Plastic Door Covering Repairs

I would like to repair some cracks that have developed in the plastic of one of my doors. I have seen a Vinyl and Leather Repair Kit at Walmart made by Permatex. Has anyone used one of those kits? Does it actually work or should I look for something else?

Thanks,

QC

Hmmmm....

Either no one repairs their cracked door vinyl or I have the only unit that has door panels made of cheap plastic. In fact of all the cars I've owned I've never before had one on which the vinyl on the doors cracked! Maybe it's a good thing that Oldsmobile has disappeared off the face of the planet, LOL.

Same problem here with a 1998 I just got. Seems to be limited to the drivers side for now. I plan to find a repair kit and try it out but I have had bad luck in the past matching the colors.

Yes baron1701, the kit I saw has just a handful of colors, so I suppose if you're really good at matching them the color it could be alright. What about the finish? Does the kit actually make it look like the vinyl that was on the door or does it look awful?

BTW, mine has a bunch of cracks on the driver's side door handle and the foam is starting to break up, then it has other small cracks in other places. These cars must have the cheapest plastic available anywhere. I bought this one new and have not abused it, this is just from normal wear!

Cracks in the door panels are common for some models. If you do a search on this site, you'll see cars such as the Buick Roadmaster , and Chevy Camaro have an issue with this. I own a Roadmaster and suffer from this problem, as did a friend of mine who also owned a Roadmaster. He tried using a kit but wasn't satisfied with the results and the panel cracked more a few months after the repair. Many owners of these types of vehicles have to bite the bullet and get replacement panels from a salvage yard. A good source for door panels is www.car-part.com . I have seen panels for many models on this site. You enter your vehicle's info and you get pages of results from salvage yards across the country. You can even narrow the results to closer to your area. The results page lists info such as condition, color, which side of the vehicle the panel fit, and the name and contact info for the salvage yard. The "88" was a fairly common produced vehicle, so there should be a supply of used panels out there at a decent price. It seems no matter what part of the country you live in, you might have issues with cracks and breaks , from temperature extremes in the Northern areas with the very cold winters which make the plastic brittle, to the Summers that are scorching hot. Those highs and lows wear out the plastic making it prone to cracking. To the Souther areas that deal with high temperatures a large part of the year.

Thanks '97ventureowner, that is valuable information.

It seems that the problem is limited mostly to GM products! Of the dozen or so cars I've owned (some older than this one and including other GM models) I've never had that problem before. It doesn't make much sense to me to repair the panels if it's a tough job to do and they're just going to continue cracking anyways; the cracks I have now have been developing for years and seem to be getting worse and more numerous! Replacing the panels also doesn't make much sense either as any replacement panel (unless it's new) is going to either be cracked or on the verge of cracking! I replaced the seals around the back door openings a few years ago because they were rusting badly and they're rusting again! Obviously they are made with a carbon steel core that is not zinc coated and may in fact be rusting (judging by how quickly they rust) by the time they are covered with the rubber/plastic material. Mechanically this car has been the highest maintenance cost vehicle I've ever owned, by far.

Kudos to GM excellence !!!

I am going to keep running this car a bit longer with minimal maintenance and then scrap it, which is what it's designed for anyways.