Door Skin Repair

[john keefe]

What is the best glue you've found for reattaching the door skins? Both my XR and Scorpio have peeling door skin along the driver's side window edge (the top pulls off and peels up). The problem with both is that someone got happy with trimming the vinyl skin along the top, and there's only about 1/4" of skin to actually glue.

I've tried the 3M leather/upholstery sprays, countertop weld (formica glue), gorilla glue, reinforced with gorilla tape, and even a glue gun set on high, but it keeps peeling back.

[Ed Lijewski]

Just a guess, the issue likely isn't the adhesives you've used but the base the skin should stick to. Maybe clean it, soften it, roughen.it, or afterwards place a weight on the skin while the adhesive dries?

YMMV

[john keefe]

On the same page. Last time, I re-sanded everything down, cleaned up with rubbing alcohol, used the glue gun, and had a great time holding the hot sections down with my fingers... ouch. If there was a really short staple I could use with my paper stapler, I'd try that but I don't think there's such a thing. The shortest I can find would still blow through the cardboard and come out on the finished side.

[Ed Lijewski]

Double-sided tape? Not sure if its 3M's but I have a roll of thin-as in "Scotch tape" thin-which might be worth considering.

YMMV

[Ed Lijewski]

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Scotch-Clear ... lsrc=aw.ds

Also at Home Depot. VHB; good stuff, as used to reattach rear vier mirrors.

YMMV

[john keefe]

Got some, but the fold is trimmed very short, and I didn't think there'd be enough grip area for it to work. I'll have to take it apart again to see if the hot glue is pulling away from the card, or from the vinyl. I'd settle now for a mechanical clamp, but I have no idea if there's any such thing, and/or thin enough to work.

[Ed Lijewski]

20210902_181000.jpg (842.99 KiB) Viewed 2972 times

YMMV

[john keefe]

Thanks Ed. Tried that, which required the subsequent attempt with the hot glue gun. Maybe I need to do a better job roughing up the door skin's underside to make it stick better, but it's not like real leather where you can get to rough grain after sanding through the treated outer layer ( a lot of little pockets for glue to get into).

[Ed Lijewski]

FB peeps in that thread say the old glue underneath has to be removed (that stuff doesn't hold on glue).

YMMV

[john keefe]

The hot glue actually sticks great to the door card, after you scrape down the old adhesive and wipe it thoroughly with rubbing alcohol a few times. Although I haven't pulled the card off to look at it this time, I can feel under the skin where it's pulled away, and it just didn't stick to the skin. Roughed it up last time with 150/180 grit paper, but guess next time I'll have to try with 60/80 grit until that smooth layer is gone (assuming the coloration is like leather).