Romford Astra
Member
Registered: 13th Aug 01
Location: Romford, Essex Drives:Honda S2000
User status: Offline
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ok 1st thing first, this is by no means a comprehensive guide, it is meant
as a general pointers guide to help you along.
but be warned now, retrimming in this fashion described WILL look
unprofessional if great care is not taken to make sure the material is
evenly covered and stuck. We highly recommend you get this done proffesional, our Premium Traders are more than capable 
1: material
idealy you need something with bit of stretch to it, as corsa door panels
are faily contured and have several ridges running through them, this helps
the material to get into these contures more effectivly.
i used a polyester based fabric with a small % of lycra, (just ask at a
fabric shop or dress shop for the kinda stuff you want, they should be able
to get it)
2: glue
you need to effectivly stick the material to the door panels/roof or
whatever you are trimming (dont use this method for seats!!!!) you need a
dry glue, that is for example pva glue is a 'wet' glue, however art 'spray
mount' glue is a 'dry' glue,
i used 3M permanent mount spray glue (not cheap at £10 a tin but does the
job)
if you use a 'wet' glue it will soak into the material, making it
crinkle/ripple and leave stains when it has dried, generally a less than
acceptable finish.
3: tools
i am assuming that the person reading this has the appropriate skills and
tools to remove door panels as shown in the haynes manual. if you wish to
retrim your roof panel BEWARE the material that the corsa roof panel is made
from is very fragile and can be irreperably damaged extremely easily, do not
attempt to remove it unless you have at least 3 people (including yourself)
to help and at least some practical knowledge.
here are a few tips to help you, once you have removed all the trim panels,
grab handles, sun roof trim (if you have one) sun visors etc, the best way i
found to get it out was to open the boot and slide the panel backwards, with
2 people inside to stop it catching on any attached trim etc, refitting is
the reverse, however like i said be very careful with it as if it is
creased, it cannot be repaired.
4: method
if your doing this inside (best idea) make sure you throw plenty of
newspaper down as there tends to be a lot of overspray from the glue, and
put some old clothes on cause it will get on you to!
if you are doing a door panel, lay the material over the panel, and gently
form the material into the contours of the panel to work out how much
material you need, (if you have bought stuff from a fabric shop it aint
expensive so if in doubt cut it to big, you can always trim it back
afterwards)
once you have the panel of material cut, spray a section all the way along
with glue and have someone hold the material up (so it dont stick in the
wrong place) and gently run you hand over the material pressing it down and
smoothing out any ripples, the good thing about this glue is that it does
not dry instantly so if you get a crease, peel the material back and go
again, dont worry about using to much glue, it wont soak unless you shove
LOADS on there, after all you want it to stay stuck. make sure you use extra
glue in all the ridges and press the material firmly into them as you are
going along, make your way down the panel spraying more and sticking it
down, making sure you work into all the contours.
it is very difficult to get right and is time consuming, so just stick with
it and you will get the hang of it, the most important thing is not to rush,
after all u want it looking good!
once you have glued the whole panel, leave it somewhere warm and dry for 24
hours with heavy cloths/towels anything to make sure the material stays in
the correct positions and dosent try to pull off the card before the glue
dries.
once its dry, trim and loose edged or tack them onto the other side to keep
the material tight (but not to tight!), make sure you cut out the holes for
the door handles etc, use a very sharp knife or scissors and trim the
material slightly smaller than the hole, so that the excess will just tuck
inside, then refit the panel and the trim that goes on it, stand back and
admire your handywork!
this general method is useful for almost any type of trimming, no doubt you
could even trim the plastic parts in this way (but more preperation woud be
required to make sure the material stuck to the plastic - anyone done this?
then send it in to be added to this guide! same for seat trimming)
Submitted by avenger
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