Suburban Door Panel Top Cap v119

This is not intended as a DIY channel.
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This information will be educational for anyone in leather repair, vinyl repair, seat repair, car repair, aircraft refurbishing, painting and dyeing, and any mobile tech service.
I DO NOT SELL PRODUCTS. A detailed explanation is given for each step. As with all my videos, this illustrates my own personal preference based on decades of experience. Please note that I don't sell products and am not profiting from these videos nor are they sponsored. So if you have questions about the products then please contact your supplier. (Like they’ll know!)

[@vinrod34]

Impossible repair in the field. great video!!

[@BigMeechie304]

The real root of the problem is GM using foam that doesnt rebound when compressed. I wonder why they did that. Regardless, i admire your work and thanks for sharing your talent.

[@mttmg]

Really as mentioned, I think what causes the damage is body oils and sweat that migrate through the vinyl into the foam. Add the pressure from resting an arm and over time the foam deforms. This happens on other vehicles too, Lexus BMW etc... And most always on the driver front door panel.

[@BigMeechie304]

@@mttmg I see, so the foam starts off OK with spring back action but then degrades over time due to the environment. GM should've known the environment the foam would serve in and what impact that would have on the panel. I wonder if this is intentional to keep folks wanting to buy new again, like a planned obsolescence strategy. LoL IDK i just find it curious that such well established automotive companies have same issue.

[@02au17]

How did you learn your skills? One day i would love to know how to do this for my own projects

[@a.r.t.srealrepairsforrealc8247]

This was my first time doing this repair. So it's OJT as they say!

[@ericaerica4719]

Is there somewhere I can just buy a replacement?????

[@914castro]

Seen this repair impossible..
Small foam cushion and vinyl wrap.

[@mttmg]

Another nice video Rick! You did a good job for a first time recover on that door panel.
It's nice when the door panels are made so that you can remover the upper section. Some have screws, imagine that!
In my experience oil and sweat from the user's arm resting on the top of the door panel is what causes the foam to deform like that. And you're right it can NOT be heated out. I suppose it could possibly be filled and grained but I don't think it would ever look quite right, recovering is the best way to go.
A couple suggestions, I often use a new sharp razor blade to shave off the old foam and then sand off any residual foam if need be.
Then I use vinyl top padding which is very dense and similar to the original foam, or even better would be a dense closed cell foam.
I use contact cement in a quart spray gun, aerosol glue is ok but DAP Contact Cement: Weldwood Landau Top and Trim is much better, and if you use glue a lot it's cheaper than buying aerosol spray glue.
I glue just the seam area down first and try to get the stitching even. It seems to work better to just glue the seam then rREALLY stretch out the material on both sides to pull it all down evenly. it can end up a mess trying to glue it all if you need to make any adjustments.
Using a heat gun to warm up the vinyl so it stretches will help too, especially around the corners / ends.
Depending on the thickness of the plastic 1/4" staples can too long, they do make 5/32" staples too and I wish they made 1/8" sometimes!
That could be done onsite if someone had a small sewing machine like yours , we used to have full size commercial machines mounted in the vans and would do seats on site. Not anymore, there are too many variables for material so we just pull the panels and take them back to the shop.

[@a.r.t.srealrepairsforrealc8247]

Thanks for contributing so much to this discussion. I do have the glue in the gun which will be much stronger. Thanks for the help.