an inch, so I used two rows of tape, cut into pieces.
I cut it into pieces to make it easier to fit, and easier to peel the backing off. I stuck it on the plastic top first, then reached in with an x-acto knife to start the backing peel. I then reached in with a tweezers and peeled the backing off.
Once the backing was off and both sides exposed, I pressed it together with my hands and worked my towel wrapped metal bar into position, clamping it so it was pressing across the whole gap.
I let it sit 24 hours, then took the clamp off and it held.
Popped the panel back in, it still shows the edge, it isn't a perfect fit, but its way, way better than it was.
Notes
Some ways you could make this better would be to use a third long clamp and go up to the top of the door panel in the middle where there is no way to clamp using the pinch clamps.
You could also heat (gently) the door panel with a hair dryer to stretch it back into position, that might help the repair last longer - I didn't want to try that, yet, figured I'll see how my tape holds.
I've also heard of others using spray adhesive, but given the expanse of my gap, I didn't think spray adhesive would hold (though it would have covered/gone into the gaps better.)
Like many of you, the door panel vynal/padding below the memory seat/door lock/power mirror thingy had seperated and sagged. UGLY! Embarrasing! Well, I tried fixing it last week. It worked..so far! Heres what I did:
I removed the door panel and popped out the plastic switch mounting strips. I took it in the house where it was warm and laid it on the kitchen table. Looking closely at the seperation I could see that the foam had come loose from the hard plastic backing. The foam was still tight to the vynal. Needed to get some glue.
In a few minutes I was at Auto Zone. Looked over everything they had and decided to get a tube of "Perfect Glue #1" by Liquid Nails. Spec sheet showed it good for plastic, vynal, foam. Its in a tube.
First thing was to clean the surfaces. I blew out the seperation with that canned air you clean computers with. Worked great. It is dry air and has a thin tube that sticks into the nozzle. This allowed me to get deep into the separation to blow out the years of accumulated dust.
Upon looking at the plastic core I could see white residue. HUM! Is this why they seperate? Did they forget to wipe off the silicon separation agent from the molds before they assembled the panel? I took some Interlux brand #202 solvent and wiped the plastic core until it was clean. I let it sit a while to dry before next step.
Taking a hair drier I heated the vynal/foam to get it softer and more flexable. Very quickly after that I took the glue and ran a bead of it into the separation. I took a pop sickle stick and worked it down deep into the separation area getting lavish amounts of it onto the foam and hard plastic.
I took four small vice grips. One is one of those 'needle nose' looking things and the other three were the more common stubby nose kind. There are two rectangular openings to work with. Taking the long nose clamp I adjusted the jaws as not to crush the foam and inserted the clamps though the larger hole to grip and clamp the center section between the two holes. So far so good. I had to fine tune the jaw tension after clamping. Taking the other three clamps I did the jaw adjustment thing again and clamped up the remaining sections. I had to wipe the excess glue from the repair as it oozed out. I needed more clamps! I had to resort to two small "C" clamps. Hooking them through the holes and softly clamping them in snug I was able to clamp up the entire sagged area.
I took the heat gun and reheated the sag area while pressing the padded vynal into its original shape. I re adjusted the clamps to insure nothing was too crushed but still making a good bond. I left it set all night.
Next morning I removed the clamps. The repair held! I took a paper finger nail file and ground off the excess glue blobs where the clamps had prevented me from wiping it away while it was still wet.
I took the switch panel and snapped it back in place.
PERFECT! The paded vynal was about an eighth of an inch lower than where it was new but the switch panel now covered the opening with no sagging visible below it.
I know some of you will want pictures but if you get the panel off you will see the two rectangular holes and it will be pretty obvious where you will need to clamp and where you need to glue. Neatness counts! Watch out for oozing glue. If you don't know how to take the door panel off be sure to look for the directions elsewhere in this site before you try it.
Now lets see how long it stays fixed. Its been a week now and its still holding.
