Replacing "Flaking" Interior Door Pocket Lids

[Bob O]

As jmatta said below, if you're so inclined you could try this solution. I had the same peeling problem and followed a couple of other folks' suggestions to cover them. I didn't use leather, since I couldn't find any that was close enough to the grain match. But a local fabric store had some high quality vinyl that matched perfectly. And I decided to put a layer of padding under it just to give it a little softer feel. I used a quilt batting which seemed to be just the right thickness.

It's really a pretty simple procedure and the results are excellent. Anyway, here's a few pics of what I used and the final results.

Oh.....I found (the hard way) that the contact cement melts the factory finish on the pockets! So...you need to first remove that finish either by sanding or with a solvent before the contact cement will hold. Its not pretty when it melts and it scared the heck out of me at first. But it seems to not affect the underlying pocket cover, only the finish, so all was well...in the end. Other people have successfully used a spray-on 3M product, whose name escapes me at the moment, but I tried it and, at least for me, it didn't hold very well.

Bob