I two toned the door caps to line up with the dash. Originally I was going to just have a small portion be black. To about where the wing window chrome is. I decided I liked the two tone, so I’m going to make a “halo” of black. Here’s the steps. First I marked the alignment with the chrome strip on the dash
Then I used masking tape to “sketch” the contour I wanted. Next I cut some strips of HDPE (solvent RESISTANT plastic) 3/8” wide. Which after vinyl wrap in both ends will leave about 1/4” opening. Vinyl is about .045”-.05” thick usually. It’s fastened with a combo of double back tape and some small screws from the back
Now, this process is really only for smaller trim panels. This is a heavy process. On a larger panel I’d probably make a mold and pull a fiberglass replacement part before final install. The first bulk (ugly) layer is out of Duraglas. It’s a fiber reinforced filler. This goes on thick and just gets knocked down.
The next steps are with the lightweight filler of your choice. I use this stuff from Wesco. Start with a bulk rough-in layer, then a lighter fill in the low spots coat. 40grit for the rough-in and finish with 80grit. I like to leave it pretty rough to add a “tooth”. Use a sanding block that is as long as is reasonable and use it as often as possible. The final product will turn out way better
Once it’s shaped nicely, pop out the HDPE strip and finish up the edges
Because I’m two toning these, I needed a cut that would allow the two colors to tuck through the panels
Then comes upholstery. Same as before. Mask off the areas you’re not currently covering to keep glue off (if you don’t, you wind up fighting it while wrapping). Spray both part and vinyl, let it dry completely and spray one or the other again
The next part I didn’t go over last time. When you’re looking at a panel to cover, you need to identify potential problem areas. Like this curved area that drops off pretty sharply
If you just laid the vinyl straight on there it would be stretched/stressed pretty good and could potentially lift later
What I do is trim where possible and pre-curve the vinyl that will allow the excess material to be ready to wrap the problem spots. You can see how there’s extra material bunched up now
Then it’s a matter of heat when necessary and tuck and glue and tuck and etc
For the chrome I’m using door edge guard (for the time being) that I grind some off the “back” and stuff in the channel
I still haven’t figured out 100% what I’m going to do where the dash/door meet. And at the end of the door caps at the rear edge of the door, but they’re on there