Reupholster Fabric on Door Panels [DIY]

Hondas don’t come from the factory with the prettiest interior, but that doesn’t mean you can’t spice it up yourself. Follow this guide to reupholster the fabric on your door panels, and get a fresh new look for your interior!

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Materials Needed to Reupholster Door Panels

• Razor blade
• Scissors
• 3M Spray on adhesive 90 Hi strength
• Sheet metal screws and washers you will need 32 screws and 32 washers
• Fabric of your choice make sure that the fabric has some thickness to it so  the glue dosn’t soak through. Get at least 2 yards so if you mess up you have more to work with.
• Dremel tool preferred
• Philips screw driver

How to Reupholster Door Panels

1. Remove the door panels from the car door. This is easy, but for detailed instructions consult a service manual.
2. Remove the 3 screws pictured below which hold the plastic storage pocket to the door panel, once you remove those 3 screws you will be able to remove the backside of the pocket.

3. Now remove the 2 screws on the inside of the door pocket to remove the other side of the pocket from the door panel. Once you remove the door pocket you will be able to see all of the heat pressed posts that hold the door insert to the panel itself.


4. Grab your dremel with the grinding tip and grind the plastic around the melted circles which are holding the door insert and door panels together. Be sure not to grind down the post itself but to grind around it you dont want to shorten the post.

5. Once you grind around the post it should look like this continue till you have grinded around all 16 posts.

6. Remove the door insert from the door panel its easy just pull them apart if you grinded around all the posts it should come apart with little effort.

7. Remove the old fabric from the door insert. Clean old adhesive off if desired I didn’t.

8. Lay out the old fabric on top of the new one so you can cut out how much you will be using.

9. Lay the fabric on top of your door insert to make sure you have cut enough and start smoothing it out on the top you will be glueing very soon.

10. fold some fabric to the left you will start on the side where the window handle would be. Spray adhesive on the plastic, then some on the fabric make sure you do not get any adhesive on the side that will be showing. Let the glue sit for 30-60 seconds and depending on how much you sprayed the glue should be tacky. Once it gets tacky fold back over the fabric on the glue and smooth out make sure you have no wrinkles.

11. Now that the section you have done has sat for about 5 mins fold the cloth to the right side and do the same steps to glue it into place. I recommend you glue the top first get it smooth and wrinkle free then glue the sides, and do it in sections it much easier.

12. Once you have glued the top portions of the fabric to the door insert now do the sides make sure you work out the wrinkles around the curves so you job dosnt look like a noob did it.
13. 
14. Now that you have glues and smoothed out the new fabric to your door insert you can reattach it to the main panel. First you need to put the insert back into place on the panel and cut X’s into the fabric where the posts are so you can pop them through the fabric.

15. Take your screws and washers and uses them to secure the door insert back to the main panel. Like so.

16. Once you have secured the door insert back to the main panel with the 16 screws and washers the rest is self explanatory cut the excess fabric with the razor blade, Reinstall the door pocket and then put the door panel back onto the car enjoy.

[source]

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