Wednesday 27 August 2014

Repairing Damaged Door Cards

When I bought my VW Golf GTI the door cards were rather loose and didn't fit flush to the door frame. I assumed a previous owner hadn't fixed them properly so when I needed to repair the regulator it gave me a chance to look at why they didnt fit and resolve it.

The problem was that the door card material was deteriorating and breaking down. Unlike more recent ones the cards are well, almost made of card. It's a board type material and with constant attachment and removal the screw holes had expanded and the bottom fixings were no longer strong so couldn't support the cards.

I bought some fibre glass repair as the screw holes needed to be strengthened and add more support so the cards could be attached the in the correct place. That worked well so I then looked at the base where there are different slots to attach the card to the door frame. These had lost all rigidity so wouldn't hold the card in place.

The board of the card looked quite absorbent so I decided that soaking it in the fibre glass solution may work rather than using the fibre matting as I had done for the screw holes. Left it for an hour or so to set and bingo, the base of the card  is now solid again and will clip properly to the door again.

I'll load some photos once it's a bit lighter but hopefully this may be of use.

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