[Steve 940]

Hi ther Badger vs Bodger

Welcome to 940 life, looks a nice car and interesting upgrades mentioned.

Myself now around 3-4 weeks into '94 plate 940 Wentworth 2.0 Turbo ownership, and like you have some "issues" to get sorted.

I am halfway through fixing my crinkled and stretched door card tops, and will try to,outline how I've got on so far.

I am upgrading speakers and head unit to Blaupunkt Bremen for all the modern connectivity, but retaining a period look, still not yet fitted head unit, too much to do.

With this in mind I started a 'practice, on rear cards first, remove cards, info on the FAQ section on forum, once off, I debated just living with them as they were really stretched and what to do about the window wiper strip that is pinched onto the door card edge??

Eventually bit the bullet, unclip the rubber strip from the metal clips with two gripping teeth, just lift carefully one at a time and it separates, then you can carefully prise the 5-6 metal clips from the back of the metal strip that goes over the vinyl and card edge, I used a small flat blade screwdriver to push the tang down whilst pulling the clip, bit fiddly but works.

How to remove strip from card, I used 2/3 tools from trim removal set that have angled levers, then ran these between back edge of metal strip and door card to,try to open up the channel, needed a couple of pieces of 7 mm mdf strip to put between the back of the door card and tool as I gradually worked it open. Then once opened up a bit, get a bradawl and levered at each end very carefully so as not to bend metal strip, if tight do some more work to open the channel.

Nick your other halfs hairdryer on hot and low blow speed, and using a plastic trim removal tool so you don't tear or cut the vinyl, slowly heat a loose edge, slide the tool under vinyl slowly to loosen. Mine were really bad at both ends, so ended up loosening most of the top of the card but I did leave a few inches in the middle untouched.
Most of the vinyl came off clean, but odd sections pulled wood fibres also, tried gently sanding these off but not much success and then left dust to clear!!!

Turned panel upside down with top of card hanging over table and facing you, clipped some small spring clamps to vinyl edge to try to hold the away from fibreboard door card.

Try to do a few dry runs of how to retension and stretch vinyl back

Evo Stik impact adhesive spread thinly and evenly as possible on both door card and vinyl, I suggest doing one end of the card at a time, let dry for 4-5 mins, then starting from middle section, tension vinyl back over the card edge an inch or so at a time, taking care not to let the loose vinyl stick where it shouldn't.

Do same at other end, I left the end with the door lock pin till last, then done same as before. My vinyl had stretched badly around the lock button, so remove the collar, just push out from behind, I glued the vinyl up to the lock button, then from other end of door card I had to stretch back the vinyl towards the lock button to close the ugly gap around it, this leaves vinyl overlapping behind the button.

Glue both leaving around 15mm without glue, once they have dried, use a razor blade or very sharp Stanley knife and cut cleanly through both layers of vinyl, this should give as near as perfect join as possible, then glue down these ends so they meet together.

Luckily I had some grey water based undercoat, using a cocktail stick, dropped paint into join where needed to fill, clean up carefully.

Hey presto, two door cards with wrinkles almost all gone, how long they will last, who knows!!
I will try to do a full photo step by step breakdown of this for anyone in th future, guidance please for getting photos into these posts?

Cheers
Steve