Vinyl over fabric, wheel paint on locks/window-switch panel, door handle, and speaker grill.
Cost: under $10 for both doors. Paint: ~$5; Glue:~$2; Vinyl: ~$2.50
Start by taking off the door panels, which includes:
Remove screw from the top of the front of the panel, by the window, and another screw from the handle.
Unscrew the lock knob.
Pull off the panel by yanking outward around the edges.
Disconnect your switches for your locks and windows.
Pull the handle out, and pull the door off of it.
Once removed and where you're doing your recovering, you have some choices to make: "Do I want to repaint my handle?" "Do I want to recover my fabric?" Do I want to paint my speaker grill?" "Do I want to paint the entire panel?" "Do I want to paint my window/lock switch panel?" "Do I want to paint my door/lock switches?"
Handles:
To paint the handles, this is an easy task, as long as the rubber/foam isn't coming off the plastic. If it's starting to get bad, you can glue it. Remove the handle by unscrewing 5 phillips screws. All you have to do to this panel is clean any oils from it, make sure it's dry, then paint it. I used some Dupli-Color wheel paint on these, which has worked well on my horn for my Cougar. You can buy it at a car parts store nearby. The colors come in silver (what I used on my Cougar), charcoal (what I used on this project), white, black, and transparent. When you are done with the panel, and the paint has had plenty of time to dry, you can replace the handle.
Fabric:
To recover the fabric, I was using the vinyl ontop of the original fabric to allow more cushion for the tweeters. I used some fabric glue I had to put on before I attatched the vinyl. You have to cut the vinyl to match the metal panel with leaving 3/4-1" to fold over underneath if you can't attatch the vinyl very well. You have to bend the clips back so the metal panel can come out.
Cut the shape out of the vinyl, and a line in for the parts where it curves, this will help it to conform to the curves better. I wasn't able to get the vinyl to stick to the metal panel on the back, and I wanted it to be quick, so I just put the metal panel back in, but didn't bend the clips down yet and tried to stick the edges of the vinyl in where I could.
Next I pushed in the fabric with a flathead screwdriver.
I cut some holes for the tweeters with a razor blade. Luckilly, the extra vinyl helped them to stay in better.
Speaker grill:
To paint the speaker grill, you have to break out the grill. You can clean it if you want, make sure it's dry, then make some light coats with paint. Let it dry, then use some strong glue to get it back in, and make sure that the smallest non-rounded corner goes in the bottom corner.
Paint whole panel:
To paint the entire panel, make sure anything that can be removed is, then anything you want to cover up to prevent overspray, make sure it's covered. Make sure it's dry, then paint it. Let it dry.
You should be able to reinstall the door handles now.
To paint the door lock/window switch panel:
The panel is easily able to be removed. Clean it, spray paint it. Let it dry then replace it.
Paint door switches:
The switches pull off. Make sure you don't create a spark and blow a fuse or something. Put some masking tape around the contacts, then spray away. Wait a few minutes to replace them.
Finished left panel:
Finished right panel:
http://members.tccoa.../FinishedRt.jpg
Finished left panel installed:
