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[53Skylark]

I disassembled the passenger door panel on my '53 Buick Skylark today, and encountered something that wasn't covered in the video course, so I'm looking for options. The top of the door frame has a strip of wood the length of the door, 1" wide and 3/4" thick, attached to the door frame with a machine screw at each end. There is a hole through it that the up/down door lock post passes through. The top vinyl of the door panel wraps up and over this piece of wood, and is attached to it along the top with small carpet brad nails. It is covered by a strip of stainless steel trim screwed into this wood. Is there an alternative method for attaching the top of the door panel vinyl? I suppose I could just re-attach the wood strip, or a new piece of wood, and staple the vinyl onto it with heavy duty staples instead of hammering in the brads. Just curious what other solutions you folks have. Thanks in advance!

[John]

Great question! I'm having some trouble picturing this from your description. Is it possible for you to post some pictures?
Awesome car by the way!

[53Skylark]

John,
Below are pics of the front and back side of the passenger door panel. You can see the wood strip across the top in the back pic. I e-mailed you some photos as well. I'll have to take some better pics of the driver's side panel that is still on the car to give a better idea of how its all assembled. Thanks!

Skylark Right Panel front.jpg (1.6 MiB) Viewed 3973 times

Skylark Right Panel rear.jpg (1.6 MiB) Viewed 3973 times

[John]

That wood strip is what is known as a tack strip. When they go bad I always replace it with strips of ABS plastic. I use rivets to attach them to the car a sometimes I will also use construction adhesive as well to give it added strength. I like to use ABS strips for this because it holds staples very well and will last basically forever. I show an example of this in the headliners course if you are interested.

Hope this helps!

[embguide]

Great query! I'm having a few trouble picturing this from your description. Is it possible so that you can submit some photographs.

[53Skylark]

embguide,
Attached are some pics of the top of the driver's door panel. The first shows the door un-assembled with the stainless steel trim in place. The second shows the trim removed with the vinyl stapled to the wooden tack strip. (On the passenger door the vinyl was nailed on with carpet tack brads so I'm assuming some work was done at some pint in the car's history that required the driver's door panel to be removed). The third shows the vinyl removed with the wooden tack strip exposed. I like John's advice of replacing the wooden strip with a piece of ABS and will likely go that route.