this was specific to my car, but the general principles are the same.
For those who wish to two-tone their own interior using their own material. I have composed the following DIY and tried breaking it down as simple as I can. Depending on how anal you are, the project shouldn’t take more then a weekend.
The following will assume you know how to remove your door panels from the car. There are seperate DIY’s showing how to remove the panels from the car.
The following tools will help:
- Aprox. 2 yards of fabric/material
- Scissors
- Contact Cement
- Drill w/ 1/2" drill bit
- Torex 20 bit
- Razor knife
- Energy Drink
- Mineral Spirits
Scissors:
Contact Cement (and brush). If you choose this brand of contact cement, make sure it’s the red can, not the green can. The green can is environmentaly friendly… and i hate the environment. Also, the green can doesn’t stick well at all.
Drill and a 1/2" drill bit (or slightly larger)
A torex 20 bit
Clamps and some padding. The padding will help distribute the weight so you don’t get creases in the fabric while the adhesive dries.
Razor knife
Energy Drink:
Mineral Spirits for and adhesive clean up, don’t confuse with the energy drink.
I.) Disassemble the inner panel from the outter panel.
1.) Use a Torex 20 bit to unscrew the 8 screws from the backside holding the armrest in place
2.) These screws are marked with RED CIRCLES in the picture above
close up of the torex screws:
3.) Once the screws are removed, the armrest should just pop off.
4.) The PINK ARROWS show where 4 nuts are located that hold the air bag panel in place if the air bag is deployed during an accident. Simply unscrew these 4 nuts. You can do it by hand or with a 10mm socket
5.) The GREEN CIRCLES on the above picture indicate plastic rivits that have been melted to mount the panels together. Using the 1/2" drill bit, drill out the melted portion. All you are doing is removing the plastic that’s melted. Remove as little as possible, you will be using the remaining plastic to reassemble the panels. Drill out as little as possible to release the hold.
Drilling the plastic rivits:
Once all the rivits have been drilled out and the armrest removed, you should be able to pop the center panel section out. You may find that you need to re-drill some of the rivits to free the panel completely.
II.) Preparing the panel to be covered with fabric
1.) Clean/degrease the panel with soap and water on a towel. This will help to remove any Armor-All or anything else that will prevent the adhesive from working properly.
2.) Place the panel on top of your fabric and cut the fabric to the apox. shape/size. Try to cut atleast 2" larger all the way around the panel. This will give you room for error and enough material to wrap around to the backside of the panel.
