Making my 1986 Alfa Romeo Spider's custom door panel as good as new

It took us a little over four hours to finish the job but I am very pleased with the result.

BHPian Jeroen recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

I spent most of last Sunday with our good friends Alex and Bianca. Bianca owns a gorgeous creme Spider Coda Tronca and Alex used to own a 916 Spider with the famous Busson engine.

We met more than 25 years ago via the Alfa Romeo Spider Register. Soon we found ourselves in various boards and committees organising all kinds of stuff.

We have driven tens of thousands of kilometers all over Europe as part of our Register activities, but also been on many non-Register trips together as well. You will have seen them, in particular Bianca's Spider in some of my trip reports.

Bianca is a very capable and handy person. As a professional seamstress, she runs her atelier but is just as happy to take on all kinds of other jobs. I knew she was redoing all the chairs, panels and carpets in her Spider. Recently she finished the door cards, and they came out very, very nice indeed.

So I asked if she could help me do one of my doorcards. There are two problems with the doorcard on my Spider. It is very old and has become mouldy. But due to its age and the fact that I had to remove and reinstall them multiple times over the years, the holes in which the various plastic and metal clips securing the doorcard to the doorframe have become worn. Meaning it doesn't fit very snugly any more. And it rattles.

You might be able to buy these panels new. But mine are upholstered in leather and that is an aftermarket modification. So I wanted to retain the leather and just replace the wooden crapped-out panel!

Bianca was more than happy to help me out. She also had all the necessary materials and tools in stock.

So around 1400 hours I arrived at their home and after a coffee we went upstairs to get going.

We took a bunch of images, with measurements. Just for reference as everything has to be taken off and subsequently mounted on a new piece of board.

This is what the old one looks like on the inside. I had scraped off most of the mould, but it was still pretty grim. We undid all the various bolts and nuts. Holding the door handle and various other bits in place.

Back of the panel

Outside of the panel, with the leather removed the foam becomes visible.

With everything removed, we used the old panel as a template. Drew lines on a new piece of wood (exact same thickness). Checked and double-checked each line and each bolt circle. There are a lot of those!!

Drawing done!

Bianca had this very fancy Dremel saw. It had belonged to her dad who was heavily into making RC-controlled (wooden) airplanes. Bianca shares his passion and has made these plans herself. So she knows how to work with wood!

Big rough cuts done.

Then it took some more time to cut out exactly along each line. Also, all the circles had to be drilled out. We had three different diameters depending on which holes are where.

With the wooden panel all cut to measure, all the holes, correct diameter, and correct position, it was time to glue the foam backing onto the panel. Bianca used some special foam/wood spray on glue and pressed it on, smoothed it over, no bubbles!

Done!

Next, Bianca cut the excess foam off the side of the panel and opened up the various holes in the panel/foam.

Next, we had to put the leather and the various bits back on. That was quite a bit of a fiddly job. The leather must be stressed and placed across the new panel in such a way that all the various holes in the leather line up with those in the panel, and there should be sufficient material to slap around the back to tack it.

Bianca had experimented quite a bit with different grades of staples for her own doorcard panels. Because the wooden panel is quite thin (about 4mm) the staples need to be very short. But these panels are also incredibly hard, so you need short, hardened staples. Luckily, Bianca had a whole box of these left and the electrical stapler to go with it.

I did not keep track but rough guess, we put some 200 of these staples into the back of this panel to keep the leather nice and taut!

All done!

It took us a little over four hours. I am very happy Bianca helped me out on this job. I would consider myself handy, but I know my limitations. Working with wood, leather, scissors and so on is not my thing. As a little boy, toddler, really, I had to attend preschool. It was run by nuns as we were a roman catholic family. Even then, I drove Mother Superior crazy because I was the only 5-year-old kid who could not draw, fold paper, glue paper or use scissors. My mum was told in no uncertain terms that it would be best if she kept me at home so I could play with my cars or Lego. But typical crafting-type of jobs is not for me. I am totally useless at it.

As Clint said: Man got to know his limitations!

I am very pleased with the result. The complete doorcard is held in place with several bolts/screws, plastic clips and two different kinds of metal clips.

I have all of those in stock, except one. But I think I know who might have one or two for me.

Jeroen

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