Bay Window Door Cards – replacement and restoration

Tired and worn looking door panels on your Bay window – this blog post shows how we made our Camper look clean and refreshed with a pair of ABS werksberg door cards.

First job is to strip out the old door card. The window winder handle is attached with a screw underneath the clip on plastc cover. The door pull has two metal screws that attach it to the door and finally the door release handle has a single short fastener under the pull handle. Each one must come off and be removed to allow the main door card to come off. Normal wear and tear mixed with damp and damage and sometimes a speaker hole or two means the old one rarely comes off intact. It is usual for the fibreboard to just crumble around the snap. Original style mounts used the same system as Beetles – a rubber bung in the door and a blind clip hooked around the edge of the fibrboard to make an invisible fastener. The best method we found was to locate the clip and then use a protective surface like a layer of thin plastic and then screwdriver the clip, aim for the clip and not rely on the strength of the fibreboard. This si the underneath of a door card – this one has a genius speaker attached to it.
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With the door card removed there could be any number of surprises in the door – usually a tattered and brittle waterproof layer and some debris in the bottom of the door. Hopefully no rust, or loose brackets or fasteners. Time to clean up, with a blunt non metallic object – we use a thin offcut of plywood – clean off the old waterproofing layer plastic and brittle old rubber bungs. The replacement door card came with a different attachment system and so the bungs are no longer required. We use 3M General Purpose Adhesive Cleaner to get rid of the old glue, its a messy job best done outside with good ventilation. Depending on how stubborn the old stuff is allow about an hour to clean off the old stuff. We want the old stuff gone and a good clean and non greasy / dirty surface to allow the new contact adheisive to work effectively. This is clean off.
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Once clean and dry use a cheap throw away paint brush and a large tin of general purpose contact adheisive glue. Plenty of coverage on the door and a light coat on the new plastic sheet of waterproofing – available pre-cut to Bay window door shape and with the right cutouts. Once dry to touch there is the decisive moment when the new sheet is offered up to the door, precise alignment is required before contact made as second chances are rare. Once in place you’ll see why it was necessary to apply copious amounts of glue to the door – all those nooks and crannys around the door handle for example need to be sealed as best as possible. To be honest with the replacement door card mad eof impervious plastic it is not stricly necessary to waterproof the new card but it all helps in keeping moisture out of the Bus. The waterproof sheet in place;
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Final step is to attach the new door card – we use Werksberg door cards as they are precision cut plastic with superb strength and fit. The plastic clips are a little fiddly in places and for us one of the holes was out of alignment so we opened up the hold a little in the plastic to ensure a snug fit. There is a fair amount of diameter to the head and washer system so this is not visible from the outside. Once installed the reverse of the dismantl eprocess was followed. This is the chance to clean and or replace those door pulls and door release cups to be clean. The window winders are also known to crack on the root of the handle so a good inspection before refit will ensure many more years trouble free use. We also chose to install Werksberg kick panels to – the fit and finsih with the factory rubber front mat and other fittings is excellent we feel. And being a strong plastic the panels and cards will be hard wearing too.
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