One More Hit

I have never been satisfied with the RS style Door Cards I fitted to the 993 some time ago. Their condition has been slowly [but surely] deteriorating from the odd foot rub, perhaps an aggressive door shut, but generally through use. So I thought it was about time that I had a go myself at doing them.

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Stripping down the ones fitted to the 993, their true condition became apparent; the card was broken, the Straps were torn, the Pull Handles were bent and the retaining screws had pulled on and torn the leatherette covering material.

Using the original Cards as template I ventured down to my local Timber Merchant who would cut copies of the Cards for £30 each, using a slightly more sturdy and treated material. At this time, I also chose to have the correct specification for the Door Cards; no Speaker Holes! Turnaround time would be a few days, in the meantime I set about buying some Dense Foam backing and the covering material which I had decided would be a nice perforated black Leatherette. I had had New Handles made and had [original] RS Door Pulls in the Parts Box [I had wanted to tackle this task for some time!]..

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Setting aside a Saturday morning, I set about affixing the Foam to the new Door Cards using a strong Contact Adhesive. Once dry, trim and lightly sandpaper the edges to as to give a slightly rounded / domed finish.

Cutting an approximate [but obviously larger] piece of the Leatherette, place it on top of the Door Card; give yourself a ~30mm margin. Fold back the lower half and spray the Contact Adhesive and roll down the material; repeat with the top half. Smooth out the creases as much as possible during this process, but inevitably there will be the odd fold line as can be seen. Most important of all, do not PANIC at these..

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Next, place upside down / material side down on a really expensive Rug in the Living Room..

For the next part, you will need:

• Scissors
• Stanley Knife
• Staple Gun
• Masking Tape
• Cloth / Electrical Tape

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Folding over the edges of the material hold in place with the masking tape; Make you way around the edge with a Staple Gun and punch a Staple ~5mm from the edge with a light tug on the material to create a bit of tension. Trim excess material using the Stanley Knife, then Tape over the Staples to give a nice finish.

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It was a bit of an emotional experience doing this, I have to admit.

I had bought the RS Pull Straps months before, possibly the year before, I can’t remember. I always wanted to fit them, but knew that to do them justice I would have to replace the Cards as well. And the Handles. And deal with those fucking RivNuts again. A rather nice surprise was that, unknown to me, whilst the 993 was in having Bodywork at Precision Porsche the RivNuts had been removed and a pair of standard Nuts had been spot welded in their place. Awesome. RIP RivNuts.

Also, by the time I got around to fitting them, I had already had an offer on the 993 that, opportunistically, I was keen to take. So slotting these in would be the last Job that I tackled on the 993. It was a very satisfying one. One that finished something.