Fresh doorcards

To clean up the front area of the interior, the existing door card needed to be replaced. Only one was included in the purchase of the van and in NSW driving without doorcards is illegal - your vehicle can be defected if caught doing so.

I enjoy making doorcards as it is not too hard of a job and can change the look of the interior quite dramatically without having to spend too much.

Step one was to remove all the handles and the previous cards.

Next was to map out how we wanted the speakers to sit and if we wanted to keep any of the last set up. We decided to start afresh and make everything new, changing the design completely.This is when a piece of paper stepped in along with my filthy shed hands to mark out the shape of the lower door. 

Next was to measure and shape the backing for the speaker surrounds. After finding the shape one of my mates Jack came around and we got straight in and were able to make some really solid surrounds out of some 6mm mdf scrap I had laying around and with a sheet of bright pink fabric that was stretched and stapled into place creating the fluid curves that were set in place with the help of some resin.

This all came together in an afternoon and we just had to wait for the fiberglass to set before we applying the second and third coats.

Next step was to shape the new cards. I did this by making cardboard templates to start with, then traced that to the 3mm mdf. This was a very tedious process but it paid off in the end, giving a very close and clean fit.

After replicating this for both sides the next job was to cover the front side in foam. For this I just sprayed both materials with kwick grip and then pressed the two together, leaving to dry overnight.

After the drying period I used a utility knife blade to remove the excess. Next was to apply the vinyl. I ironed this beforehand removing all the creases from having it folded for a week. Applying the vinyl is always the hardest part as you need to stretch the material to your desired shape without getting any wrinkles or bubbles.

Finally the best part: clipping them to the doors and seeing the result.

We are absolutely stoked with the final result!

Now to do the rest...