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Old 05-22-2006, 10:24 AM   #1
brcewane
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Member#: 63990
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Ontario
Vehicle:
2002 WRX
Flat Grey

Default DIY: How to change your door card color

I had been asked by a member of our local Subaru club for some information on how I changed my door card color in my 02 WRX. So I figured I would post a DIY so everyone that was interested could use the information.

They weren't that hard to do. Not sure if anyone has taken the door panels off before or not but here are step by step instructions:

Tools/parts needed
- Flat & philips screwdriver
- 3M spray adhesive contact cement
- really small self tapping screws
- Durable fabric
- scisors
- utility knife or razor blade

Door panel removal
- First there are I believe 1 screw, and 2 plastic pop screws to take off the door panel. The screw is located inside the door handle recess on the arm rest. You will see a little plastic tab down in there you need to pop open to expose the screw.

- The 2 plastic pop screws are one at the hinge of the door and one at the rear. (The rear doors may be a little different, I can't remember)

- Now you need to pop the plastic trim off that is around the door handle itself. Do this gently by wrapping some cloth around your flat head screwdriver and gently pry it off. This is important to get off, or it will bust when you take the door panel off

- Once all the these steps are done you will have to grab the panel and pull fairly hard, but not too hard. There are a bunch of push clips all around the door that hold it on. Just keep pulling around the edges until all of these pop free

- Once it is free from the door you can unplug the wiring harness to the power windows and locks

Door Panel Disassembly
- I believe there is only one screw on the back of the panel.. but there are a bunch of plastic pop rivots that have all been fused. You will see where they all are. Basically what you are going to do is separate the top part of the door panel from the bottom

- Unscrew the top screw and then take your flat head screwdriver and pry under all the fused pop rivots and bust them free. This is where your self tapping screws will come into play later

- You may want to wear gloves when doing this because when that screwdriver busts through, the plastic can be pretty sharp. My knuckles looked like I was in a brawl afterwards

- You should now be able to grab a hold of the old fabric that was glued on there and pull it all off. As you are doing this, notice how it was simply tucked up in under the padded area on the top part of the door panel.

Putting on the new Fabric
- If you like, you can use the fabric that you pulled off for a template. I didn't do this but instead took a larger piece and simply cut off the excess when I was done. I didn't want to worry about making sure I put it on exactly right and then risk missing covering some areas.

- Tape, or cover the door panel area that doesn't have the fabric on it.

- Then use your 3M adhesive and spray it on the area that the fabric goes, making sure to get a good coverage to prevent any areas letting loose later

- Once you have sprayed on the adhesive, let it setup for a few seconds. You want it to be tacky and not wet. If it is wet, it can soak through your fabric and make it look blotchy

- Now press on and smooth out your fabric all over the area.

- Use your flat head screwdriver to press the fabric into the seam where the upper padding is on the door to make sure you have it nice and tight in there. Don't press too hard or the flathead could mark or damage the existing covering.

- Wrap the fabric all over the area that the old fabric was on and then cut off all the excess with a utility knive or razor blade. Again be careful when cutting the excess fabric near the upper padding so that you don't cut the padding itself.

- Let the glue dry according to the specification on the spray bottle

Reassembly
- line the top and bottom half of the door panel up based on their pop rivots, and use the single screw that was taken out previously to temporarily hold the two parts together.

- Now is where you take all of the small self tapping screws and screw them into each of the pop rivots that you broke.

- be careful with the length of the screws that you use. You don't want them to come through the other side of the door panel when putting them in. Screw them in really slowly and if you see an sign of them poking through the other side, stop.

- Once the door panel is back together, put it back on the door in the reverse order that you did to take it off, and voila, you are done

End result
Here are some pictures of the end result from my installation:


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Old 05-22-2006, 10:52 AM   #2
RS drifter
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Aspen MF white!

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wow...good work
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Old 05-22-2006, 11:20 AM   #3
20Sti05
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nice write up
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Old 05-22-2006, 06:32 PM   #4
THEW0RX
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Location: Denver
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05 WRX Stg 2
WR blue

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Wow that looks great! What kind of frabric is that?
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Old 05-22-2006, 07:48 PM   #5
brcewane
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Member#: 63990
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Ontario
Vehicle:
2002 WRX
Flat Grey

Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by THEW0RX
Wow that looks great! What kind of frabric is that?
not sure exactly.. just was asking the folks in Fabric land for something that was durable... and then color matched it
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Old 05-22-2006, 08:44 PM   #6
veightkiller
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Location: vancouver B.C
Vehicle:
2011 335i
Black

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nice job!
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Old 05-22-2006, 08:55 PM   #7
Ghosthound
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Location: Sacramento, Ca
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2010 FJ Cruiser
1999 Miata

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great work!! what if u got some thin foam and cut out WRX then glued that behind the fabric, then glued the fabric to the logo... if uve seen unique whips, im sure you know what i mean.. i think that would look pretty sick.
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Old 05-22-2006, 09:04 PM   #8
Sanchez
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2016 Pig STi
Pearl

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holy crap, that's a great write up. I might consider this actually...
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Old 05-22-2006, 11:27 PM   #9
dpflipstyle
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Member#: 100173
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Cali
Vehicle:
2002 Wrx
PSM

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you should make it a sticky
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Old 05-23-2006, 07:37 AM   #10
brcewane
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Member#: 63990
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Ontario
Vehicle:
2002 WRX
Flat Grey

Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ghosthound
great work!! what if u got some thin foam and cut out WRX then glued that behind the fabric, then glued the fabric to the logo... if uve seen unique whips, im sure you know what i mean.. i think that would look pretty sick.
Yeah, I know what you mean.. I think I've seen a DSM guy do that before
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Old 05-23-2006, 08:23 AM   #11
rallyken
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Member#: 92395
Join Date: Jul 2005
Chapter/Region: Tri-State
Location: Brooklyn/Rockland
Vehicle:
02 WRX
WRB

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I did this with my civic awhile back with red fabric the only problem i had was the 3m adhesive in the summer got hot and would come unstuck and bubble.
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Old 05-23-2006, 09:26 AM   #12
brcewane
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Member#: 63990
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Ontario
Vehicle:
2002 WRX
Flat Grey

Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by rallyken
I did this with my civic awhile back with red fabric the only problem i had was the 3m adhesive in the summer got hot and would come unstuck and bubble.
That sucks... So far mine has held up for 2 summers. Just got around to putting up a DIY now
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Old 05-23-2006, 01:40 PM   #13
rallyken
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Join Date: Jul 2005
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WRB

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Ha obviously you knew what you were doing LOL Me= nooblet. Maybe it was the fabric i used yea ill blame it on the fabric.
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Old 05-23-2006, 01:57 PM   #14
darroj
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2004 PSM WRX
Stage 1ish

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well, there goes my weekend thanks for the great write up!
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Old 05-23-2006, 03:26 PM   #15
AudioNerd
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Location: Orange County, Ca
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2008 Sti
Spark Silver

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I did this to my wrx last summer and haven't had any problems yet, other that some fading of the suede I used.
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Old 05-23-2006, 04:30 PM   #16
B16A2NR
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Default

I really want to know what kinda fabric you used. I went to the fabric store and bought about 6 samples of blue I thought would work. None of them looked close enough to use. Does your door card fabric better match the front or rear sti seats? I noticed the front sti suede seats are a slightly darker blue than the rear sti seat. Can somebody with an sti check for me?
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Old 05-23-2006, 05:13 PM   #17
brcewane
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Member#: 63990
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Ontario
Vehicle:
2002 WRX
Flat Grey

Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by B16A2NR
I really want to know what kinda fabric you used. I went to the fabric store and bought about 6 samples of blue I thought would work. None of them looked close enough to use. Does your door card fabric better match the front or rear sti seats? I noticed the front sti suede seats are a slightly darker blue than the rear sti seat. Can somebody with an sti check for me?
I actually just took in a body part from the car and color matched it as close as I could to it..
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Old 05-27-2006, 05:27 PM   #18
brandonbeeb
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Member#: 92614
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Default

Hey guys just finished doing mine i was originally the one who asked about this on our local thread but here are some pics. There pretty close to the colour of the car but in the sun they look lighter. when i was doing mine found some sti fabric on the back of doors lol

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Old 05-27-2006, 09:29 PM   #19
brcewane
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Join Date: Jun 2004
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2002 WRX
Flat Grey

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Looks good.. hopefully I will see it in person at the June TSC meet.
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Old 05-28-2006, 02:22 AM   #20
vrexxx
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Location: Orange Co.,NY
Vehicle:
02 wrx
wrb

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you guys can buy the blue micro fiber fabric, it feels like sued, its the closest to the sti, i just bought some today and planning to do the seats and roof with the doorcards also, you can find it in your local fabric store, joanns, a.c. moore, etc. you can also use vinyl
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Old 05-28-2006, 02:24 AM   #21
fluxcapacitor
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Member#: 93843
Join Date: Aug 2005
Chapter/Region: SCIC
Location: SOCAL - West Covina
Vehicle:
X Evo X
1.21 Gigawatts of Boost

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just did this mod today and came out GREAT! ill post pics soon
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Old 05-28-2006, 02:30 AM   #22
B16A2NR
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Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by fluxcapacitor
just did this mod today and came out GREAT! ill post pics soon
Pics would be great. I'm in fullerton and would love to know what fabric you purchased and where, so I can go there and get some.
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Old 05-28-2006, 02:47 AM   #23
fluxcapacitor
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1.21 Gigawatts of Boost

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well i got the fabric at joanns, i got 1 yr of it and its more than enough for 4 doors. Took me about 3 hrs to do and the color came out real close to the sti door color.
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Old 05-28-2006, 03:12 PM   #24
Unseenpunk
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2015 WRX Premium CVT
Dark Grey Metallic

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looks good
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Old 07-13-2006, 01:17 PM   #25
wrxfactor
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6spd, EJ255, VF39 & EWG

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Bump for me doing this today or tomorrow, I'd like to do the seats to, anyone have ideas?
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