OK First Gen'ers, when I bought my truck
used there was an unidentifiable substance in the bottom of the map
pockets that had successfully chemically bonded some pennies to the
bottom of the pockets. Since they have that fuzzy stuff on them cleaning
them was almost out of the question. Besides, my wife think that they
make excellent junk collectors! Well I'm doing away with the pockets and
I'm going to be doing it as inexpensively as possible. I am going to be
taking lots of pictures so I'll post them here so you all can follow
along. This is interactive so if you have any questions or comments,
fire away.
The first thing that you will need is 18 (9 each side) of the plastic
panel retainers as you are going to break them taking the door panel
off. I paid $.35 each for them at a local auto upholstery place.
Take the two screws out of the door handle. If you have manual windows
you have to get the window cranks off too, this requires a special tool,( A reader showed me a easy way to remove them with just a cloth and no tool needed. See video below).
but while your at the upholstery shop ask them if they would pop them
off for you real quick....don't forget to tip the guy is he doesn't
charge you! (tips count, you'd be suprised how fast I get helped at the
shop I go to!!!) Now just pull the panel away from the door frame. If
you have power windows be careful of the up/dn switch wire the wire is
attached to the door and the switch is attached to the door panel. Once
you have poped all the plastic retainers lift up on the panel and it
comes right off.....remember there 9 per door.
Lay your door panel on a solid work surface. Grab that nasty carpet that
covers the map pocket at one corner and pull it off the door. You'll
notice that there is a black plastic backing that is under the carpet.
This plastic backer is attached to the door panel by melt-down plastic
rivets, about 18 of them. Take a center punch and punch a small dimpel
in each one of the rivet heads, you may have to rub off the carpet
fibers to find all of them. DO NOT DESTROY THIS PLASTIC BACKING PIECE!!!
We will use it later. Once you have the heads dimpeled drill them out
with a 3/8 drill bit(or as big as you have.) It's no necessary to go all
the way through.
Unlike what is shown in the picture above, the pocket doesn't come off
with the plastic carpet backing. There are 4 more Melt points to drill
out to get the pocket off. Drill these from the back side.
Here is a pic of the pocket that is removed with the rivet locations indicated.
OK, the nasty pocket and the ratty looking carpet are off. In the next
series of pics I'm going to cut a melamine backing piece. Mark and
attach some tee nuts to the backing piece. Pad the backing piece.
Stretch some left over silver vinyl over the padded backing piece.
Attach the covered piece to the door panel then reinstall the panel on
the door with our new retainers. I'll have these pictures up as soon as I
get the work done, I am out of glue at the moment but I may go get some
tonight. This is just the passengers side, if you guys are interested
I'll do a custom speaker pod on the drivers side. Let me know!
With the door panel naked I decided to give it some clean-up and paint
the plastic piece around the door handle and switches. So I used a lot
of 409 to clean up the panel then removed a plastic hump where our new
backing piece will lay. Here is the hump.
Here is a shot of the hump removed. You'll notice that the panel is
upside down in the picture, as it was in the last picture. Sorry if this
was confusing.
Now remove the arm rest so that you can clean under it. All you have to
do is push it in the direction of the arrow on the picture. Mine was
snug but a pop on the front with the palm of my hand in the direction of
the arrow made it come right off. It was nasty behind there!
To remove the trim panel to paint it you have to remove the 6 metal
retainers. After having struggled with mine for about half an hour I
have decided that the only way to get the retainers off safely is to
snip the ends with a pair of diagonal cutters and put new ones on to
reattach the trim piece. After their off, pop out the trim panel, sand
it, spray it the color you want then put on a couple coats of clear to
help protect the color coat. Here is a pic of the retainers. I will have
more to say about this later in the thread I just don't want to be
hopping around different subjects.
This is why I wanted to get rid of the nasty things! YUK!
This is the left over vinyl from a project my wife did. She picked up a
yard of the stuff from the fabric store for $4.00 as a remnant but you
only need a yard and the normal cost was about $8.00.
I had to buy a 4'X8' sheet of 1/4" hardboard because my local Home Depot
was out of the smaller pieces. If you can find a 2'X4' piece, it will
work fine. The cost for my piece was $10.00. You don't really have to
use hardboard, if you have a piece of 1/4 plywood it will also work. We
will also use some of this when we build our speaker pods so try to
waste as little as possible.
Remember me telling you not to destroy the plastic carpet backing piece?
This is where we use it again. Lay the backing piece on the hardboard. I
lined mine up in the corner to minimize the cutting that I had to do.
Trace the outline of the plastic backing piece onto the hardboard. You
will have to make up for the missing piece where the pocket use to be
but that is easy, trace as much as you can then connect the missing part
of the line with a straight edge. I just used the flat part of the
backing piece to draw my straight line! Don't forget to trace the inside
vent opening if you are keeping the useless vent. If you want to get
rid of the vent just cut the vent off of the door panel and don't cut
out the opening in the hardboard and it's gone!!
Here are the tools you need to cut out the new backing piece. A scroll
saw with a fine tooth blade, a drill with the biggest bit you have (not
shown), safety glasses and a dust mask. The hardboard makes lots of dust
when you cut it and you haven't lived until you have had to hack up a
lung after breathing that crap! Use the safety equipment! You can also
see part of the traced line on the hardboard in this shot.
Now cut out the new backing piece. To get you started on the vent
opening use the drill to drill a hole (inside the lines) to make an
opening for the blade of the scroll saw. Be careful and cut right on the
line.
Clamp the new backing piece in place on the door panel. (your
girlfriends hands do count as clamps!) Clamp it lightly at first and
align the backing as evenly as you can in the opening. Pay attention to
the vent opening if you have kept the vent. When it is aligned to your
liking, tighten up on the clamps.
With the backing piece clamped to the door panel, flip the door pane
over and mark the holes in the door panel onto the back of the backing
piece. The picture I used below shows the holes with bolts and washers
in them. I used this picture because it is clearer which holes I used.
Use a pencil and trace the holes onto the backing piece as these will
show us where to position our hardware.
Here is a pic of the hardware we will be using to mount the backing piece to the door panel. The hardware is
#6-32 x 3/8" Machine screws
#6-32 x 1/4" Tee Nuts
1/8" x 1" fender washers
I bought sixteen of each, eight per door. But we may use fewer than that....looks like we'll only use 7 per door.
Unclamp the backing piece and put it on a working surface. You should
now have six or so circles drawn on the back side of the backing piece
(remember you are now working on the back side!) . Use your center punch
and dimple each circle as close to the center as possible. Drill a
7/32" hole in each circle. Flip the piece over so the front side is up
and place a tee nut in each hole and firmly tap it down with a hammer to
get it as flush as possible.
Now test fit the backing piece to the door panel. Run a machine screw
with a washer in from the back side of the door panel. I had to trim one
of my washers with a hack saw to get a good fit. At this point if you
think it is necessary you may want to put another tee nut and screw in
if the piece isn't laying flat enough. I am going to put another on in
on mine. It's a little cold to work with contact cement today so the
vinyl install will have to wait until tomorrow when the weather man says
it will be warmer. We are almost done and you can tell what it's going
to look like. This is a cheap mod to freshen up the interior. Here is a
rundown on what we have spent so far:
We have to trim the vinyl down, lay the backing piece on the vinyl and
cut out around it leaving about an inch of overhang. The vinyl should be
laying face down and the piece face down on it. Position the piece to
minimize waste and cutting. This is easy.
Now cut a piece of foam (whatever thickness you are using, I'm using
1/4") to the exact size of the backing piece. We don't want any of the
foam wraping around the edges. Remember....outside face of the piece
should be laying on the foam as you cut it!
Since we are going to be stretching the vinyl, it is really important to
get the first edge secured well. I like to start by taping off the area
where I am applying the glue. Start you first edge on the bottom of the
backing piece. Tape it off as in the picture. Position the vinyl, foam
and backing piece as they will go together. Apply Contact cemement
liberly to the taped off section as well as the vinyl. Follow the
application directions on the can.
Another easy step. Peel the tape off immediately after you apply the cement.
Start at the middle and work your way out to the edges. When they say on
the can of glue that it bonds on first contact that is EXACTLY what
they mean! Don let the two glued up pieces touch in a place that you
don't want. Once they stick together that is it....stuck forever!
Because we want this edge to be strong we will now clamp it overnight.
Clamp it up in a way that will apply pressure to the entire bead of
glue. For this clamping operation you girlfriends hands will not do, but
you can have her stand on the boards overnight. If she loves you she
will do it. If not....find a new g/f!
We'll do more glue up tomorrow I hope. This inside the house stuff with that smelly glue is too much!
I must have had the G3 CD turned up too loud last night cause I forgot
to tell ya how to put the contact cement on to the Backing piece and the
back of the vinyl! (Could have been the fumes too!) I am using those
cheap metal handle paint brushes, the military called them acid brushes,
I don't know why. But anyway, I cut about half of the brissles off to
make the brush stiffer. Check out the pic below, I use the lower one on
the pic.
Now glue up the top side of the vinyl. When you actually stick the vinyl
down really stretch the vinyl so that it is tight across the front of
the panel...this is the trick to a good looking panel. AFter you stick
it down clamp it an let it setup for a few hours. Here is what is looks
like after it has had time to dry.
This is what the front looks like. See the fold marks? Don't fold your
vinyl, roll it! If you do get fold marks you have to stretch the out. I
will get some more of the fold marks out when I do the vent opening. (if
I do the vent opening, I'm gonna test fit it closed to see what it
looks like!! )
Here is a pic of the way I cut the rounded lower corners of the vinyl.
Cutting them in this sawtooth pattern the vinly will glue down flat. Try
to get close to the edge of the backing piece because the cuts won't
show in the front and you will be stretching the vinyl. This part calls
for common sence so use it in cutting. If you look at the way the vinyl
will lay you should be able to see where it needs to be cut.....take
your time and do a good job here.
Now glue the back edge of the vinyl to the backing piece. You may have
to trim some of the foam if it has stretched any. Only glue the flat
piece and really stretch the snot out of it to pull out the wrinkles!
We'll glue the sawtooth tabs later! Here is a pic of the glue on the
pieces that need to be attached at this point.
Here is what the corner should look like after you have it glued down. Remember, pull the vinyl tight!
Oh, see those arrows, they point to the tee nuts which have been covered by the vinly. Don't put glue directly on the tee nuts!
What I didn't show you was this. Since this is my door panel and I'm
not pressed for time, I clamped the corners so that I know I got good
contact. Don't get in too much of a hurry.
Remember this. While it has taken me three or four days to do this up to
this point, it should only take you one day. I have to stop at each
step to take pictures and let glue dry and things like that (and my wife
keeps interupting me and the kids need help with their calculus!) You
can cut all your vinyl at the same time, top and bottom for both sides
and glue them all at the same time.
While we're waiting for the glue to dry we can disassemble the top panel
and get ready to cover it! I really wanted to wait to do this until
after I did the bottom panel so that I could show you each step but it
is getting kind of hard to stop at each step. So If you're not going to
do the top panel you can skip these steps.
To get the top panel off you have to remove these 6 nut type fasteners.
Pry up at the edges of the fasteners so that you can get a little bite
with your needle nose pliers then unscrew them. The needle nose plliers
are going to slip off and snap shut so don't let any of your skin get in
there or you will be yelling multiple nasty words! You have to approach
the fasteners from directly over top of them to grab the edges. The
picture doesn't show this, just where to grab and with what tool!
Remove the staples from the back of the door panel. Mine had 4 in it,
yours may have more. Pry up one side of the staple with a small flat
blade (see picture) and pull it the rest of the way out with a pair of
pliers.
Remember me telling you not to destroy the plastic carpet backing piece?
This is where we use it again. Lay the backing piece on the hardboard. I
lined mine up in the corner to minimize the cutting that I had to do.
Trace the outline of the plastic backing piece onto the hardboard. You
will have to make up for the missing piece where the pocket use to be
but that is easy, trace as much as you can then connect the missing part
of the line with a straight edge. I just used the flat part of the
backing piece to draw my straight line! Don't forget to trace the inside
vent opening if you are keeping the useless vent. If you want to get
rid of the vent just cut the vent off of the door panel and don't cut
out the opening in the hardboard and it's gone!!
Now test fit the backing piece to the door panel. Run a machine screw
with a washer in from the back side of the door panel. I had to trim one
of my washers with a hack saw to get a good fit. At this point if you
think it is necessary you may want to put another tee nut and screw in
if the piece isn't laying flat enough. I am going to put another on in
on mine. It's a little cold to work with contact cement today so the
vinyl install will have to wait until tomorrow when the weather man says
it will be warmer. We are almost done and you can tell what it's going
to look like. This is a cheap mod to freshen up the interior. Here is a
rundown on what we have spent so far:
This is what the front looks like. See the fold marks? Don't fold your
vinyl, roll it! If you do get fold marks you have to stretch the out. I
will get some more of the fold marks out when I do the vent opening. (if
I do the vent opening, I'm gonna test fit it closed to see what it
looks like!! 
Pry up at the edges of the fasteners so that you can get a little bite
with your needle nose pliers then unscrew them. The needle nose plliers
are going to slip off and snap shut so don't let any of your skin get in
there or you will be yelling multiple nasty words! You have to approach
the fasteners from directly over top of them to grab the edges. The
picture doesn't show this, just where to grab and with what tool!
Here you are, one really naked door panel! 
