Reupholstering Interior Panels

Davy · April 12, 2014

Hi Guys,

While some might think that upholstering a car is something that you should leave to the professionals, there are many parts of upholstering that can be done at home with very few tools and little effort. We’ll be looking at restoring cracked upholstery and this is specifically rexine. My illustration is for door cards, but this can very well be applied to dashboards and other rexine surfaces as well.

I’ve always avoided applying strong cleaning solvents on my dashboard and other surfaces inside the car, but even when I bought the car I noticed that the rexine on the door cards were starting to crack. Probably years of strong chemicals plus the car being in the hot sun at times. Anyway, this is the issue I ~~have~~ had:

As you can see, the rexine is cracked and is lifting off from the door card. I’ve already taken off one door card for my experiment and I’m not go into details about how to get the door card off because it varies from vehicle to vehicle. Just mind the electrics, keep track of where the clips and bolts go and you’ll do fine. So we have our panel at hand now. Let’s begin.

What you need:

New rexine. I got mine from Wijerama (Nugegoda) and it was 550 bucks a Meter. A Meter is more than sufficient to cover all four door cards in my case. Had to hunt a lot to find the exact shade and pattern.
Contact adhesive (aerosol can preferred but even a tin of Multibond will do. I couldn’t find a spray can so I stuck with Multibond)
A small brush to apply the glue
A (very) sharp blade and scissors
A heat gun (or hairdryer. Heat gun is better in this case)
Measuring tape, Marker/Pen

Step 1: Preparing The Surface

In my case, the door card was two panels held together. The panel with the rexine finishing, which is the top part, needed to be taken off from the other panel in order to complete the job neatly. Otherwise the new rexine needs to be tucked in between the panels which might cause it to come out with time. I’m not gonna go into the details of how I managed to get the panels parted, but after the rexine panel was removed, I Carefully peeled away the rexine (in such a way that I can get measurements if needed).

Also, underneath the rexine was a very thin Styrofoam kind of layer I was able to remove only the rexine without damaging this spongy layer.

Step 2: Cut The New Rexine

Using the old rexine as a rough template, make markings using the pen and measuring tape. Make sure you leave about an inch or two of a margin because the rexine has to go over all the contours on the panel. You do not need to worry about openings and screw holes in the panel. Those can be worked out at the very end. Just cut the outline. In my case it was a rectangular piece of rexine.

Step 3: Paste The Rexine

Start with one edge of the panel. Apply a layer of glue using the brush onto the panel. Apply a liberal amount of glue onto the underside of the rexine and align them properly. Place them together along the edge first. Leave to dry.

After the edge has dried up, start pulling the rexine along the contours of the panel. Keep applying glue on both surfaces (more onto the rexine side) and keep applying pressure and stroke the rexine as if you are pasting a sticker while preventing air from being trapped inside. It’s highly unlikely that air will get trapped under the rexine as the spongy layer kind of lets the air out.

Where there are edges and lines on the panel, use the heat gun on the rexine and apply pressure. This causes the rexine to form itself well around the panel. Make sure you don’t overheat the rexine or it will start to melt. I tried heating a piece of rexine before actually trying this on the panel to get an idea about how long it can last with the heat gun pointed onto it.

Cover the entire surface and you’ve got a neatly covered panel. Now’s the time to cut away the parts that are no longer necessary (in my case, the opening for the door handle). Cut the excess parts along the edges with a blade and fold them inside. Use glue to make sure that the folded edges don’t come off.

Step 4: Put Everything Back Together

Install everything and you’re done! I’m really happy with how mine turned up. I had to spend about an hour or so for just this one small panel. Takes a lot of time and patience. It was dark when I finished, so I couldn’t install the door card back into the car. Will do so tomorrow and snap another pic or two.

Here are some (not so clear) photos until then.

That's about it for now gents. Thanks for reading!

EDIT: Continued here (more photos and information).

Edited February 6, 2018 by Davy
Fixed broken image links

Davy · April 12, 2014

Oh and I almost forgot. I was determined to try this myself after seeing the YouTube video below:

similarnames · April 12, 2014

Nice work. Very deailed. Man ! how did you manage to take all the steps into pictures while doing it ??

Ruslan · April 13, 2014

Wow that's some neat work!

Jaliya48 · April 13, 2014

You've done it again! Excellent writeup! Tell me more about where you bought the rexine; do they have a large selection and do they have vinyl (for seats) as well?

Hoonigan · April 13, 2014

Excellent write up Davy! Very usefull addition to the forum.

Komisiripala · April 13, 2014

And there he goes again! Davy you beauty!!

Davy · April 13, 2014

Thanks for the comments guys! Much appreciated!

On 4/13/2014 at 4:31 AM, Jaliya48 said:
You've done it again! Excellent writeup! Tell me more about where you bought the rexine; do they have a large selection and do they have vinyl (for seats) as well?

I basically did a sweep from the Pannipitiya through Delkanda and most of the shops were closed yesterday (I'm guessing 'cause of the new year). Since I went from shop to shop, I lost track of the place I bought this from, but it's a shop at Wijerama (close to the road to that leads to the J'Pura University). On the left as you travel from Maharagama towards Nugegoda.

This particular place had only a small collection of rexine, vinyl and stuff, but they had a lot of samples which can be purchased on request I guess. Luckily they had exactly what I was looking for. This place had a black sign board with red lettering in Sinhala that said "CUSION". Wonder if this is of any help, but that's all I can remember about the place. If I happen to pass the place, I'll let you know the name for sure.

H.C · April 13, 2014

Good write up Davy!. Really helpful. Did bit of reupholstering few months back on rear deck of my eg8. Learned few things hard way. I had difficulties in bonding the curved areas and fixing a plastic vent like part. Still have an issue with that plastic part. (Not bonding

Properly ). Any advice ?

Edited April 13, 2014 by H.C

Davy · April 13, 2014

On 4/13/2014 at 1:18 PM, H.C said:
Good write up Davy!. Really helpful. Did bit of reupholstering few months back on rear deck of my eg8. Learned few things hard way. I had difficulties in bonding the curved areas and fixing a plastic vent like part. Still have an issue with that plastic part. (Not bonding
Properly ). Any advice ?

Thanks H.C! What did you cover the panel with, was it fabric or rexine? Would be great if you could share a photo of the problem you're having so that I can get a better idea. But if you mean that the sharp edges don't stick to the panel, that's probably because you have not used enough glue on the surfaces. And the vent, do you mean the vent is not seating properly? Again, some pics would be really helpful.

H.C · April 13, 2014

On 4/13/2014 at 1:40 PM, Davy said:
Thanks H.C! What did you cover the panel with, was it fabric or rexine? Would be great if you could share a photo of the problem you're having so that I can get a better idea. But if you mean that the sharp edges don't stick to the panel, that's probably because you have not used enough glue on the surfaces. And the vent, do you mean the vent is not seating properly? Again, some pics would be really helpful.

Will upload few pics tomorrow. Yep,vent is not seating neatly and used more than enough glue( two large Multibond upholstering glue tins used). It was a black rexine.

mazdaspeed · April 14, 2014

Nice write up Davy, Thanks for sharing

Davy · April 14, 2014

Thanks mazdaspeed!

On 4/13/2014 at 6:53 PM, H.C said:
Will upload few pics tomorrow. Yep,vent is not seating neatly and used more than enough glue( two large Multibond upholstering glue tins used). It was a black rexine.

Maybe the edge of the rexine has a margin that is too wide that the plastic vent is unable to properly seat itself. Anyway, waiting for the pics.

H.C · April 14, 2014

What site do you use to host the images? Imsgeshack is not free now,isn't it?

Davy · April 14, 2014

On 4/14/2014 at 3:42 AM, H.C said:
What site do you use to host the images? Imsgeshack is not free now,isn't it?

Yeah, imageshack is not free anymore. I use photobucket.

Jaliya48 · April 14, 2014

On 4/14/2014 at 3:44 AM, Davy said:
Yeah, imageshack is not free anymore. I use photobucket.

I've been using Photobucket since 2009 and I haven't had any qualms so far.

H.C · April 14, 2014

Davy · April 14, 2014

It actually looks like you've done a good job there! However, I think I see a warped surface near the opening of the vent. By the looks of it, it looks like the vent itself is also a bit warped. Probably a result of it being exposed to the heat from the sun. Was this alright before you replaced the rexine?

Crosswind · April 14, 2014

On 4/14/2014 at 6:32 AM, H.C said:

broken clips i guess

H.C · April 14, 2014

Yep, surface is not that flat , but it was not bonding well even before I fixed the board to the car.(kept some heavy weight over night) Like crosswind said could be due to broken fittings. (There are plastic projections along the edge, but they are not holding it tightly. Anyway I'll have to remove this deck board to replace backup cam. Thanks for the tips to both of you. Will get back to you soon when it's removed from the car.

Davy · April 25, 2014

Got a chance to capture some photos today. I learnt new and easy ways of wrapping the panel as I did this for the other doors as well.

- Cutting out a larger piece of rexine makes it possible to stretch it well because you can grab hold of the excess part and pull harder. The rexine does stretch more than we think it can.

- Staples can be used to anchor margins (on the reverse side of the panel) so that the glue does not come off while it's still wet. (this was my wife's idea )

- If you corner and leave hard the part to the end (parts that have a lot of sharp bends in the surface), you'll be gathering all the wrinkles there which will be even harder to paste. Start from one edge and work your way up to the other without leaving out parts.

- Get rid of wrinkles as soon as they appear. Leaving them thinking you'll get at them at the end will not work despite the use of a heat gun.

- When pasting across a sharp bend (say a 90 degree angle), apply glue upto the apex of the angle and paste the rexine. Let it dry for half an hour. Continue pasting after it has dried. The rexine will lift off the surface if it's pasted immediately accross a place where the surface bends sharply.

Three doors down (like the band), one to go!

Edited February 6, 2018 by Davy
Fixed broken image links