How To: Repair/Replace door panel inserts

Standard disclaimer:
It's not my fault if you fuck up your shit because you don't know how to use tools or caution.

I couldn't find a comprehensive thread on this and other materials floating around the interweb has been scattered to say the least. Being a common enough repair to our trucks, I though I'd document the process. As most of my how-to threads, this came about out of necessity and a random: "Hey, do you think you can do this?"

Yes. Yes I can.

So here goes:
The problem with Tacoma door panel inserts (the part your elbow naturally lands on while driving) is that they are structurally designed to fail (more on that later). Not sure what old man Toyota was thinking with the design but the plastic insert is really weak and prone to cracking but is not "easily" replaceable (ie: not a bolt-on part) and there's no fucking way I'm buying a whole door card just because one small part failed. I honestly don'y even know how much door cards cost, but i'm sure it's a lot more than I have into this project.

Here's a perfect example of what happens after a little use. The truck we're working on today is a 2013 TRD OffRoad. While not a brand new truck it's new enough that this type of failure shouldn't happen. The door panel insert is torn because the plastic behind it has cracked. Let's take a look and see why this happened.

Removing the door is easy enough but for a complete how-to I have to include "how-to". One clip and two screws and a few push fasteners.

Push in the center portion of this clip in and you can pull it out.




The two mounting screws are hidden behind these little covers- one by the door latch and the other behind he pull handle.A small screw driver or pocket knife will open them. Don't force it because the plastic is super thin and distorts easily.




Once you have those off, the small triangle panel behind the mirror mount pops right off. Three small clips hold it in place.




The entire door panel can now come off and it's now just held in by clips (now that the two screws and single clip have been removed). Firm pressure will get it off. I started at the rear of the door panel and worked my way around. They sell special trim tools but I just did it by hand without too much effort. Just pull up slightly and the card comes off. Now's a good time to mention that you have to unplug the window switches. Actually I should've mentioned it before but I bet you felt silly pulling the door card off only to have it tugged back by the wiring harness, didn't you? I sure did. Using your small flat screwdriver, pry at the front of the switch panel and it comes off. Then unplug the single connector.

Now that it's off here's the back of the door card. Our problem area is behind the small piece of sound deadening. It pulls right off but be careful to not tear it if you plan on reusing it. I didn't see too much "deadening" gained by leaving it in but also didn't see any harm in not putting it back.




Here's the back of the door insert. If anyone has any idea why in the hell Toyota would add these grids to the plastic mold, then I'd like to hear it. All I can see is a place where the plastic is thinner and naturally weak and will break. Here's the break in question and the root cause of the repair.

The seam in the plastic panel cracked and this allowed the vinyl on the outside to stretch to the point of tearing.

This small insert is plastic welded in place from the factory. Around the perimeter of the panel you'll see these small nubs.


There's also one small screw but it honestly isn't doing much to hold the panel together. I think it's more to align the two pieces together at the factory while the rest is welded in place.


From the factory, the panel has holes around the mounts and the door card has lugs that protrude through the holes. When assembled, the lugs are melted down (similar to how ye old time letters used wax seals) and the parts are fused together. So here's how we're going to deal with the welded areas. In order to separate the two pieces, the easiest way I found was to use a 3/8" spade bit. The reason I used a spade bit as opposed to a standard drill bit was because the spade would leave a small lip of material that we will need in order to reassemble the panel back together. A drill bit would remove too much material IMO. Even better would be a hole saw if you can find one that small (I couldn't and didn't want to go look for one since it might have doubled my investment to this project).


Carefully go around the panel and drill out each weld. You aren't drilling through all the way, just enough to weaken the joint so we can snap it off while saving enough material to work with to reassemble. I managed to break one attachment point, but it's ay easy fix if you find yourself in the same situation.






Here's the door panel with the insert now removed. And a close up of what's left of the lugs after separation. Set it aside while we work on the insert.




Here's the tear on the vinyl. The upholstery is held on with standard adhesive. It should pull right off, leaving a little adhesive residue on the insert. In the next picture you can see the crack in the plastic as well as a second white line a little lower that indicates the plastic was about to crack in that spot.





The fix:

A note on plastic welding. If you know anything about welding steel, then it is the same principal but without the electric arc: use heat to melt the two pieces together. I used a standard electrical soldering iron but I keep a dedicated tip for plastic and a separate clean tip while soldering electrical connectors so that nothing gets contaminated.

I spot welded the back of the crack just to hold the pieces together while i worked. Be careful not to burn through because any distortion in the face of the plastic could be felt through the upholstery once assembled.




After that I sanded the repair area of the insert front and back with 80 grit. A little aggressive, but remember we're making a repair and the fiberglass needs something to grab on to. Oh, didn't I mention it earlier? Yeah, we're using fiberglass to fix this.

I'm not going to tell you how to use fiberglass but its pretty easy. Read the instructions for mixing ratios and application time and technique and you should be good to go. We used this kit ($15) that had everything we needed (minus an applicator brush- another $1.50). Gloves and proper ventilation, yadda-yadda...










Two layers of fiberglass on the front and one on the back.

Once cured (about 2 hours), sand the fiberglass just enough to smooth down any rough spots or stray fibers. Be sure to keep the contour of the insert because it is fitted to the corresponding opening in the door card.




Here's the back of the repair. No need to sand this side.



Ready to reupholster:
Now normally, you'd want to use upholstery foam to add some cushion to your new insert. I didn't have any but found that the drawer liner for my tool box was the perfect substitute. I used contact cement to attach the foam. If you've never used contact cement, read the damn label. Spray both pieces to be adhered together, let the cement tack up and the stick them together. It's a really strong bond if you do it right. If you just spray one side and mash it together while still wet, the product will not bond and you'll be doing that shit over after you read the directions. Take your time to lay down the foam because you really only get one shot. Make sure to stretch it to fit and prevent any air bubbles and/or wrinkles.




It dries relatively fast and you can start trimming the foam to the panel. There's no need to extend the foam around the panel and you only need it on the face (this goes back to when I mentioned about the panel fitting inside an appropriately sized hole in the door card). When we wrap the new vinyl, we will wrap over the edge for full coverage.

Boom.

Now that that's done, add the vinyl the same way as the foam: contact cement and stretch and shape to fit. Here's a link to the vinyl used in this project:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Toyota-Tac...-Arm-Rest-Fabric-For-Access-Cab-/352176192841

Here's where it gets a little tricky. Work your way around the perimeter of the insert and make small relief cuts so you can form the vinyl to the plastic. You can use a round tool to press the vinyl into the tight curves. I used the handle to my cheap scissors.








Trim off the excess and make sure to cut around and leave the tabs exposed so we can reattach the panel.

Heres where it gets really tricky and in typical GHOST SHIP fashion also where I got caught up working and didn't take pictures. An extra set of hands might help during this part but it can be done by yourself if you're patient. Press the panel back into place and reattach the single screw we removed earlier. This holds the panel in place but does not put tension on both pieces so you'll have to keep pressure on everything while you work. Once the holes are lined up you're going to plastic weld the lugs back together. The shoulder created by the outside teeth of the spade bit will be pushed down and melted into the crater created by the tip of the bit. I also kept some of the shavings created when we drilled everything out to use them as filler material for the weld. Make sure you have a good bond and everything melts together properly. Here's a look at the finished product:



Pretty good, right?

If there are some points where you aren't quite sure you have a good bond, you can use some epoxy to reinforce those areas. For the one clip that I broke during removal, I used JB weld and formed the putty around the repair. Ugly as hell but it'll hold.

Now for the good part. Crack open a beer or mountain dew and pat yourself on the back. Good job little buddy.


Here's the finished panel installed back on the truck.


The passenger side was done the same way but there was no need to make a repair. I just added the new matching upholstery which took maybe 30-45 min start to finish.


Update:
Here’s a video of the same process done on a 3rd gen. Not sure if the person who made the video is on here or not.

https://youtu.be/Pf0viZLkKEA

 

Wow that is sweet Sergio, you are quite talented with these things.

 

A little time and a lot of patience, my friend.


Oh and I'm cheap and refuse to buy something when I can fix what I have.

 

sweet i'll do that before winter

 

Thanks Scott! I'm getting better at taking pics instead of working through something.

 

Saved to my bookmarks for the day I have to do this thanks @GHOST SHIP great write up

 

Thanks again! nice job on the write up!

 

Great write up and repair @GHOST SHIP

 

Great job man! Do you think the fiberglass resin will stick to the plastic long term? I hope it does.
I don't mean to sound negative on this but it's hard to get anything to stick well to polyethylene or polypropylene.

Let us know how it holds up!

 

Jesus tittyfucking Christ.

Bravo for patience and documentation.

 

I certainly hope it holds. Unfortunately the only way we’ll know for certain is if the panel fails again. I did sand the working area quite aggressively with 80 grit sandpaper so there is some tooth there.
A already have a plan b in mind if it does fail. I’ll be drilling copious holes through the insert to create almost a mesh. Then fiberglassing both sides will allow the resin to sandwich the plastic and stick to itself, using the plastic insert as only a frame. I have some experience working with fiberglass and doing bodywork so I’d be confident in this repair and even if I have to use filler to smooth out the final surface, it should be fine.

 

Nice work @GHOST SHIP

 

Thanks Doc!

 

Added a link to a 3rd gen video I found on YouTube in the OP.

 

Great job, sub'd since I have a set of these on the part shelf...

 

I know I'm late to the party. But great write up and photos

l needed this !!!

 

Me too.
I just did this but the poor man's way. I used Nashua 324A tape in several layers. Worked good but may do this permanent repair when I install new speakers.
Luckily I learned fiberglass repair after surfing at a favorite jagged rocky bottom spot called "Tit's" in Panama, the country that is.

This may also require some new door clips as some may break. I got them from Clips and Fasteners. Part number 67771-30070.

 

The door clips aren’t as delicate as the fender clips on out trucks, just make sure you take your time and pull evenly around the door card. One thing I’ll add to the OP is when laying the glass sheet, you can wrap a little over the edges of the arm rest. There was a little delamination on a test attempt when we just laid down a small patch for the repair. Wrapping around more contours gives a stronger grip on the repaired panel so even if it doesn’t adhere, it’ll still hold on mechanically.

 

Great write-up! I just had the plastic split on that seam, but the fabric is still in excellent shape. Do you think it would be a workable fix to put the fiberglass on the underside so I don't have to remove the fabric?