door trims hand made

[pjwooly]

Has anyone here made their own door trims for their GQ.
I'm thinking of doing so but would like a few pointers and hear of any probs you may have had.
Please include some pics if you could....

Cheers

Pj

[rusty_nail]

i would also like to know. mine are pretty sad and i have often thought of doing the same thing

[NissanGQ4.2]

Hi mate,

Have moved your thread into the DIY Section under: Questions related to DIY project.

I will be interested in this thread as mine needs doing to.

Is your windows Electric or Manual? I assume there would be more work involved if you have electric windows

Cheers

Todd

[MudRunnerTD]

Its pretty simple if you have the old door cards.

I'd recommend using a decent 3 or 5 ply rather than MDF, the originals are made out of Masonite. Use the originals for a pattern and just trace around and basically copy cut everything. If you want to cover them then buy some vinyl and glue it on using vinyl adhesive from your local Bunnings

All the fittings will screw straight to the new card, ie. window switches and arm rests etc.

Alternatively 3mm Aluminium sheet but a little more difficult to work with and unless your going to leave it exposed and like the shiny look i would not bother.

[pjwooly]

Yeah thanks mudrunner thats what i was thinking too.I do have the old ones but they are a bit buckled.Remove them and maybe weight them down for a night mite help to flatten them for retracing.I have seen some done in checker plate and thort that looked pretty cool.
What about the fixing to the door tho? Do you just screw them? Use the old clip things somehow? or what. With checker plate i think i would run a thin rubber strip around the edges,but for ply you may not need to.

[MudRunnerTD]

I gave up on the factory clips years ago in the GQ and went phillips head tek screws and i reckon it looks tidy. Cant say i even notice them now



They work really really well

[HippoNZ]

I'm in the process of replacing the rear door linings and the back sides with 1mm thick galv sheet steel. Just took off the old lining and used it as a template, got the grinder out and started cutting. Couple of coats of primer then black paint and it's come up real nice eh. Used self tapping screws to make my life easier. I can post up some pics when I'm done. Basically I went with metal for harder wearing and ease of cleaning, just attack it with the hose and done The cut outs for the speakers and door handle were easy enough to do, wasn't a job that would win any awards but the speaker covers etc cover up my rookie workmanship lol I will no doubt do the same to the front doors later down the track. One thing I like about it this idea is that when the panels get all roughed up I can unscrew, give it another lick of paint and it will look brand new again.

Cheers
Brett

[Richo460]

i bought my gq with ally checker plate trims, really don't like them though. They look really tacky so i am going to fit some original ones. My trims are screwed on, i suume new holes were made, probably self tapping screws.

[MudRunnerTD]

i bought my gq with ally checker plate trims, really don't like them though. They look really tacky so i am going to fit some original ones. My trims are screwed on, i suume new holes were made, probably self tapping screws.

Have a go at painting them. Might come up a treat!

Alternatively, swap sides with all your trims and the checker will be facing the door rather than facing out. You could then maybe look at covering them in vinyl??

Paint could sort them out though? Even paint the backs as swap them as above

[pjwooly]

thanks for the pics mud...if any1 else has pics please post em...would like to see your handy work!!
I'm too busy working and driving from the goldy to brissy at the mo, but when i do get a bit of time i'm gonna tackle the drivers door first at least..it looking pretty sad.
I will post before and after shots to see what you think.hav'nt made up my mind which way to tackle this yet but i think the ply/vinyl idea sounds good.