Anyone tried this upholstery (door card inserts)

Fahrvegnugen

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Joined
Jan 21, 2017
Location
Burlington Vt
TDI
01 golf 1.9 alh gls silver
I think the front door cards are the same but the rears on Jetta are different. These that your looking at seem good, I’d try them it looks like they’re returnable if it doesn’t work.
 

STDOUBT

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Joined
Jul 30, 2007
Location
Portland, effing Oregon
TDI
dos jettas
"Leather Synthetic"
Well, not to be a wet blanket but I doubt that stuff will hold up well.
In the 4th pic from the left, you can see the backing. Looks like really thin
Vinyl along the lines of what's on the shifter boot. Just comes apart in sunlight.
I was going to replace mine (cloth) with something like Gortex onto the original paper mache form. Real leather would be nice,
and that's sometimes available in a junk yard. Could even do a homemade jobber with leather scraps an a lot of patience.
I loove spending money on ebay but I couldn't pay 90 bucks for those on top of all the pain of taking the doors apart.
Just an opinion!:)
 
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hskrdu

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Oct 17, 2003
Location
Maryland and New England
TDI
2003 Golf GLS 4D 5M, 2015 GSW SE 6M
The door card comes off the frame easily, the door card insert is only a few minutes more work. The door cards are different shapes for the rear door from G to J, as said, but IIRC the door card inserts are the same (and the door card as a whole can be diassembled to replace the top portion for a 100% match). There are several how-to's at the vortex, and lots of the people there have recovered the inserts with fabric, and occ with pleather. As for the material, I can't speak to the ebay product, but the MkIV's with leather are a mix of faux and real leather.

Reassembly may require a glue gun for the insert, and some spare plastic door card retainers, since the aging plastic breaks so easily.
 

Bengoshi2000

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Jun 24, 2013
Location
Triad NC, USA
TDI
2002 Golf (0M1)
I've got a complete set of golf door cards that I'm going to pull the inserts out of. Going to recover them before I start pulling panels out of my Golf (for less downtime).

I'm not likely to get these ebay covers unless I can find someone who has installed them and get an opinion as to quality of the vinyl and the fit. Like StDoubt, I'm not going to drop the cash just to "experiment."

I'm leaning strongly towards getting a couple yards of MB Tex, the nuclear-war-proof-vinyl used by Mercedes Benz in their pre-1990's models. More expensive than the ebay stuff in my op, but dang near bulletproof.
 

RexNICO

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Sep 17, 2013
Location
South West OH
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2011 Tiguan, 2011 Q7
... I couldn't pay 90 bucks for those on top of all the pain of taking the doors apart.
Just an opinion!:)

I completely agree with that opinion.


I'd suggest doing research on reattaching the insert pieces to the bigger door card before detaching the first one. I think that part is a huge PIA
 

Shenandoah

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Jan 9, 2008
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Shenandoah Valley, VA
TDI
2005 Jetta Wagon; 2005 Beetle; 2004 Jetta; 2002 Golf (three of them); 2002 Jetta Wagon; 2000 Audi TT->TDI; 1999 Beetle
I've replaced/recovered the door card inserts on a 2000 Golf. I'll tell you up front, you won't get them to attach like the factory originals. The inserts are attached to the door card with a flat plastic tab that is melted on top to hold the insert in the door card.

Once you cut that melted part off the plastic tab you can remove the insert. The problem is, how do you then re-attach the insert? I tried a hot glue gun, but all that did was make a mess AND it did not hold.

My suggestion would be to try to cover the inserts while still attached to the door card.

Eric
 

hskrdu

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Oct 17, 2003
Location
Maryland and New England
TDI
2003 Golf GLS 4D 5M, 2015 GSW SE 6M
Once you cut that melted part off the plastic tab you can remove the insert. The problem is, how do you then re-attach the insert? I tried a hot glue gun, but all that did was make a mess AND it did not hold.

My suggestion would be to try to cover the inserts while still attached to the door card. Eric
I've used a glue gun to successfully reattach door card inserts. I'd say the key is the glue. I bought PDR glue sticks from ebay, which held up just fine, and mimicked the OE setup from VW. Recovering without removing would take more skill than I have.
 

Bengoshi2000

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Jun 24, 2013
Location
Triad NC, USA
TDI
2002 Golf (0M1)
I'm far less concerned about the reattachment of the panel inserts than getting the upholstery on and looking professional (or at least satisfactory).

I've read about the issues with hot glue and other adhesives not working when it comes to holding the panels in, so I'm going to experiment with metal panel edge clips like this:



The idea being that this would lock over the existing nub on the door card and then pop it through the existing slot in the panel insert. I may have to rework the slots a bit, but I think these clips (or similar) just might do the job.
 

PickensSC

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Joined
Apr 19, 2013
Location
Pickens, SC
TDI
2002 Jetta, 2003 Jetta
The door panel inserts from RockAuto appear to be designed for that. I'm thinking of buying a set, since the cloth on mine is coming loose. Here's a product link:

https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=9855636&cc=1389214&jsn=394

Has anyone tried these inserts yet?
I covered my peeling cloth inserts with these and I really like them. I pulled the cloth off to get a better fit. There's a small gap along the edges but the look and feel are much better than the old cloth.
 

Blacktree

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Sep 9, 2015
Location
Central FL
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'02 Jetta 5-spd
I've used a glue gun to successfully reattach door card inserts. I'd say the key is the glue. I bought PDR glue sticks from ebay, which held up just fine, and mimicked the OE setup from VW. Recovering without removing would take more skill than I have.
Thanks for the tip. I removed one insert, tried to re-install it with regular hot glue, and it didn't hold. So I'll try the PDR glue next.


I should probably google this, but do the PDR glue sticks need a special glue gun?
 

hskrdu

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Oct 17, 2003
Location
Maryland and New England
TDI
2003 Golf GLS 4D 5M, 2015 GSW SE 6M
The do come in different sizes, and (IIRC) some glue guns do not get hot enough for the PDR glue sticks. I didn't know that (at the time), but got lucky as the glue gun I used was an older model that worked. I think most of the newer, small, hobby models may not work with PDR sticks, but I can't say for certain- it was really my only time using that type of glue. Oh, and they did have different colors if you don't want black glue. I figured no one but me would see it (and it was just a project anyway).

The vortex is really the best source. Those guys have recovered their doors and headliners in just about every fabric.
 
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Prairie Chicken

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Jan 28, 2014
Location
Northern IL
TDI
05 Jetta, 04 Jetta
On 2 of my jettas I pulled the grey inserts and replaced with black “leather” inserts and handles from the scrap yard and happy with them. Like the 2 tone look...

Pulling the original insert I left as much of the plastic tabs as I could. Using a blade or small screwdriver you can almost flip up the melted part from underneath and most of it comes right off. There will always be some breakage tho.

I glued down with jb plasti-weld and it is holding great.

 
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Tdijarhead

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Joined
Nov 10, 2013
Location
Lawrenceville PA
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2003 TDI Jetta Daughters Car, 2001 TDI Beetle, Wife’s car, 2005 Golf TDI Mine, all 5 spds
I found these on ebay.






They are leather, you can see the red stitching. There were other colors available. I wish the maker had been a bit more generous with material around the edges, but all in all they fit ok. They certainly look better than the old cloth inserts.



I did of course have to remove the door cards. I used a new utility knife blade and just trimmed the tabs so that they would slide back through the slots. Yes I lost a couple of tabs. The I hot glued the tab back in place. I used a spray adhesive to attach the leather to the door after peeling off the old cloth.
 

Hamloaf

Member
Joined
May 21, 2017
Location
Delaware, Hartly USA
TDI
2006 Jetta TDI 5 speed
did you install these then? i having the same issue with my rear right door panel, the leather falling down... do you still have to buy a glue to adhere it onto the door panel then? I am tempted to just buy a whole new door panel...
 
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