Well. The strangest thing happened when I got in my car.
When I opened the driver side door, the leather upholstory peeled off the top of the door panel and the only thing holding it was the armest.
WTF?
So, I had to get rubber retaining strips, the same stuff used for fastening screens on screen porches, and use that as a temporary fix to hold the upholstry in place until I can get it repaired.
Has this happened to anyone?

 

Yeah this appears to be somewhat common. My passenger side panel has fallen twice. I use a can of 3M adhesive but its not the strongest level. Try this link to read up more about it. https://themustangsource.com/f739/do...g-help-477951/

 

Hey! Thanks for the link.
Opps! I guess I shouldn't call it leather.
Oh well.

 

i cant open the link. this just happened to me too. both side were peeled down to the armrests today. try to repost the link

 

i took my car to an upholstery guy and he said to scrape off all the foam adhesive and clean the plastic then use spray glue for upholstery. The good thing is only my drivers side is coming loose, the bad thing is i really do not feel safe doing it myself so i might just drop it off and have it done.

 

i went to home depot and bought all purpose loctite and a chalk gun. it took me about 5 minutes be side to do. its been about 1 day now and it looks great.

 

The Old Link!

I Used Gorilla All Purpose Glue Myself!

https://www.s197forum.com/threads/do...5/#post-574620

KC

 

I used the contact cemenet almost 2 yrs ago to fix and still going strong.

 

@MadGT Another possible scenario is the foam material located on the underside of the vinyl insert... Once the foam material degrades, there is no longer anything left for the glue to remain attached to the vinyl insert panel... According to the attached YouTube video, it is recommended not to re-glue the vinyl insert panel, but rather upgrade to a hard ABS plastic insert replacement, as in the Coverlay ABS plastic insert panel.

 

^That is true, about the foam. It was actually deteriorated to the point that it looked llike sand. I removed as much as I cound and use as much cement as I could to make the re-sealing even. I used a squeegee to work the excess glue and it dried fairly uniform across the panel. Enough for me to still show the car at Judged car shows.

 

I tried the adhesive spray first but it didn't hold. I took it to an auto upholstery shop and they replaced it with this tweed material. I'm happy with the results!

 

@MadGT Hope you watched the video in its entirety, as it most definitely convinced me that it is not the glue/adhesive which fails, but rather it's the foam material on the underside of the vinyl panel insert that fails thru degrading... In the meantime, I'm really glad that you were able to remove as much foam residue as possible from both the vinyl panel insert and also from the felt backing material which is glued directly to the door panel itself... I really hope for your sake that the contact cement method works out for you, long term? My main concern, however, is what's going to happen once the remaining foam material that's left on the vinyl insert begins to deteriorate once again, will the contact cement continue to be strong enough to prevent the vinyl insert from peeling off again? For my particular application, I ended up having to remove the vinyl insert completely after the upper portion had already fallen off... It's therefore going take one heck of a mess to apply contact cement to both the entire vinyl insert and felt backing material on the door panel itself...

At this point, I honestly don't know if reapplying the vinyl insert with contact cement is the best option or if replacing the vinyl insert with an ABS plastic insert panel altogether would be the long-term solution.

@08GTCandyApple The tweed material sure looks worlds better over the vinyl insert panel, Jill... By any chance would you happen to know if the upholstery shop also removed the felt backing material from the door panel itself or did, they leave it attached?

 

Yup, did watch the entire video. The repair on the panel I did has held for at least 5+ yrs now, with no signs of peeling off. So I am good, looking forward to anothe car show season with it.

 

I honestly don't know. My old neighbor works for a classic car restoration shop and when I took it in there to have my hood scoop, side scoops, and bumper repainted, they had their upholstery guy come in and take my door panels to his shop for the repair. We only discussed the material he was going to use and not the process. All I know is that I wasn't the first Mustang he repaired the door panels on. Sorry I can't be of more help!

 

@MadGT That's really good to know the panel has held up for 5+years with no signs of peeling off... Therefore, it would appear that using the Weldwood contact cement method is in fact very effective in preventing the vinyl insert from peeling off the door panel... In the meantime, your post has been very valuable, to say the very least and also congrats on 5+years with no signs of peeling off.

@08GTCandyApple No worries, Jill!... Just knowing the repairs performed by the upholstery shop has worked out, is good enough as far as I'm concerned.

 

Didn't go back and read it all, but was this before or after they started using that soy based foam, and does it have anything to do with the disintegration of it?

 

@Rather B.Blown Lee, I'm assuming this was after they began using that soy-based foam or whatever they call it, which was used on all 2005-14 S197 cars.. I honestly am not aware of what material they used prior to the 2005 model year. All I do know for certain, is whatever foam material they use does in fact eventually disintegrate which then causes the vinyl inserts to peel from the door panels.

 

Says They Started using it in Seats in 2008 But That Does Not Mean it Could Not Have Been Used Elsewhere Earlier! Interesting Thought. So Remember if You Get Stranded in an 08 Up You Can Eat The Seats! I Advise The Backs Vs The Bottoms!

So Digested Door Panels! Actually May Be On To Something There!

So it's the Greenies Who Have Caused Us This Door Panel Distress!

https://themustangsource.com/forums/...-beans-458556/



Just Saying!

KC

 

Don't know if it's true, but I've heard they're making wire coating with a soy based oil and it's leading to even more rodent damage than before because it smells like food to them.

 

I honestly do not know if the foam material used in the seats is the same used for the vinyl door insert panels or not... All I know for certain is the foam material used in the vinyl insert panels eventually end up disintegrating.