I am looking for any suggestions whatsoever on how to preserve interior door panels I purchased for my 90 Formula. It took me over 2.5 years of searching to find the style I needed(from 90-92). However my problem is that it looks like someone just pulled on them to get them off, hence, ripping all of the holes across the top. So now I'm looking for a way to remedy this so they can be attached. Can anyone help? Trust me, I've continued to search for these door panels to see if I could find upgrades, but have not been successful. Therefore I need to try whatever I can to make these work. Just wondering if anyone ever had the same problem and could offer some suggestions please? Feeling desperate!

 

I had a few holes tear out in mine. What I did was reinforce it with a strip of plastic that I glued to the Masonite like board with holes for the nut heads. Once they're all blown out like that it may not work as well.

 

I repaired mine by using 2-part epoxy glue and carefully forming it around the holes after pressing the holes into position as well as possible. Intall retainers after the glue sets. Works great.

 

I took some thin aluminum squares, drilled holes, and glued them on with epoxy.

 

Gorilla glue thin cardboard stock - easy.

 

Thanks for all of the suggestions!

 

FWIW, I had one like that on a car that I was restoring and I didn't notice a difference with it installed. If your other clips are in good condition the top piece should hold it in place well enough.

If I were going to fix it I'm not sure what materials I would use but I would consider some kind of thin material or tape wrapped over both sides along the top of the panel to help reinforce it.

 

Not a perfect solution, but it worked for me.......

I've have door panels with ripped out holes too. The last set I installed had all the holes blown out of the drivers side panel & was 'repaired' using large metal staples from a large cardboard box. ( probably an appliance box )

I simply pushed the sharp edges of the staples thru the top of the door panel cardboard on each side of the blown out holes and folded the staples tight. This gave me a strong yet light and slim fitting 'bridge' arcross the top of each of the blown out holes. There was no problem screwing the upper trim back onto the door panels ( nut grabbed the 'bridge' staples on top and cardbaord on bottom ) and the upper panel stayed in place with no problem.

 

Milk jug and weatherstrip adhesive, but I only had 4 per panel busted.

 

Great suggestions. Nice to hear there are ways that can make these salvageable. Nice 3rd gen parts are hard enough to come by so it's nice to know there's a way for these to be saved!

 

I had an idea of fiberglassing the back and then just drilling holes where the torn ones are, plus it would also make the panels more structurally sound. Any thoughts?

 

This was my solution on my TTA door panels. I am not sure you have the standard door panels or deluxe molded panels, but the only difference would be the thickness of the material you use for the repair. I used small pieces of masonite, cut to size and then I used fiberglass and resin to make the area strong. It seems stronger then it was originally. I had to do this repair because a previous owner must have had some knucklehead repair something in the door and had no idea how to take off the door panel.

 

This is what it looked like before.

 

Perfect! I think that's a great idea since the fiberglass helps to reinforce the material as well as protect it from moisture.