Recovering interior rear panels

[DMC8182]

Since the grey interior rear panels (where the rear speakers are)
are not available, has anyone had success recovering them or having them recovered at a shop?

The vinyl skin is cracking on mine.

Cecil Longwisch
10663
2535

[pezzonovante88]

I had a console trim piece in my Jag that needed recovering. I took it to an Apple Auto Glass (they do other stuff than glass) and they matched the leather and color nearly perfectly. Cost me about $80. There're a lot of places that can do recovering.

[DMC5180]

Since the grey interior rear panels (where the rear speakers are)
are not available, has anyone had success recovering them or having them recovered at a shop?

The vinyl skin is cracking on mine.

Cecil Longwisch
10663
2535

Hi Cecil,

This is a great question, I've been wondering the same thing. I'm surprised DMCH has not started recovering them with the their custom Vinyl.

[Delorean Industries]

Hi Cecil,

This is a great question, I've been wondering the same thing. I'm surprised DMCH has not started recovering them with the their custom Vinyl.

We do this here. They turn out extremely well. The only down side is the covering of the speaker holes. We fill in the holes with panel 60 and sand the finish.

I only recommend this if you are willing to move the speakers to the rear carpet panel. I have no idea if Steve (I think) will be marketing any more of those panels. We make the speaker boxes as one off's in the shop for owners but nothing mass produced for sale.

Looking for a picture on here....

[Delorean Industries]

Few pictures of the refurbished panels.

[AdmiralSenn]

Josh, any idea on price? I need to have my driver's side done and I might as well do the passenger too so they match. Might be worth doing this year since I'm slowly edging towards my interior to-do list.

My speakers are already on the rear panel, so nothing of value will be lost.

[Delorean Industries]

Josh, any idea on price? I need to have my driver's side done and I might as well do the passenger too so they match. Might be worth doing this year since I'm slowly edging towards my interior to-do list.

My speakers are already on the rear panel, so nothing of value will be lost.

The set is 595.00 modified and recovered. Includes recovered lower arm rest sections as well like in the pictures. Available in two colors as of now. Black and gray.

Fair warning..... Install is a PITA. Stretching and glueing the material around the fiberglass body is a lot of fun. Almost as bad as the perfect A pillar install.

[outatym2001]

Yes, I have and it ain’t cheap. They told me the best vinyl to stick would be the vinyl with the felt backing so I went with it at $60 per yard. Needed two yards so there is $120 already spent before the project is even started.

I ripped off the original thirty year old vinyl and cleaned with denatured alcohol.
I bought the foam cut it into shape and glued it into place. The foam is on the curved arm rest pads under the vinyl.

I bought the 1/8” steel hole punch and punched out the holes for the speakers as you can see in the pictures.

I bought the aluminum pop rivets and borrowed a pop rivet gun and reattached the curved arm rest pads to the vinyl covered wall panel. I already own a drill. And I drilled some new holes in the plastic for the new pop rivets.
I bought four new steel screws (two each side) to replace the existing screws for the curved arm rest pads as you can see in the pictures.

Ultimately I paid $750 dollars for the vinyl and the labor to cut and sew and glue on the vinyl to my original plastic wall panels. That’s with 9.5% Washington state sales tax included.
Yeah, I know it’s a hell of a lot of money but if I knew how to cut and sew the stuff myself then I wouldn’t need to pay someone else to do it.
Got it done at Mac’s Upholstery in Ballard which is a neighborhood in Seattle, Washington.

[Henrik]

Mark,
Great tutorial, thanks. A small recommendation though:
I punched my holes using the 1/8" punch you recommended but found that the holes were a little on the small side, so I bought a couple of hole punches from McMaster Carr (http://mcmaster.com), they're only $6-7 a piece. Turns out, the 11/64" size (McMaster PN 3424A15) is the perfect size. This gives you the largest possible hole without the punch getting stuck.

Henrik

[jawn101]

That looks great, Mark.

So Josh - is there any chance of you guys offering refurbished panels with the holes punched out? Would it be possible to punch the holes in your current offering? Just curious, I'm not a huge fan of how my rear quarter panels look (DPO chose to cut one of them at the door seal rather than heat and unwrap it) but don't really want to move the speakers from the stock location.

[GS450-Junkie]

Question on these rear speaker panels....
I recently had my rear panels recovered, and I installed them myself. Unfortunately...someone plopped down into my car and their elbow pushed down on the little armrest towards the bottom of the panel and popped it out of place. It's still attached on the underside as that is riveted in place, but the 2 small screws on top pulled out and now that armrest is separated from the panel with a 3" gap on top as it now hangs inward in the car. What's the best way to repair that small armrest? Is there any way to do it with the panel in place? I don't really care to remove the entire panel again and have to reglue, etc. I tried using some ultra high bond 3M double sided tape, but no luck. Now I just saw a commercial on tv for some sort of liquid nails caulk/construction adhesive that is supposed to bond all material types together and this made me think. Anyone try something like that before? Any suggestions for repairing this panel in place?

[Henrik]

Question on these rear speaker panels....
I recently had my rear panels recovered, and I installed them myself. Unfortunately...someone plopped down into my car and their elbow pushed down on the little armrest towards the bottom of the panel and popped it out of place. It's still attached on the underside as that is riveted in place, but the 2 small screws on top pulled out and now that armrest is separated from the panel with a 3" gap on top as it now hangs inward in the car. What's the best way to repair that small armrest? Is there any way to do it with the panel in place? I don't really care to remove the entire panel again and have to reglue, etc. I tried using some ultra high bond 3M double sided tape, but no luck. Now I just saw a commercial on tv for some sort of liquid nails caulk/construction adhesive that is supposed to bond all material types together and this made me think. Anyone try something like that before? Any suggestions for repairing this panel in place?

My one and only instruction for people getting in and out of my car is to never, ever put their weight on those little side bolsters (I think that is what they're called) because when they tear.... you're in for a lot of work. To re-attach it once and for all, you need to remove the speaker panel again... Sorry. What I did when I re-did my interior is when I had my rear speaker panels recovered with vinyl, I had them leave a 2-3 inch overlap all the way around. So when I installed the newly covered rear speaker panels I tucked in the excess vinyl under the door seal, then I trimmed the vinyl along the outside of the door seal. This is the only way my rear speaker panels are held in place; no glue or anything like that needed and the panels can be easily removed should the need ever arise...