How to remove door panel triangular shaped leather insert??

[ABAMAGRAD1995]

Hey all,

Can anyone tell me how to remove the triangular shaped leather door panel inserts from the rest of the door panel? Along the top, I see what appears to be many plastic rivet looking fasteners. Along the bottom, I see what appears to be several torx screws. I am wondering if I have to drill out the plastic rivet looking fasteners or are they just clips you just simply pull apart to separate. Does anyone know for sure? Does anyone know if I can buy replacement rivet fasteners for my leather door panel inserts if in fact they are plastic rivets that must be drilled out?? Help!

[jman9895]

I'm not sure off the top of my head. I also have fabric not leather

Generally you use a reamer to grind out those rivets/plastic welds, and then use a hot knife and some of the plastic bits you ground off to melt the welds back together.

If you post a pic of the back of the door panel I'll point out what looks like it needs to be ground. If I remember tonight I'll try to pop off my panel and take a look at it.

Sometimes, they are all one piece and cant be ground, it makes it difficult to redo the leather, at that point its making sure you use good contact cement and cut it precisely and then tuck it into the grooves.

[ABAMAGRAD1995]

Thanks Jman. I checked with my local dealer thus morning. The inserts are not meant to be removed once placed. Nissan does not sell replacement rivets.

[jman9895]

that is true, those are not rivits actually, they are pegs that are molded into the door panel parts, and then melted over using a "sonic welding" process.

You can, however grind those down using a reamer, seperate the panels, cover the fabric in leather, and then put them back together using epoxy, or by melting the plasic back together using a hot knife. I do it alot when im doing leather interior conversions.

Its not difficult to do at all, just can get a little time consuming.

Another option would be to cover the fabric and just tuck the new material into the gaps.. its a little more diffuclt to do and have a factory look, but it is possible.

Are you changing the fabric? or converting to leather?

[ABAMAGRAD1995]

I would like to cover the inserts with leather. I did not buy the LE door panels from the LE at the junk yard cause I thought it would be an easy project to recover my SE inserts with leather. Besides, the LE driver's door panel had the seat memory switches which I cannot utilize because my SE has a different body control module.