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Looks like I'll be needing a new door panel eventually...
The one thing that sucks about buying used is there's certain things that are beyond your control. In this case it seems like the previous owner was negligent when it came to ensuring that they didn't close the seat belt buckle into the door.....The unfortunate thing for me is with such a brightly colored interior the marks made are incredibly prominent.....I couldn't figure out exactly what this was from until someone pointed it out to me today, then it all made sense....Most of the red interior cars I've seen have this wear to a differing degree, unless great care was taken to avoid closing the belt into the door, which is just second nature for me, but everyone's different....
Sourcing a new one will be difficult....Right now a replacement from Japan (since US parts dealers say discontinued) is looking like a $450 expense. Like I articulated to someone today....it bothers me, but not $450 levels of bother, lol. I think I'll stick to eBay or these forums/Facebook and hopefully I can score a used one without these wear markings.....Bummer, but it is a driver's car, and stuff happens, but this can easily be avoided....Anyone else have this?
Sure looks like you could have some paint mixed to touch it up and feather it in. Certainly worth a cheap try. The worst that can happen is that you don't like it and you source a new one.
Last edited by IA-SteveB; Feb 6, 2019 at 06:16 AM.
Sorry I pointed it out lol. But It definitely helps to know to retract your seatbelt by hand to rest the buckle on the seat guide so it can't ever get door crunched
worse come to worse, our doors are three piece, upper, card, and lower. So if you can only find a door with suitable bottom, the rest of the panel can be swapped around with your good upper and card to make a whole.
Sorry I pointed it out lol. But It definitely helps to know to retract your seatbelt by hand to rest the buckle on the seat guide so it can't ever get door crunched
worse come to worse, our doors are three piece, upper, card, and lower. So if you can only find a door with suitable bottom, the rest of the panel can be swapped around with your good upper and card to make a whole.
That's what I was thinking as well. My doors have the red door cards, and looking at prices for full door panels with red cards was painful, but I found plenty of black/black panels for cheap. I ended up buying a black panel and swapping out the door card for about $60 if I remember right. If push comes to shove, you could get a couple black panels and go black/red on the doors. It's not the ideal solution, and obviously having to replace both outer door panels would make it slightly more expensive than what I had to do, but it'd probably still be cheaper than $450.
Looks like I'll be needing a new door panel eventually...
