Repairing wood trim strips on door panel?

It seems like all the little fake wooden trim strips on the doors on the new '94 RMW are either missing, or about to fall off.

I'm sure this is a common problem, is there a tutorial I missed about how to fix them so they stay put even when the tabs break? Just epoxy them together?

I'm going to keep an eye out for some in the yards, but I imagine finding good ones is nearly impossible.

They are made from styrene, and you can attach pieces of styrene to them with MEK, or MEK substitute. I use thin parts of lower door panels or piece together tabs to make them long enough to go through the door. The tabs hold the bezel in place and are heat flared on the back side of the door panel. They are designed to last for about 5-7 years.  I have found a couple of good ones over the last 3 years. I have a pair of tan bezels with "wood" strips for sale that have been repaired and can be installed through the door panel and heat flared. Almost all of them are broken by the time they make it to the junk yard. For such a high value vehicle, the parts are really chintzy.

I've had real good luck securing with a glue gun.

Tom

I have seen some repairable door panels that were destroyed by glue guns, and urethane (Gorilla glue), as well as epoxy, and other sorts of adhesives.

A great discovery I made, but haven't seen written up, is that the front and rear door upper trim with the attached wood are both the same. So the left rear will fit the left front, and same with the right side. Obviously the rear doors get much less use than the front doors, so finding nice ones for me has not been a problem. Even the sedan and wagon trim are the same, although the rear doors themselves are different.

I used Testors glue for plastic models seems to work well so far.

i use marine goop,.

Testors glue for plastic models is either MEK or MEK replacement. The thick type is dissolved plastic in MEK or MEK substitute.

Mark 96 Roady wrote:

A great discovery I made, but haven't seen written up, is that the front and rear door upper trim with the attached wood are both the same. So the left rear will fit the left front, and same with the right side. Obviously the rear doors get much less use than the front doors, so finding nice ones for me has not been a problem. Even the sedan and wagon trim are the same, although the rear doors themselves are different.

The whole bezel is the same. I never posted it, because I thought it was obvious, because the 91-93s, and the 94-96 Impala/Caprice units are the same front to back as well. The 91-93 Caprice/91-92 OCCs, and the 94-96 Impala/Caprice units can be used side to side as well.

Can you safely remove the strips from a panel with the panel still on the car? I'm hitting the yard this afternoon and will try to remove a few to play with.

I'm also looking at the dash and intermittent wiper module.

Cheers,
Ian

You have to break the heated portion on the back side to keep from breaking the entire tab off of the woodgrain trim, so you have to remove the door panel. You should dig out and take any broken tabs with you, so you can reconstruct the broken ones on the "better" ones you pick.

I fixed several of these by filling the channel on the backside (where the break is) with marine tex, bridging the break by about an inch on each side. I put a piece of wire coathanger in the putty to give the repair some truss strength. After cleaning any putty prints off the front side (carefully with acetone) I put a piece of masking tape across the front while the putty sets to minimize any appearance of a repair.
I didn't find the tabs necessary to locate this trim as the door pull and screw behind the latch pretty much determine placement and the wood trim piece is snapped to the door pull assembly.....
I also used marine tex to permanently repair the bottom skirt of my olds taillight after it broke in six pieces and I only got five of the pieces......I should post the pic from that repair!

AzDon wrote:

I fixed several of these by filling the channel on the backside (where the break is) with marine tex, bridging the break by about an inch on each side. I put a piece of wire coathanger in the putty to give the repair some truss strength. After cleaning any putty prints off the front side (carefully with acetone) I put a piece of masking tape across the front while the putty sets to minimize any appearance of a repair.
I didn't find the tabs necessary to locate this trim as the door pull and screw behind the latch pretty much determine placement and the wood trim piece is snapped to the door pull assembly.....
I also used marine tex to permanently repair the bottom skirt of my olds taillight after it broke in six pieces and I  only got five of the pieces......I should post the pic from that repair!

The coat hanger is a great idea. As Fred said, it is really amazing how shoddy the interior trim on the wagons is, especially the "high end" Roady.

Fred, what is MEK adhesive? I went to Home Depot today to look for an adhesive that is or contains MEK, but could not find anything. Do you have a specific brand name, and where you got it?

Methyl Ethyl Ketone.

You can indeed buy it at Home Depot:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Klean-Strip-32-oz-Methyl-Ethyl-Ketone-MEK-Solvent-QME71/100210976?N=5yc1vZc5bqZbnu

This post jinxed me dangit. The lower wood trim on my passenger front door popped lose the other day when my son got out. Grrr. W

Well at least I know how to fix it now... I used clear epoxy to re-do the driver's side door years ago, but the wood was never loose...

So is MEK is a solvent or adhesive? Fred refers to it as an adhesive. I do not see that the Home Depot MEK would be anything other than a wipe down solvent.

Wagoninabox wrote:

So is MEK is a solvent or adhesive?  Fred refers to it as an adhesive.  I do not see that the Home Depot MEK would be anything other than a wipe down solvent.

Yea, I was going to ask the same thing.

MEK is a solvent.

It also dissolves / melts the plastic that is used in the door panels.

So you can use it as an adhesive in this manor. If you use it like an adhesive it will weld the broken sections together by essentially dissolving the area it is applied to and melting them together.

You have to be very cautious when using it as it is pretty heavy duty stuff. You don't want to get it on yourself or anything you don't want to work on / clean.

Fred Kiehl wrote:

Testors glue for plastic models is either MEK or MEK replacement. The thick type is dissolved plastic in MEK or MEK substitute.

Model Glue! (just don't sniff it!).......I remember building models and getting gluey,melted fingerprints all over the work and having the parts slip out of place while waiting for the parts to stick...... I prefer the marine tex epoxy because it sticks without melting into the parts and is therefore cleanable from the surfaces with solvent.... I love the stuff, even using it as body filler because it's waterproof (once set), easily workable and sticks!

What is marine tex epoxy? Where did you get it or do you have a brand name? It sounds a little more controllable than the MEK?

"Marine Tex" is a marine epoxy that is sold by West Marine and many other marine supply houses. It is manufactured by Travaco Labs and comes in grey and white. I surf online for the best price and buy the quart can size which comes with a small can of methylamine catalyst jelly that you mix one part to five of putty. It's tough enough to drill and hold threads under some circumstances and can be used and worked like body filler.... I like using it because it's waterproof after it sets and it sticks to metal AWESOME! It's the only product I could find to repair fiberglass damage and glue plastic pieces together without having them later break in the same spot..... On the downside, the stuff is kind of expensive and I haven't had the same good result with their smallest repair kits, which I suspect are formulated differently

AzDon wrote:

I fixed several of these by filling the channel on the backside (where the break is) with marine tex, bridging the break by about an inch on each side. I put a piece of wire coathanger in the putty to give the repair some truss strength. After cleaning any putty prints off the front side (carefully with acetone) I put a piece of masking tape across the front while the putty sets to minimize any appearance of a repair.
I didn't find the tabs necessary to locate this trim as the door pull and screw behind the latch pretty much determine placement and the wood trim piece is snapped to the door pull assembly.....
I also used marine tex to permanently repair the bottom skirt of my olds taillight after it broke in six pieces and I  only got five of the pieces......I should post the pic from that repair!

I'm not following this ( I blame the beer not my inherent ignorance). Are you putting the marine tex on the very back of the panel where GM originally melted the ends of the tabs? Or between the wood/plastic and the front of the panel?

Fred, I am impressed that you have the patience to rebuild these. I should try that. Do you cut the end of the tabs flat to glue two pieces together?

Oh and thanks for the tip on MEK. I dug out a can of MEK out of my plumbing supplies, also known as ABS cement for pipes!
A

I apologize for not taking pictures.....
I'm talking about the repair of the actual "wood surround" pieces that the latch plate snaps into the middle of....It has pins that go thru the upholstered areas above and below, but I found those pins unnecessary..... I first dab a small amount of expoxy in the break itself then I bridge (or fish-plate) the break on the back side in the slightly concave channel with enough of the epoxy to form an epoxy bridge on the back side when it sets..... I also encapsulate a piece of coat hanger wire in the epoxy for extra strength. I make sure the former break is pushed together as tightly as possible and clean any of the epoxy remaining off the front side and put a piece of masking tape across to hold everything in place while it sets

Screws. Good old fashioned mechanical joining of parts. I pre-drilled the plastic trim parts, and door panel, then used some 1 1/4" - 1 1/2" long antique brass colored sheet metal pan head screws. Screwed the panel right to the door itself.

You can do what works best for your abilities. I find the MEK to be my preference, because it makes the parts become one piece again. Yes, it does require a steady hand and a lot of diligence in use, because of the low viscosity.

There are two different trim pieces that are being discussed in the posts. The Caprice style is not the OP's issue, his is just the 94-96 RM style trim.

The Caprice style surrounds can be reinforced with wire and epoxy, and I have done a number of them that have been removed from the door panel. The pins normally hold it, and keep it from breaking. Once it is removed from the door panel, they are extremely fragile, and reinforcement is a good idea. I am concentrating on the 94-96 RM door panels, because that is what the OP asked about.

Screwing the strips to the door may hold them, but it does not duplicate the look of the original panel.

The 94-96 RM trim is substantially different from the Caprice style. The top and bottom wood grain strips are styrene. the center section is ABS. The ABS is difficult to repair because not much melts it. The wood grain trim is easy to repair with some assorted pieces of styrene, because you can melt the pieces together, and shape them to resemble the OEM part then assemble it in the same manner. It is also possible to reinforce the parts where they are prone to breakage. Glues and epoxy may hold for a time, but can run and damage the other parts of the door panel. They also tend to not grip the plastic with long term adhesion. I have seen many door panels ruined by glues and epoxy. Once the glue or epoxy is used, and the panel comes apart again, you find the glue attached to parts you did not plan for, and have a mess to clean before you can repair it again. Fixing them to be structurally sound is a tedious job if you do it to mimic the original assembly, but you do not have to clean up a lot of mess, and glue oozing from assorted cracks and from under the parts. ABS cement has some MEK in it, but it also has other solvents. I have not tried it on the styrene parts, so I would test it before using it extensively. It is also thicker than MEK, and may not allow the parts to fit in the original positions.

When repairing the wood grained parts, I usually make a piece that fits the broken end of the tab as closely as possible, then melt them together. If there are any gaps, I make a paste of styrene and MEK, then fill the gaps with the paste until they are even with the surface of the original part. I try to keep as much of the original part intact, and just add to it until it mimics the original shape. If you make the tabs on the wood grain parts too thick, they will not go through the door panel if you do not enlarge the holes. I have a pair of 94-96 trim pieces with wood grain strips (one for each side) repaired and ready to install. They are tan.

I do not trust any epoxy to hold door panels together, because the mechanical bond does not hold to the plastic. If I were to use any two part curing resin, I would use a polyester resin, because it will etch the styrene, due to its styrene component.

The panels require a lot of love to fix them. I wish I could teach others what I have done, because it works better than anything I have seen. I would like to be able to fix the panels, but just do not have the time to devote to it.  If you do a little each day, it gets done. When using MEK, I suggest allowing the repair to sit overnight to solidify. I even MEK/glue parts to the back of the bottom panels to reconstruct the posts for the metal clips.

Fred, any suggestions on sources to find pieces of styrene about the same size as the tabs? Other than broken tabs?

We picked up a winter beater Subaru so we don't have to drive the Roadmaster regularly, so I can afford to pull a panel and fix it properly. I'd rather not screw the parts on, and don't see how else to fix it.

Oh, have you also figured out a way to keep them from squeaking when touched? Or if they are actually attached does that go away? Bugs me to no end... I was thinking of putting a small strip of some sort of fabric between the wood trim and the door panel to keep them from rubbing and squeaking.

Thankfully the car is running well so I can worry about this stuff.

I kept my old door panels to use for all the donor styrene I could ever need.

I have a set of Custom Cruiser door panels I plan on refinishing for my interior... whenever it makes it back into the car. lol

Like Ray stated, any lower door panel is styrene. The only issue you may have is thickness. If you can not find a piece of the correct thickness, you can enlarge the holes to allow the thicker piece to pass trough. I use a Dremel and a small diameter side mill. I have a pile of scrap door panel plastic to do repairs. There are some flat straight pieces in the door panel, believe it or not, behind and below the arm rest, and the mounts for the metal tree holders. The junk yards usually do not charge you for a piece of scrap plastic, so get all you need.

The squeaking should go away if the parts are installed with a tight fit. As long as the parts can not move against each other they will not squeak.

I tried Fred's technique tonight, in the morning we will see if they held.