The Official 356Talk Forum

Hello, I said I would post how I did this so here it is. As you an see from the attached photos our door cards were in a bit of a state and I had purchased replacements. When these arrived I noticed significant differences so I thought I might try and restore the originals (what was I thinking) I started with the worst side where one corner was missing and the lower edge was delaminating and carefully dismantled everything, my old dissection kit came in handy for this! As you can see the Vinyl covering is in two parts, the pocket and the covering, with the bottom section been cotton, in my case quite mouldy!! I approached this like a museum restoring fabric and used steam through new cotton cloth pads only to clean it, it is not 'clean' to look at but I hope any spores etc are killed. I then over layed a fine good quality cotton and over sewed it to the original so it was retained.
The Door card was bowed length ways, which it shouldn't be, from the pull of the bungee cord of the door pocket. But also top to bottom, which it should be, to allow space for the strengthening piece in the middle of the door where the window winding mechanism etc is attached, it also has a depression which can be seen in the photo. I cut out a form matching it's shape from 3 mm ply then steamed the card and put it on the ply with a lot of weight on it to try & flatten out the length ways bow and left it a few days. It worked. I then attacked the missing and badly decomposed section. I first glued heavy weight paper over the whole section and reinforced the decomposing bit with the liquid you can buy from a DIY store to harden rotten wood. I then routed out the opposite side to the glued card by 1.5mm and glued in 1.5mm hardboard to make up the corner. The lower edge, which was delaminating, I also consolidated with the wood hardener, rubbed down and wrapped in a sandwich of heavyweight paper. I also reinforced the screw holes with stuck on washers, having first scrapped off some material so the lay flat, as they were also' frayed' and I was concerned that they may not take the pressure of being screwed to the door. Then it was simply a case of putting it all back together!! The toughest part was getting the rubber bungee back, it is secured by a blind fixing exactly like the rivets at the corner of jeans pockets but obviously much bigger. Much scratching of head and searching eventually I had to make the one missing from an adapted galvanised clout roofing felt nail and the innards from a popper stud, it worked! I also kept what was left of the original scrim reinforced wax paper moisture barrier by using paper glue to stick it to a modern plastic sheet so in the future someone can see what the original was like. The Vinyl itself took a lot of cleaning but only with steam & magic sponges, and it still has a slight bloom of bits of overspray from over the years. I put the the vinyl back on in the kitchen, with the normal house heating on, supplemented by the oven with the door open and a hot air blower, it kept everything malleable and workable but i was roasted, it was around 40 degrees! This took soooooooooo long I must be a bit mad, but I'm very happy with the results & I know my sanity will eventually return. I will post a picture of the finished article when I can down & upload it.
The gibbering wreck.
V

Fantastic work Vincent! Thanks for sharing. I'm going to do the same on mine, though I don't know if I can reuse the fabric covering. Lucky yours are vinyl! Mine are corduroy. Nice that you preserved the orange glassine paper (kite paper). Did yours have scraps of vinyl and/or carpet stuffed in on interior side to pad the door card against the inner door brace that holds the winding and locking mechanisms?

Here are a couple of pics of the finished articles which also show the front, rear & bottom finishing pieces, the bottom piece contains the rubber tube which acts as the water seal. There is a lot of tension in those bungees so, to keep them flat, they are bolted to their support back boards until I need them.

No matter what angle or flash mode I used the pictures of the interior side had a lot of reflected light from the plastic moisture barrier/paper support so it's not too good.

James, on the last photo of the interior side before restoration, above & below the holes for the winding & locking spigots, you can see one beige rectangular pad about 30mm wide and 160mm long stuck to the 'red paper' and the marks of the glue for the second pad, which I hadn't bothered to put back for the photo & in the picture above you can see both in place. In the finished interior pic here you can also see them but with the reflected light it's not easy. They are made from fine coir on a very light almost crepe paper backing, like the rubberized backed coir used in the sound deadening quilts in the engine bay but on a paper support and 60 years after installation approx 5mm thick.

V

Those look fantastic Vincent! Very cool that you were able to preserve the original vinyl in such nice condition.

Thought I would add a photo of the inside of a '53 door panel in corduroy, might be off interest to James.

Don't you just love those bits of carpet as buffers, waste not want not, eh! You can almost hear the buyer ' WHAT! BUY special stuff for inside the door, dumkopf, use what's in the bin of the upholstery shop'
V

Thanks for sharing the photo Alan. Does that '53 door card have 2 layers of corduroy on it? Mine does, as do 2 other '53 cars I've inspected. I'll put up a couple photos of mine.

The early hardboard door cards in the Spring of '53 also had provision to be used on the split-window cars which have the relative positions of the inner door handle and window winder in different locations. The unused slot on mine is covered over by a piece of scrap reddish-brown vinyl, same stuff that's in your car Alan. The red kite paper was gone on my panels, but I have seen how they glue carpet scraps to prevent rattles and to add more sound insulation. Reutter seats builders did the same in the construction of the seats - strips of carpet between the metal spring frame and the bottom wood frame.

James, The basic door panel is aluminum (as it is on my '53 cab) it appears to have only one layer of corduroy, but it does have a layer of some type of padding under the corduroy. This particular door panel I purchased at a swap meet about 20 years ago, so I have no idea what chassis number it is out of. It is upholstered in what appears to be the tan cord with a blueish gray vinyl trim at the edge. I have attached a few more shots of this panel which hopefully shows some of these details.

Interesting Alan! That must be a late '52 or early '53 door card. They stopped using aluminum for those door cards at coupe 50182 and cab 60074 according to the '55 Parts book. I don't know how reliable that is, as that implies mid-Feb for coupes and early April for cabs.

Is the red/orange paper lining reinforced with fiber thread on the backside, or perhaps it is a sandwich laminate? The few scraps I have left on my door cards are pretty beat up and have lots of glue on them.

James, Yes the backside of the orange paper is reinforced with fiber threads. If you click on the photo showing the aluminum, it should enlarge and you can see very clearly the reinforcing threads and their spacing. The material also feels unusual, it is stiffer than typical paper and has a feel almost like a thick cellophane, I can't recall any material similar to this except maybe the paper that you would find on a cheap vintage lampshade.

Thanks Alan, that's what I thought. Yeah, the few scraps still clinging to my door cards feel like a heavy-duty wax paper (kite paper or glassine paper), as one might wrap fish or meat in. I assume it is to act as a moisture barrier, as the bottom of the door is open to the elements. Would be interesting to find out what that paper is called.

Hello, you can also see these fibres in the right lower quarter of the picture labeled 'removing inner handles' looking like a drunken spider's web and also their imprint pattern on the bit of paper still relatively intact beside this.
On our car the bottom of the door is not open to the elements, if you have a look at the 2 pictures of the finished articles you can see at the bottom of the doors a length of vinyl in to which a rubber tube has been sewn which acts as a seal. If it would help I'd be happy to send you a photo of this.
V

Yes, that rubber tubing at the bottom is key to getting the door to seal properly.

I was referring to the drain holes in the bottom of the metal part of the door. Those are open to the elements, which is why our doors rust. The interior of the door is open to moisture moisture, but I think that orange paper is to act as a moisture barrier so that moisture doesn't get inside the interior of the car itself.

Of course, silly me, I forgot about those and a great reminder for me to get another coat of paint in there and plenty of 'waxoyl', or something similar, when she's finished.

V

Resurrecting this thread. Alan, on that door card, I can see on the flip side on the protected area that it has grey corduroy that is identical to that on my car. It has yellowed elsewhere due to the elements, and thus looks beige. Perhaps you agree?

That explains why it has the blue vinyl piping. Usually blue was paired with grey. Mine has that blue piping on the monkey motion dome access cover.