Door Panel Restoration

Make it comfortable inside
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usachris
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Joined: Sun Mar 12, 2017 5:31 pm
B190 Year: 1999
Location: Costa Mesa, California @ St. John, Indiana

Door Panel Restoration

Post by usachris »

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.
Door 1 - Before
Door 1 - Before
35D0ED34-FB34-4C3B-B042-89B735901021.jpeg (113.13 KiB) Viewed 10656 times
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.
Door 1 - After
Door 1 - After
B23005C0-DAD5-4A34-B75D-5F14F82465BB.jpeg (106.65 KiB) Viewed 10656 times
The image below shows the refurbished speaker grille on the bottom. The improvement was dramatic!
Speaker Grille - Before & After
Speaker Grille - Before & After
03C53A75-4A3C-4F4C-9713-02AE7F6D05F6.jpeg (154.17 KiB) Viewed 10656 times
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
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Choptop
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B190 Year: 1990
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Re: Door Panel Restoration

Post by Choptop »

Nice work !!
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Kentuckian
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B190 Year: 1993
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Re: Door Panel Restoration

Post by Kentuckian »

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!
1993 Airstream B190
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GJCamper
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B190 Year: 1996
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Re: Door Panel Restoration

Post by GJCamper »

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. :D
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1996 Airstream B190 purchased August 2017
skidrow
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B190 Year: 1996
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Re: Door Panel Restoration

Post by skidrow »

That looks great. Did you do the front door panels too? I can't figure out how to remove them. Thanks.
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usachris
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Posts: 203
Joined: Sun Mar 12, 2017 5:31 pm
B190 Year: 1999
Location: Costa Mesa, California @ St. John, Indiana

Re: Door Panel Restoration

Post by usachris »

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
skidrow
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B190 Year: 1996
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Re: Door Panel Restoration

Post by skidrow »

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.
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20190915_154630.jpg
20190915_154630.jpg (1.57 MiB) Viewed 8593 times
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con5
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Joined: Thu Aug 20, 2020 8:30 pm
B190 Year: 1998
Location: Fort Worth, TX

Re: Door Panel Restoration

Post by con5 »

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:
side door panel top mounting (detail)
side door panel top mounting (detail)
door2.jpg (1.58 MiB) Viewed 5582 times
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.
side door panel top mounting
side door panel top mounting
door1.jpg (2.11 MiB) Viewed 5582 times
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skater
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Re: Door Panel Restoration

Post by skater »

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

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con5
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B190 Year: 1998
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Re: Door Panel Restoration

Post by con5 »

I’ll try something like that, thanks.
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