Door cards: what gets retrimmed and what gets replaced
A door card looks like a single piece, but it is three: a rigid backing board, the finish you see, and the fixings that hold it to the door. Each ages in its own way, and that decides whether a retrim is enough or the card has to be remade. This is what is worth checking and deciding first.
By Royal Stitch · Published
Illustrative imageThree pieces in one
The board gives the shape. The finish — leather, vinyl, cloth or Alcantara — is what you see and touch. The fixings, usually clips, hold it to the door skin. In many older cars the board is pressed fibreboard; in modern ones it is usually a moulded plastic part with upholstered inserts.
What damp does
The water and condensation inside a door eventually reach the card. Pressed fibreboard soaks it up, swells and warps, and the clip holes tear out. That is how owners’ clubs that document restoring these cards describe it — the Hudson-AMC club in Australia among them.
The same clubs describe two ways out. If the board is only slightly warped, some recover it by dampening it and pressing it flat until dry. If it is badly distorted or the fixing holes are gone, a new one is cut using the old one as a template.
Retrim or remake
If the board is sound and flat, the card is retrimmed: the old finish comes off and the new one goes on over the same board. If it is warped, soft or has torn fixing holes, retrimming means putting new leather on something that won’t hold it — the board has to be remade first.
The fixings are always checked. A well-trimmed card on tired clips ends up pulling away from the door.
Pattern
Taken from the old card before it goes.
Board
Flat and firm; if it has warped, it is remade.
Fixings
Clips and their holes, always checked.
Finish
Leather, vinyl, cloth or Alcantara, with its design.
Sheet
Behind, against the door’s moisture.
The original pattern
On a classic, the door card has a design of its own: pleats, seams, a particular cloth. Porsche Classic says the interior specialists in its factory restoration workshop keep more than a thousand cutting patterns for the parts of its various model lines, and that on the rarest cars they cut the old leather along its seams and iron it flat to use as the pattern. Door panels are among the parts they trim in leather.
Some manufacturers have rewoven their historic cloths. Porsche has reissued Pasha, Pepita and tartan. Pepita, the company says, was on the door panels from the very first 911, and one piece of its Pasha covers both front door panels and the rear side panels.
Against damp, a sheet
Between the card and the door skin, a waterproof sheet to hold back condensation is worth fitting. The same classic car clubs recommend it, and point out that later cars came with one from the factory, in plastic.
What to ask before anything comes off
These questions settle whether a card is retrimmed or remade:
- The board
- Is it flat and firm, or warped and soft?
- Fixings
- Are the clip holes intact? Are the clips replaced?
- Finish
- Leather, vinyl, cloth or Alcantara? Matching the seats?
- Pattern
- Is a template taken from the old card before it goes?
- Damp
- Is there a sheet behind it?
The service
Door cards due new trim?
Complete interiors in leather and Alcantara for sports and classic cars: seats, door cards, headlining and steering wheel. The service page explains how the work is done.
Sources
The original pattern comes from Porsche; the board and damp, from classic car owners’ clubs that document their restorations. Each source was found by searching the publisher’s own site.