Interior Exterior
Q:
Hello.
I am looking for a plastic or carbon fiber door insert, the unusually shaped triangular piece that the window switches are on. I would like to replace my existing leather ones with a preferably plastic piece as I will be painting them body color. I would obviously prefer to buy just the insert, rather than the whole interior door panel. any help would be appreciated.
Anyone have any other thoughts on a plastic door insert so that I can paint it? I figure it will be impossible to exactly match the color in the event of a orange colored leather piece.
Mark
A:
Not sure if anyone makes this or not. The s1 inserts are plastic but don't think they'd fit.
you could try hangar111.com or www.eliseparts.com
Chris
A:
It's been a while since I took out those inserts out to wrap them in a different color leathers. But the stock leathers were easy to remove and should be reversible back to stock at a later time. Beneath the stock leather is a thin soft black plastic, and the whole insert piece is rather flat. So you could possibly do the following:
a. Remove the leather leaving the black plastic as is.
b. Paint the black plastic piece.
c. Replace with a flat piece of material such as aluminum sheet or carbon fiber sheet cut to shape. (I might try this in the future)
Or better yet, replace with a Lotus Leather trim in Chrome Orange - perfect match.
If I had known that such option was available, I wouldn't had to go through so much trouble trying to match Krypton Green leathers. If you though Chrome Orange leather was hard to find.
A:
It's been a while since I took out those inserts out to wrap them in a different color leathers. But the stock leathers were easy to remove and should be reversible back to stock at a later time. Beneath the stock leather is a thin soft black plastic, and the whole insert piece is rather flat. So you could possibly do the following:
a. Remove the leather leaving the black plastic as is.
b. Paint the black plastic piece.
c. Replace with a flat piece of material such as aluminum sheet or carbon fiber sheet cut to shape. (I might try this in the future)
Or better yet, replace with a Lotus Leather trim in Chrome Orange - perfect match.
That is an interesting thought about painting the black plastic underneath. I will have to take mine apart and look at it. do you remember if it looked clean enough to paint? i.e. were there any unexpected holes, seam lines, etc? (that is if you remember) then the question would be whether paint would adhere to soft black plastic, if I hit my elbow on it, for example.
Mark
A:
YOu could always use filler if their are any holes or indentations.
A:
If you look at this post on the link I sent, you'll see that there are dimples where the tabs connects to the door panel.
I don't remember too well, but I thought that the plastic was too flimsy. If you're going for the "light weight" look, then it sure looks and is light weight.
Otherwise, I would cut out a new piece from plastic/aluminum/carbon fiber and paint that instead. I think all you would need to do is cut out the hole for the window control and 2 screw holes. On mine, I glued my inserts back on the door instead of reusing the tabs (I forgot why).
A:
If you look at this post on the link I sent, you'll see that there are dimples where the tabs connects to the door panel.
I don't remember too well, but I thought that the plastic was too flimsy. If you're going for the "light weight" look, then it sure looks and is light weight.
Otherwise, I would cut out a new piece from plastic/aluminum/carbon fiber and paint that instead. I think all you would need to do is cut out the hole for the window control and 2 screw holes. On mine, I glued my inserts back on the door instead of reusing the tabs (I forgot why).
since I am looking for a perfect match, including texture and glossiness, I need to paint rather than to use leather. I will have to figure out how to have the plastic/aluminum wrap around to the back of the door insert so that there is no boundary line. I like how the insert is convex but that probably makes it more complicated to cover with a stiff surface. I dont want to get too complicated by trying to pour a mold or something. thanks for the link to the pix. it is helpful.
Am I the only one that wants to paint these things?
Mark