Started door panel painting

[GMC87]

So I am midway through refinishing my interior. Worked on getting the inside of the doors painted and painting the door panels.
I used SEM products adhesion promoter and then SEM gloss black.
It looks good so far but I am curious to see how durable it is.
I did a proper prep scrubbing, washing, drying, rewiping, white scotch pad, clean again, anyhoo here are some pics
I forgot to take before pics but they were your typical 23 year old tan panels



Here they are just hanging on the doors waiting for a final cure then I will add all the hardware and pads.

I am not reinstalling the center pads or the middle trim. I saw a member on here with diamond plate in the doors in place of the fabric and the trim behind the door pull. Hope you dont mind me copying but I like that look and besides imitation is a sign of flattery.

One funny thing I thought I would mention just for ****s a giggles, I spend a fair amount of money on toys that light up, make noise, click, roll, whatever for my daughter..........for over an hour today she played with the door pull trim pieces and the plastic caps that cover the seat belt bolts. Go figure!!

[RandyP]

Looks good. Be sure to pull that elastic in your map pockets and restaple them or something, before installing them. They'll look a ton better and not all stretched out.

My boy played with the strangest things when he was little, mostly liked the dogs toys it seems. And speaking of dogs, my chocolate lab, her favorite toy is a old plastic 8' piece of lawn edging. She'll drag it all over the yard playing, darndest thing to watch.

[benoit454]

they should hold up good and doing the really flexible parts like the pockets and arm rests in sem is a good choice, but could have got by ALOT cheaper ion the hard plastic with some krylon fusion, no adhesion promoter needed, only wax and grease remover, then spray. No scuffing or anything, I use it all the time. Duplicolor is cheaper vinyl/fabric dye and it works good on flexible parts as well, works great actually, just never had ANY luck with it on hard plastic at all.

[87GMCChris]

My dog favorite toys are an old 10" bike tire from a kids bike and a 2L pop bottle... till he destroys the bottle.
And those door panels look great, intrested to see if they hold up. A great fix without buying nos door panels or crappy re-pops.

[bigwheel15]

What condition was the top of your door panels in? I want to repaint mine black but the tops are worn from arms being rested there while driving.

[nbpro]

Originally Posted by bigwheel15

What condition was the top of your door panels in? I want to repaint mine black but the tops are worn from arms being rested there while driving.

have a look at this bro

door panels

[tucsonjwt]

The tops of my door panels were all full of crud and scratches, apparently from the PO"s watch scraping on the panel with his arm out the window(?)
I cleaned off the crud with scrub pads and household cleaner, washed it off with clear water, then used fine wetsand paper and water. I lost the texture of the panel, but that texture was mostly gone anyway. I did not get a completely smooth surface, but that does not bother me, since it only cost about $20 to clean off and paint the panels with SEM. My truck is used for work only, so I did not need OEM perfect results. See my thread link above for how they turned out. I took the map pockets off and disassembled them, cleaned, then sprayed them with SEM, then reassembled them with the original elastic band and used my office stapler to hold the back of the vinyl and elastic band in place. I used a little silicone adhesive under the turned under edges of the vinyl on the map pockets. The map pockets turned out better than anything.

[tucsonjwt]

Here are the low cost pics:

[GMC87]

Originally Posted by bigwheel15

What condition was the top of your door panels in? I want to repaint mine black but the tops are worn from arms being rested there while driving.

Mine were in fair shape only one chipped corner which I think you can see in one of the pics after I glued it back on. The tops were worn down pretty typical for 23 years old, when I was scrubbing them the plastic would rub off of the top. I just lightly scrubbed the tops just to get them clean being carefull not to scrap of to much material.

[78 Chevyrado]

Looks good. I used SEM on my panels, and there are scratches, but they were scratches that took some plastic with them. I will say the SEM stuff is staying like new on the arm rests, which I didn't expect seeing as they get squashed and flex all the time.