Door Panel Restoration
- usachris
- Seasoned Traveler
- Posts: 203
- Joined: Sun Mar 12, 2017 5:31 pm
- B190 Year: 1999
- Location: Costa Mesa, California @ St. John, Indiana
Door Panel Restoration
I’d thought I’d share a relatively simple restoration project I’m just finishing up.
My door panels were stained, faded, and overall, very tired looking.
I removed the panels and thoroughly cleaned with TSP - Trisodium Phosphate. Once dry, I applied a paint adhesion primer, then used a Ford color matching spray paint and laid on 5 coats.
The image below shows the refurbished speaker grille on the bottom. The improvement was dramatic!
Believe it or not, the bottom speaker grille looked exactly like the one on the top before I refurbished it.
I finished both side doors and posted the pics in my gallery. I’m going to do the rear doors next week.
My door panels were stained, faded, and overall, very tired looking.
I removed the panels and thoroughly cleaned with TSP - Trisodium Phosphate. Once dry, I applied a paint adhesion primer, then used a Ford color matching spray paint and laid on 5 coats.
The image below shows the refurbished speaker grille on the bottom. The improvement was dramatic!
Believe it or not, the bottom speaker grille looked exactly like the one on the top before I refurbished it.
I finished both side doors and posted the pics in my gallery. I’m going to do the rear doors next week.
Christopher Salazar
1999 B190 #301352
1999 B190 #301352
- Choptop
- Seasoned Traveler
- Posts: 390
- Joined: Sat Aug 26, 2017 8:28 pm
- B190 Year: 1990
- WBCCI: 0
- Location: Midwest
Re: Door Panel Restoration
Nice work !!
- Kentuckian
- Seasoned Traveler
- Posts: 346
- Joined: Sun Sep 30, 2012 3:52 pm
- B190 Year: 1993
- WBCCI: 0
- Location: Kentucky, USA
Re: Door Panel Restoration
I did the same when I upgraded the speakers in our doors. Amazing how doing something simple like refinishing the door panels takes years of age off the looks of the camper.
Nice work!
Nice work!
1993 Airstream B190
- GJCamper
- Weekend Camper
- Posts: 52
- Joined: Wed Aug 02, 2017 7:59 pm
- B190 Year: 1996
- WBCCI: 5019
- Location: Grand Junction, Colorado
Re: Door Panel Restoration
I went ahead and removed, prepped, and painted the door panels. Wow! What a difference! I got the paint at O'Reilly's for about $8.00.
I need to remember to take before and after pictures.
I need to remember to take before and after pictures.
WBCCI 5019
1996 Airstream B190 purchased August 2017
1996 Airstream B190 purchased August 2017
Re: Door Panel Restoration
That looks great. Did you do the front door panels too? I can't figure out how to remove them. Thanks.
- usachris
- Seasoned Traveler
- Posts: 203
- Joined: Sun Mar 12, 2017 5:31 pm
- B190 Year: 1999
- Location: Costa Mesa, California @ St. John, Indiana
Re: Door Panel Restoration
Thankfully the interior of my front doors were in great shape. So I had no need to remove and refurbish them.
Christopher Salazar
1999 B190 #301352
1999 B190 #301352
Re: Door Panel Restoration
I spent some time and figured that the carpet panel on the lower half needed to be pulled out and that revealed the screws for the upper half. My panels needed a refurb.
- con5
- Weekend Camper
- Posts: 53
- Joined: Thu Aug 20, 2020 8:30 pm
- B190 Year: 1998
- Location: Fort Worth, TX
Re: Door Panel Restoration
This is kind of an old post but when removing the side door panel in my 1998 there was some foam seal on the top side of the panel that filled the gap at the top of the panel where it is screwed in. The foam seems to provide some protection from rain but was completely ruined when I removed the panel.
Does anyone know what that foam is? It was high density, maybe 1/4-1/2" thick, and sticky on both sides.
Here is the little offset: I used a little strip of plywood to fill the gap, but it is too thick, obviously not water-resistant, and probably not good to have that rubbing against the paint.
Does anyone know what that foam is? It was high density, maybe 1/4-1/2" thick, and sticky on both sides.
Here is the little offset: I used a little strip of plywood to fill the gap, but it is too thick, obviously not water-resistant, and probably not good to have that rubbing against the paint.
- skater
- Site Admin
- Posts: 2578
- Joined: Thu Mar 08, 2007 1:00 am
- B190 Year: 1991
- WBCCI: 13270
- Location: Annapolis, MD
Re: Door Panel Restoration
Would stuff like this work to replace it? You probably don't need nearly that much, that was just the first example I found. It's readily available in hardware stores, Lowe's, Home Depot, etc.
1991 Airstream B190 - bought, 2005; sold, 2011; bought 2017
1995 Airstream Excella 30' trailer
WBCCI #13270, Washington, DC Unit
1995 Airstream Excella 30' trailer
WBCCI #13270, Washington, DC Unit