Plastic door panel - thoughts / what I did

[Soundmound]

Door panels came out really great. I would be happy with those on a work truck for sure.

 

[1STLS1]

In my research from about 2 years ago, one guy used aerosol cans of spray bedliner held far back when spraying to get the pebble grain back texture in the plastic before refinishing the panels with a fresh coat of interior paint. Another place suggested SEM 39853 Texture coating for bumpers and dashes when refinishing. I have yet to try these but purchased everything for what I get to that point.

 

[smullen]

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SirRobyn0, that looks 100% better and I may do that to mine, to help them out for now till I decide what color and what I really want too do.
Thanks for taking the time to share!!!

 

[Grit dog]

I missed this thread, but, yeah that looks awesome Rob!
Another thought, if it doesn't hold the shine, is use Mothers Back to Black on it. That stuff works quite well on oxidized plastics.
I just torch shined the tops of the panels on the blue truck. They were not flaking or crusty like yours, but I am 1000% surprised/impressed that they came back to life like that.

 

[Radiohead]

I gotta try this out

 

[John Nes]

Dang, came out looking nice! I’ve had to do some at the shop and generally I’ll just use a green scotch-brite pad to knock the chalky stuff, clean em with a surface prep / degreaser, then a dusting of Bulldog Adhesion promoter followed by a couple coats of SEM dye. For small gaps/smooth sections in the grain, I’ve just used pieces of ‘grainy’ vinyl pushed into the dye while tacky, to mimic the texture.

Looks killer tho man. Might “shave” a couple old panels using your method now!

 

[SirRobyn0]

@smullen @Grit dog @Radiohead @John Nes Guys I should give an update. There has been only one issue. IDK if it's because the plastic is old and dried out or what, but the area that I rehabbed wants to stain anything on your elbow if you like to rest it there. So being a mechanic I turned a spot black ASAP, and it took a little steel wool / cleaner treatment to get it off. I let it dry good and then hit it with a little shot clear coat. Now stuff like that wipes off easy. So if I did another set I'd scrape, do the steel wool with interior cleaner, let it dry really well and then shot it with clear coat just to seal it. Maybe that's not necessary for everyone but it is for me! Well worth what was probably only about an hours worth of time, or maybe even less. It wasn't hard or time consuming. If any of you guys try it I'd like to see a pic or two.

 

[scrap--metal]

while not perfect, it's a lot better.

Holy chit, Rob! Those look great now. I did see your update regarding clear coat and staining; that's good to know.
When I saw the panels in your first picture(s), I thought to myself, "Those are toast. Add a couple cig burns for period correctness and let them be".

Boy was I wrong. Nice work! Maybe someday I will attempt to rehab the panels on my K20.

 

[Tanked]

I use the bulldog and the SIM spray paint and I have some little chips coming out now this was about 5 years ago.

 

[Tanked]

So far I'm very happy with the results prep work is the most important and I don't know what the clear coat would be? they look brand new and have survived me brutally attacking them!

 

[Rusty Nail]

I had a Datsun 208z a good 12 years ago

Pix?

 

[RecklessWOT]

Pix?

I still have that smashed POS parts car in my driveway, along with the clean-ish one (not crashed and rusted out, but newer and uglier bodywork I need to convert back to chrome bumpers from the ugly 80s plastic ones) I bought to toss the drivetrain onto. Yet another stalled project. I can take pictures if you really want, but nothing pretty at this point... The thing still fires up at the slightest bump of the key even with like 10 year old E10 gas in it. Idles rough after all this time, been sitting so long the clutch and brake masters have gone bad, but if you start it in gear and hold it to the floor it still does donuts lol

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So the red one is the first and nicest one I had, but it took a tree to the a-pillar at about 60. The primer one is the one I bought off the PR that I mentioned before with the paint all over the interior. I spent a couple years bringing the thing back to glory before I spun it out on the highway and bent the sh!t out of it tagging the guardrail multiple times. Those things like to crash themselves. It has the drivetrain from the red car in it as it was low mileage. I plan to take that same drivetrain and slap it in the one I currently have taking up space in my driveway. I don't have any pictures, but you get the hint. Another crappy car but at least it's not rusty and bent. Not a day goes by where I'm not upset about the red car. That picture is from roughly Jan-Feb 2010.

 

[Rusty Nail]

280s are cool AF dude, sweet pix.

 

[drumvirt]

Thanks, I think they turned out great too, and judging by your picture it looks like your probably looked great after the second pass, as the progress is obvious in the first.

Glad to know those methods work. I didn't elaborate in my post, but I read a how to somewhere and the guy basically recommended a torch if the panel was off the door, or a heat gun if it's on the door. I just didn't have balls. By the time I'd scraped and steel wooled them they were already looking so much better I was afraid of melting them or some nearby plastic. So I did a little more work with the steel wool, cleaned and put the treatment on them.

Those panels will melt. Some years ago, I was using my backpack blower and for a moment I had to back up against my C-30 passenger side door (window was open) as I was blowing leaves. I quickly smelled plastic, turned around and saw a 2" diameter area on the top of the door panel that had begun to melt!
I finally did a refurb job on the panels and finished 2 days ago. They turned out nice. Yours did, too. I liked your well thought out and detailed, clear explanation of your process to prep and coat the top section of your panel. Mine had similar scratches but also included the unique "backpack artistry" to hide. Copying a process I saw someone else use for refurbing dashboards, I sprayed a few a few light coats of Rustoleum clear undercoater on the top section only and protected the rest of the panel by taping at the contours so any spray line could be blended and removed easily. The Rustoleum covered the damage and left a very light texture but with a slight sharpness I didn't want. That smoothed out nicely when I coated the panels, fortunately.
Here's a side note I'd like to mention for everybody about a great old product still available if you hunt for it. It's called a Preval sprayer.

Preval - Refillable spray system - Spray any paint!

Refillable DIY and Pro paint spray systems. Spray any liquid for professional results. Order Now or call to become a distributor 877-753-0021

preval.com

I have no connection with the product or company but I recommend them because they work great. I found out about them and first used one around 35 years ago. Home Depot stocks them and they were fool proof for painting my door panels.

 

[SirRobyn0]

Those panels will melt. Some years ago, I was using my backpack blower and for a moment I had to back up against my C-30 passenger side door (window was open) as I was blowing leaves. I quickly smelled plastic, turned around and saw a 2" diameter area on the top of the door panel that had begun to melt!
I finally did a refurb job on the panels and finished 2 days ago. They turned out nice. Yours did, too. I liked your well thought out and detailed, clear explanation of your process to prep and coat the top section of your panel. Mine had similar scratches but also included the unique "backpack artistry" to hide. Copying a process I saw someone else use for refurbing dashboards, I sprayed a few a few light coats of Rustoleum clear undercoater on the top section only and protected the rest of the panel by taping at the contours so any spray line could be blended and removed easily. The Rustoleum covered the damage and left a very light texture but with a slight sharpness I didn't want. That smoothed out nicely when I coated the panels, fortunately.
Here's a side note I'd like to mention for everybody about a great old product still available if you hunt for it. It's called a Preval sprayer.

Preval - Refillable spray system - Spray any paint!

Refillable DIY and Pro paint spray systems. Spray any liquid for professional results. Order Now or call to become a distributor 877-753-0021

preval.com

I have no connection with the product or company but I recommend them because they work great. I found out about them and first used one around 35 years ago. Home Depot stocks them and they were fool proof for painting my door panels.

Thanks, 1 year later they are still holding up really well and no issues have popped up.