Door leather

[Steve]

I'm replacing my MBTex with leather, and I have a couple of questions concerning the doors.

Is there supposed to be foam under the leather at the top of the door? The supplier suggested 1/8" to 1/4" foam glued to the bottom half of the door (up to the horizontal divider), and no foam above the horizontal divider. This doesn't seem correct. Also, on the lower half of the door should the leather be glued to the foam, or just glued around the perimeter?
Thanks!
Steve

[114015]

Hello Steve,

Now I think (to remember) that your supplier is correct.
As far as I remember there is no foam (felt) under the upper horizontal liner of the leather door panel but I don't remember whether or not there is some under the middle horizontal leather piece.

Definitely the leather is not glued to the felt (there is some sort of greyish 0.3 - 0.5 mm felt underneath the leather but not foam).
Also the leather is only glued around the perimeter and additionally fixed with staples all around the cardboard panel.

Hope this helps.

All the best,
Achim

[Steve]

Thanks Achim.
I have finished the doors and they look great. The installation of leather is quite different from that of the original MB Tex, and the supplier does not provide written instructions so I appreciate your help. My car originally had MB Tex, so that is my only reference.

Here's what I learned about applying the leather to the door panels:
1) There should be no contact cement under the 2.5" horizontal felt strip. Keep the glue well away from that area, or the seam will not pull down tight and straight.
2) The canvas should be glued to the door panel, *under* the foam.
3) I glued the foam to the door panel, then trimmed 1/8" off the edges to facilitate insertion into the metal U channel around the perimeter of the door. This is unoticable once the panel is installed. I also sanded the perimeter of the door panel to make the edges thinner, and I skived the  leather on the back of the panel after glueing it down. I didn't use staples cause the contact cement seemed sufficient.
4) I used good quality 1/8" foam, closed cell and quite dense so it won't collapse from heat and pressure, glued to the entire panel. Sort of a neoprene rubber foam (actually it is intended for use in laminate floor installations) Otherwise imperfections in the door panel will transmit through the leather once it is glued down.
5) Pay attention to the position of the horizontal band, the cutout for the door handle has to be exactly centred vertically, otherwise you will end up cutting the stitching - not good.
6) Use brush-on contact cement applied to both surfaces, and let it dry completely (15 min) before bonding the two surfaces. I used the solvent based stuff.
7) I'm usually pretty good at this sort of thing, and I found it's easy to make mistakes that take a lot of work to correct.
8 GAHH quality is good.
Steve