My replacement interior.

[dbrannon79]

Hey guys, I figured I'd start a thread here as I need some help and opinions on working the interior. I just replaced the dash after I finally got around to pulling it out of the garage, painting and installing. I had bought this dash off the face space back in January of 22. I really didn't think I had it in the garage that long, but after looking at the photos in my phone and seeing the date they were taken! I was in shock I had let it sit there that long before actually doing something about it.

I did make the mistake of using gloss paint to do the dash, found that out when I took the truck into town after installing the new dash. the sun gave me lots of reflection in the windshield. needless to say, once the paint cures for about a week, I will be putting my carpet dash cover back in!


Here are some photos of the dash when I bought it, followed by removing the old one, and the finished product. and yes this blue dash is the same one in the light beige color! LOL

 

[dbrannon79]

Now I need to figure out something to do with my door panels. there are areas on both the drivers and passengers door where the plastic is faded along with the fabric that is there has come loose. on top of this, the drivers panel has two tiny cracks and also a place at the door pull area where the plastic is deforming and pulling out.

I really don't want to just paint them, mainly due to arm abrasion and sweat won't take long to peal paint. also don't think I can cover them with any fabric fully and make the glue stick and still look nice.

I really wish these panels had the option to remove the arm rests, I would be able to work with them on that, but it's all one piece.

I need some help here and some ideas. I have had thoughts and curiosities about finding some of the 94 and earlier era panels to see if they would fit these doors, but even then, I'm not sure they made any panels for the rear doors (crew cab) of this design.

another thought I had was taking a flat piece of board and making some old style door card out of. cutting the same shape of the door panel and use the same cut out for keeping the factory inside door handle and trim. covering it fully with some material or carpet of a matching color. then getting an arm rest bolted on and maybe even some sort of lower pocked to bolt on to the flat card. not sure how I would work in the window switches if I attempted to design a custom door panel.

What are some ideas and thoughts to this? if I did anything custom, I would have to keep it on the less expensive side as in using materials readily available from local hardware stores and things off amazon. I doubt I would be able to do anything like custom fiberglass work here. the main thing is if I made one, I would have to be able to re-produce it for the other doors and still look nice!

Here are a couple photos of my drivers door panel.

 

[SnowDrift]

That color looks a shade lighter than the rest of the plastic, but overall, it looks great compared to what you started with. I had a similar situation on a Grand Prix when I added a heated seat switch years ago. You could paint the hard plastic parts on your doors to match the dash to tie it all together.

 

[dbrannon79]

I'm just afraid of paint rubbing off the arm rest too easy. if I could find some type of material that would stretch and form to all the contours of the door panels, that would work. I think I can split the lower and upper sections where the door pocket is and leave that section alone. but recovering the upper section would be nice.

I might end up repainting the dash with a darker shade later down the road. we will see. even before I started. the dash was darker brown than the trim and doors. LOL I over shot the color choice. not to mention the gloss sheen. I used a satin black on the bezel around the cluster and radio. that came out good and does not have a reflective sheen to it. it's a learning curve for me. I think if I go with a satin tan on the dash later, that will look better.

 

[SnowDrift]

Not the armrest - door trim bezels for example. Hard plastic only. No flexible stuff.

 

[Will L.]

Rhino line or lineX.
Stuff is bullet proof and you will never wear it down.

 

[dbrannon79]

I hadn't thought about the rhino line or linex. though the texture might prove to be a bit on the rough side for the arm rest pad.

I did watch a YouTube video of a guy covering a door panel that had almost the same contours as these panels. he used that material that's what I call imitation leather. its a fabric backed vinyl material and used a heat activated glue. coated both the panel and the back of the material, let it dry then laid it over the panel. it won't stick or even get tacky until a heat gun is used. he was able to stretch the material little by little and use the heat gun to stick small areas as he worked from the center out. on my panel the piece that is over the arm rest and covers where the door handle is can be removed where I can cut out a piece of wood and cover it in some carpet or some cloth material too.

watching that video gives me hope of doing something like that myself. maybe even covering the trim pieces like the plastic on the door pillars and around the head liner too.

Here is the video if someone wants to watch.