TT Door Panel Disintegration
#1
07-06-2014, 06:20 PM
TT Door Panel Disintegration
2001 TT Roadster.
The top of the interior door panels have disintegrated. The vinyl is stretched over a flimsy plastic substructure and attached with a weird adhesive. Most adhesives dry out over time where this stuff has actually gotten softer and gooey with time. The process seems to be this:
1) The plastic cracks in several places perpendicular to the window.
2) The adhesive starts to fall out and get gooey (falls into the weather strip channel on the inside of the window).
3) The adhesive gets on the window which then grabs the door panel edge breaking it even more.
see pictures.
You have to use a solvent (e.g., Goo Gone) to remove the crap from the windows. Lift up the edge of the vinyl and cut/scrape/wipe all the adhesive you can get to. I used an exacto blade to trim the adhesive off the edge of the vinyl (you'll loose a little vinyl in the process) and used a solvent-soaked paper towel to wipe the adhesive off the underlying plastic. This will let you operate the window without getting more adhesive on it, but doesn't fix the broken door panel.
Anyone else deal with this? These panels are $900 each just for the part.
The top of the interior door panels have disintegrated. The vinyl is stretched over a flimsy plastic substructure and attached with a weird adhesive. Most adhesives dry out over time where this stuff has actually gotten softer and gooey with time. The process seems to be this:
1) The plastic cracks in several places perpendicular to the window.
2) The adhesive starts to fall out and get gooey (falls into the weather strip channel on the inside of the window).
3) The adhesive gets on the window which then grabs the door panel edge breaking it even more.
see pictures.
You have to use a solvent (e.g., Goo Gone) to remove the crap from the windows. Lift up the edge of the vinyl and cut/scrape/wipe all the adhesive you can get to. I used an exacto blade to trim the adhesive off the edge of the vinyl (you'll loose a little vinyl in the process) and used a solvent-soaked paper towel to wipe the adhesive off the underlying plastic. This will let you operate the window without getting more adhesive on it, but doesn't fix the broken door panel.
Anyone else deal with this? These panels are $900 each just for the part.
#7
05-10-2015, 11:20 PM
Just picked up an 01 roadster, both tops are split in several places, wasnt sure if the glue was factory or someones attempted repair
#8
05-16-2015, 10:03 PM
I don't think there is a fix other buying new panels. Just had the back window fallout and had to buy an entire new top. About $1800 all in. Not as bad as I thought it would be.
I'm sorry to hear you just bought a 01. Good luck, hope someone else fixed all the stuff that falls apart after 10 years.
I'm sorry to hear you just bought a 01. Good luck, hope someone else fixed all the stuff that falls apart after 10 years.
#9
05-24-2015, 10:37 AM
I've seen this happen with other items, i.e., motorcycle boots, eye glasses' temple tips, etc. To date, I've yet to find a way to reverse this, what appears to be, a normal process for these materials. At this point, replacement or alteration of the part seems to be the only solution. I have no idea how to alter pieces to achieve a factory look.
