Replacing "Flaking" Interior Door Pocket Lids

[Bob O]

I too looked for something to restore the lids, rather than change the look, and came up empty. You might consider contacting salvage yards and seeing if they have used ones you can buy to replace yours. Other than buying new ones or doing something like what's in this thread, I'm not sure what else you could do.

Bob

[blue2000s]

Plasti-dip. Successful application heavily depends on surface preparation.

http://www.plastidip.com/home_solutions/Plasti_Dip

[d18mike]

I started this thread last year ... I ultimately gave up an bought new ones.

Everything I tried seemed like compromise I wasn't happy with.

In the meantime, however, I think that if I had to do it again, I would take the lids to an upholstery shop and cover them with a textured leather matching the textured plastics in the car. I've seen it done well and it looks rich and OEM.

You canbuy factory leather lids from Porsche but they are tremendously expensive -- $300+ if I remember.

[manolo]

I recovered mine in Alcantara over the weekend. Looks sweet.

[23109VC]

for those of you who did this via covering in some kind of leather - where did you find a good match for the factory leather? I have full leather interior... I could go to joanns and see what I could find - or go to an upholstery shop..

another question - teh plastic cover that goes over the door pulls..it snaps right on/off - can you cover THAT in leather too? or will it not go back on right?

on my car, the door lids are peelng a bit, and have deep scratches, and those covers up near the door pulls are also scuffed up.

i recently painted mmy center console and debated about doing the door pulls and covers in blue...but decided to leave them black. I just wanted the center console in blue...everythign else I want to keep black...

[Bob O]

I found a perfect match at Joanns, but it wasn't leather. However, you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between the fake stuff and real leather. And since my interior isn't full leather anyway, it didn't matter to me as long as the grain matched. As for real leather, you might try an upholstery shop, auto or otherwise and see what they might have. Someone posted a while back about buying leather on line that was a match, but at the moment I can't find the thread. I'll see if I can find it and post later.

RE the door pull covers, yes they can be covered. Go to Pedro's page http://www.pedrosgarage.com/Site/DIY_Projects.html look under DIY projects and find the section on recovering interior pieces. He's got very good pics/instructions of the process. I didn't cover my door pull covers since they were in good shape, but did cover the door lids with great success. You can see some of the photos above or there's a separate thread on here, several actually since several people have posted pics on their projects.

Bob

[Boxtaboy]

Anyone cover them in fur?

[jakekit]

I've been investigating plasti dip. Has anyone done this? Photos? How does it look compared to other untreated plastic parts in the car? How durable is it?

I'd like to do the center console and door pocket covers only, but don't want it to look completely out of place with the rest of the dash.

[Homeboy981]

I like my painted version, thanks to @Boxtaboy and others here. I painted with a rattle can using proper prep, paint and polish techniques, it came out great.

Best thing is…sunscreen? No problem! Clean up is a breeze! I wax it when I wax my car and forget it the rest of the time. The silver is a LOT COOLER than the black used to be.

The hardest part was the prep work and getting the "coating" off the part. This took time and the curing of the paint took a week, so i combined it with dialing in a Short Shift Kit at the same time….end result? FANTASTIC!!! I plan to do more…after the IMS/RMS/Clutch.

Thanks for the idea!

Before….


During...


From the back…

[Perfectlap]

^ Wow that's a great result.

I have the aluma look color on the center console from a popular online seller.
Got it used but unistalled on Ebay for about half the price. But recently I got a chip in the console just to the left of the shift knob. I might have to take a stab at filling the chip and trying to repaint myself. What brand of paint did you use?

[ekam]

Originally Posted by TimAustinW

You can easily get thes pocket lids off without disassembling the door. Actually disassembling the door wouldn't buy you anything. Look at the hunges of the pocket lid. Use a small nail punch or even a thick paper clip and push the little hinge rods through. Then you just have to unhook the spring latch. Easy peezy.

Thanks for the advice!!! Those pins are easy to come off as long as you have a long thin rod to push it through.

Just ordered a replacement lid for the driver's side after 12 years of use...

[FauxDiablo]

Here is the bottom line on Porsche interiors.

All of the plastic parts are a dark-gray, injection-molded ABS plastic that has been painted. Period.

MOST, if not all, cleaning products will soften up the paint because it is crap paint, probably a lacquer, and definitely not a hardened or catalyzed (2k) paint.

Once the paint is soft, it will EASILY scratch-off and give the appearance of flaking, often revealing the gray, injection-molded ABS plastic underneath. Even a mild soapy water will soften the the paint.

If you can, the easiest way to fix these paint problems is to spray the part down with "409" cleaner and scratch off the old paint with your fingernail or something just slightly less hard as the ABS plastic under the paint...and then repaint them with a higher quality paint.

[particlewave]

Nope. Earlier cars did not have that awful "soft-touch" interior coating.

The best way to fix the issue is to swap with earlier interior bits.

Originally Posted by FauxDiablo

Here is the bottom line on Porsche interiors.

All of the plastic parts are a dark-gray, injection-molded ABS plastic that has been painted. Period.

MOST, if not all, cleaning products will soften up the paint because it is crap paint, probably a lacquer, and definitely not a hardened or catalyzed (2k) paint.

Once the paint is soft, it will EASILY scratch-off and give the appearance of flaking, often revealing the gray, injection-molded ABS plastic underneath. Even a mild soapy water will soften the the paint.

If you can, the easiest way to fix these paint problems is to spray the part down with "409" cleaner and scratch off the old paint with your fingernail or something just slightly less hard as the ABS plastic under the paint...and then repaint them with a higher quality paint.

[njbray]

Cover them in nice soft leather!

[jakeru]

Originally Posted by FauxDiablo

Here is the bottom line on Porsche interiors.

All of the plastic parts are a dark-gray, injection-molded ABS plastic that has been painted. Period.

MOST, if not all, cleaning products will soften up the paint because it is crap paint, probably a lacquer, and definitely not a hardened or catalyzed (2k) paint.

Once the paint is soft, it will EASILY scratch-off and give the appearance of flaking, often revealing the gray, injection-molded ABS plastic underneath. Even a mild soapy water will soften the the paint.

If you can, the easiest way to fix these paint problems is to spray the part down with "409" cleaner and scratch off the old paint with your fingernail or something just slightly less hard as the ABS plastic under the paint...and then repaint them with a higher quality paint.

Speaking as someone who recently refinished most of the soft-touch finished interior pieces in my Boxster, you are not entirely off-base, because many interior pieces are indeed ABS. However, some are different plastics than ABS or plastic alloys, such as the interior door pocket lids being discussed in this thread, I'm fairly certain I recall being a polycarbonate alloy.

The finish actually strips off the the map pocket doors the easiest out of all the interior pieces in the car. Other interior items (especially the door sill trim pieces) have really difficult to remove soft-touch finish. 409 is not going to touch them. They are not all the same! The best soft-touch finish removal 'tip' I can offer is to get a bunch of those plastic razor blades and use them, along with a softening agent if it seems to be helping. You'll need different techniques for different pieces, but a sharp plastic razor blade won't harm any non-EPDM piece, and will speed finish removal by promoting a "peeling" action.

I had good cosmetic results (with a basically perfect color and texture match, after experimenting with many products) using SEM Color Coat 15243 Satin Black ( https://www.semproducts.com/refinish-flexible-coatings/color-coattm-aerosols ). That said, it's definitely not as durable as a 2-part finish, so it's still necessary need to use some care to not scratch afterwards. (especially on the door sill trim that get shoes scraping across them...).

I would not recommend Plasti-dip for anything except the radio knobs. The color won't match because is too light/gray. The rubbery texture is also only really a perfect match for the rubbery radio knobs (and maybe it would work well for the epdm ignition trim surround) but I believe it will not be a very close texture match for the rest of the interior pieces.

[MWS]

Originally Posted by TimAustinW

You can easily get thes pocket lids off without disassembling the door. Actually disassembling the door wouldn't buy you anything. Look at the hunges of the pocket lid. Use a small nail punch or even a thick paper clip and push the little hinge rods through. Then you just have to unhook the spring latch. Easy peezy.

Grr.. . Wish I would have thought about this a few years back when I did mine, but I had the door panels off to redo speakers anyway, but good info to know if you did not. I disagree with "disassembling the door won't buy you anything" though, when I had the door apart, it was easy to remove the entire lid/hinge assembly.

Bottom line, if you have the door apart, go ahead and do the lids; if you want to just do the lids, I guess try the method listed above.

[MWS]

BTW.. I had my lids done by an upholsterer, I'd post pics, but they look just like those posted by njbray. Only point I would add is go with a padded option; as much as I find my elbow on the lid, the soft feeling is just wonderful.

[heliguy]

Cotton batting from Michael's works well as a padding.

[RichABoxsterS]

Originally Posted by manolo

I recovered mine in Alcantara over the weekend. Looks sweet.

Where did you buy the Alcantara?

[10/10ths]

....I found a leather cover that did the trick there.

Here is an example of what is out there:

Carbon Fiber Finish Door Armrest Pocket Lid Covers : fits Porsche Boxster 986 https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F13 2388794478