Like many other owners of 2010 through 2014 Mustangs living in warm locales, my Florida based 2012 Mustang convertible has been having the vinyl door panel inserts peeling for the past few years. No variety of glue or adhesive that I've found was a permanent cure, reverting to peeling again. I kept looking for a solution, then happened upon a YouTube video posted by an upholstery shop ( ) that gave me the idea of using a panel to upholster and then attach over the insert area on the factory door panel.



Instead of doing a leather insert of multiple shades like in the video, I found a remnant of a stone beige vinyl at JoAnn's Fabrics and a yard of medium weight (approximately 1/2” thick) polyester batting material to create a little padding for the panel. I found a Ford Motor Company employee publication that featured an article on the Mustang that included a prancing Mustang logo that was perfect to use as a template for embroidering the logo onto the vinyl. The publication's image was photocopied at a 250% enlargement, then trimmed and traced onto the vinyl. I taught myself to embroider using the split stitch to outline the horse along with a few highlighting lines to enhance the embroidered image.



I first removed the peeling factory vinyl inserts and scraped the remaining glue and dead foam off the panel, then made cardboard templates for the foundation panels, which were cut out of 3/16”-thick plastic-coated Masonite. Prior to gluing the padding and vinyl on, the Masonite was laid over the door panel and mounting holes were drilled through both. Contrary to the video, for the driver's door I drilled the holes perpendicular to the panel's edge to make gluing the vinyl easier. I first verified where any obstacles existed on the back side of the panel, finding an insulator pad and a locating lug. Holes in pairs were made in eight locations around the perimeter of the foundation panels as they were placed over the door panel inserts, drilling through both in one pass. I used extra drill bits to keep the foundation panels positively located at each end while the remaining holes were drilled. I noted where holes were being drilled in positions which had the sound deadening pad attached to the back of the door panel, these holes were drilled only until the bit was through the panel plastic to avoid having the bit destroy the sound deadening pad. After the holes were drilled, I located the two that were inaccessible due to the pad being in the way, and slit the pad to allow the wires to eventually poke through. The holes in the Masonite were pressed flat with the butt end of a screwdriver on the coated side and the bloomed fiber trimmed with a utility knife on the uncoated side prior to pressing flat with the screwdriver. I chose to use solid core 22-gauge Bell wire to attach the panels together instead of thicker cord as in the video in attempts to avoid lumps in the finished product. The Bell wire was threaded into the holes prior to gluing ensuring the ends were roughly even for each pair of holes and then the ends bent over toward the center of the back of the panel during the gluing steps. Using 3M General Purpose #45 Spray Adhesive, three layers of the medium weight polyester batting were glued to the face of the foundation panel, the first layer the same size as the panel, layer two 1/4” smaller, and layer three 1/2” smaller than the panel. This particular adhesive was one of the products that failed to keep the factory vinyl inserts glued to the door panels, but in this application, the new vinyl is wrapped completely around the Masonite and overlapped by up to two inches and the Bell wire is clamping the glued vinyl between the Masonite and the door panel. This method has a much larger chance of remaining secured in the future.



To locate the vinyl accurately, an outline was drawn with Sharpie marker one-inch away from the edge of foundation panel border. Holding the vinyl up to the light, the Sharpie outline was transferred to the the back of the vinyl. The vinyl was glued in two stages, first gluing the center of the vinyl to the face of the padded foundation panel. After the glue from stage one had dried, the vinyl was trimmed to no more than two inches overlap and notches were made at each of the mounting holes' locations and at the corners to minimize puckering of the vinyl when wrapped around the edge of the panel. Next, the mounting wires are all positioned outward perpendicularly from the location of each hole pair, the back of the Masonite and the overlap vinyl are sprayed with glue, and a gloved (latex, rubber, etc.) hand is used to stretch the vinyl taught and adhere it to the Masonite, working first from the corners where puckering might present an issue. Once all the vinyl is secured, allow a few minutes for stage two gluing to dry.



Finally, I positioned the upholstered panel over the door panel insert area, threaded the wires into each pair of holes, twisted them tightly together, then taped them onto the back of the door panel after deciding to not trim them short. The door panels were reinstalled, and so far, even with Florida weather occasionally in the 90s since November, there have been no peel-off issues.







This glue was good for attaching the vinyl to the foundation panel

Embroidery in progress

Pay attention to the locating lugs on the back of the door panels

I used extra drill bits to register the location of the Masonite over the door panel insert area

Drilling complete, Masonite over insert area, cardboard template above it

Smoothing hole rims with screwdriver handle end

Trimming Masonite 'bloom' on back side of panel

Showing opened hole through factory door panel insulator pad after drilling

Bell wire sections cut to approximately 14 inches each

Back of panel showing wires threaded through hole pairs

Completed embroidery on new vinyl

Back side of new vinyl showing transferred border-plus-inch outline from front side

Masonite with three layers of polyester medium-weight batting glued in decreasing sizes

Masonite glued to new vinyl with border lines showing

Vinyl and Masonite sprayed with glue

Finished insert replacement

Insert wires being threaded into door panel

Wires tied on back side of door panel

Wire ends taped down out of the way

Completed Driver Door Panel

Completed Passenger Door Panel