VW Door panel repair that is strong and looks original

[tgray]

After years of frustration with the VW door panel failures and the solutions that didn't ever deal with having all the tabs broken off I started drilling screws in from behind. That kind of works but the screws tend to poke through. I also repaired some with through bolts but that doesn't look stock. My son was not happy with me doing that to his car so I tried something new. Some have suggested plastic welding but the welder is likely going to damage the other side you see. Some have suggested melting zip ties but I found this is not very strong and they break off very easy.
This method I invented is fairly cheap, easy and very strong It is a little slow but I found the results worth the effort. Once I melted the worm gear clamp into the plastic it seems stronger than the factory melt and the panel insert is now removable and adjustable in the end.
I used small fuel line clamps made of stainless steel
Cut the screw part off and bend the clamp as shown below.
Heat the clamp red hot while holding with a vice grip.
Immediately push the hot clamp onto the proper spot. I then take a screw driver and mash down the plastic that oozed through. I then take the vice grip off when still hot and soft so as to not break the partially hardened plastic.
Let it cool before pulling on it too hard.
Carefully push the clamps through the insert. I usually start inserting one side and start one clamp. Then just work my way around the panel. Don't over tighten the clamps. If a tab hole is broken I used a flat washer. If the clamp is going to hit the window motor just bend it out of the way before tightening. The bend itself will hold the panel tight. On the Jetta I only had to bend one clamp over on the front doors - all others cleared fine.
I glued on new covers I got on Ebay if you are curious. They were cheap and look really good in the end. They give you glue tape but contact cement looks and acts way better in the end. They tell you to tuck the fabric in without removing the insert but the best way is to remove the insert, clean it up. install the new cover and then put it back using this method. I think this method will last a long time as there is no foam backing with the fabric glued directly to the panel insert.
Try melting a clamp on a place where it doesn't count on an open spot to get the feel. If the plastic flames up just blow it out. Then try pulling it off when cooled down to see how much force it takes.

 

[VincenzaV]

Wow! I need to do this...thinks!

 

[KrashDH]

Pretty clever I've got to say. If you don't have plasti tabs left this method will work well!

By the way, I purchased the same leather on eBay. I'm going to get a thin layer of foam underneath though.

Nice work, looks awesome.

 

[tgray]

I originally was going to put foam under the fabric but decided "looks and durability" over "feel" Let me know how it works. I know the fabric I used is tough and may pull hard on the foam around the bends. Maybe a combination of foam on the flat arm rest and none on the other parts? I did use a commercial solvent based contact cement (and brushed it on both sides). Another note of help I found to work when cleaning up the arm rest is to use baking soda if it is really gummy and sticky like mine was. The problem is most solvents will not cut it and it you do find something it seemed to start destroying the base material. I scraped most of the gummy old foam off with a small razor and chisel. Then rubbed soda onto the panel. This turns the sticky mess into something that can be sanded and scraped off better. The soda is real clean and not toxic to work with and "soaks" up the sticky mess. Just don't wear good clothes as this sticky goo gets on everything before you know it. Some cars I have redone the headliner and the foam was dry and came off with a wire brush but for whatever reason some foams seem to melt into a mess to get cleaned up.

 

[tgray]

Can someone tell me what those round tubes are for behind the panel? The only thing I can think of is they are something to help the radio waves for the transponder.

 

[U4ick]

I'm pretty sure that they are simply stiffeners.

 

[sriracha]

I like the hose clamp idea!

I made a video about using zipties to attach the inner door panel:

 

[tgray]

I forgot that I saw this video a while back and used it on one of my cars. This zip tie method is probably is the easiest way if the tabs are all there and still strong. It seems as these cars age the plastic just breaks down and falls apart. This Golf I am redoing had broken tabs even on the doors that looked solid. Some broke just taking them apart.

 

[KrashDH]

I like the hose clamp idea!

I made a video about using zipties to attach the inner door panel:

Looks good @sriracha! Did you recover your panels yourself? I really need to do this and have the leather inserts I'm just dreading the cleanup of the old foam that turns to gooey crap

 

[sriracha]

Looks good @sriracha! Did you recover your panels yourself? I really need to do this and have the leather inserts I'm just dreading the cleanup of the old foam that turns to gooey crap

I pulled four clean leather insert panels from three different Jetta sedans at the local Pick-N-Pull. I have a wagon, which has unique rear door cards, so I decided to just replace the insert panels, which are the same shape between sedan and wagon. Plus, the panels were roughly 1/4 the price of buying the full door cards. Relatively affordable and easy to replace, the padded leather insert panels were a significant upgrade to the comfort and feel of the interior over the original sagging cloth insert panels.

 

[Nuje]

I also bought that same (looking) leather replacement for the door panel from Aliexpress, but for the life of me, could not get it to fit nicely. It feels like it's for a completely different model of car.

I used sriracha's method after watching his (what should be award-winning for video quality, editing, audio levels (no canned "music") video; a couple of my tabs were pretty much gone, so I added a bit of Goop adhesive and then clamped for 24hrs., and they look and feel pretty much factory-good/solid now.

 

[jimbote]

Can someone tell me what those round tubes are for behind the panel? The only thing I can think of is they are something to help the radio waves for the transponder.

part of the side impact protection

 

[zslnk]

Can someone tell me what those round tubes are for behind the panel? The only thing I can think of is they are something to help the radio waves for the transponder.

The cardboard ones? Acoustics. Noise trap is my guess.

 

[tgray]

The tubes don't seem strong enough to do a lot for the side impact but I found online an abstract describing how the issue in a crash is not stopping the crash penetration but reducing the impact to the occupant. So the tube could be a something to soften the blow a little. These are more than just cardboard and seem very engineered with aluminum laminated inside the cardboard. I have found these on other cars besides VW. Good to know to keep them if they fall off or need to be removed.

 

[Nuje]

The tubes don't seem strong enough to do a lot for the side impact

I assumed that was intended to be a joke.

 

[tgray]

I thought at first this was a joke, (and the tubes themselves seem like a joke) but then I think maybe they are something to do with the crash design of the car. I know car manufacturers don't put in anything they don't need on the inside of a door panel and what they do is build as cheap as possible. I was digging around some more and read an article talking about how hard it was to build a crumple zone into the thin door. They can build safety crumple zones into the steel for the front end crash but the door is the real challenge. They brace it with a round steel bar that bends but that holds back the large force coming in but not the issue of the person slamming into the door. They said in the article that most fatal injuries are from the organs slamming into the skeleton inside the body. So they do everything to reduce the harshness of the blow. We all would rather fall on a padded carpet floor than a stone floor. The fall is still the same but the pain is greater on the rock. So that has me thinking that if they use these tubes to brace the door panel up against the door itself the hollow tube will crumple in a crash rather than push hard into the occupant. This hollow tube becomes a lighter duty crumple zone as well as a brace for when you push on that area of the door panel. In other words, it seems that it may be for both reasons. A brace and a crash protection all in one.