Fixing Door trims MK5 golf

[Shafs]

Hi
I am sure this has been posted here as it a common problem with this car. the driver doors trim is falling apart. Does anyone know of any fixes or motor trimmers that can do it?

Cheers.

[kamold]

Just get a whole door card from a wrecker might be easier and cheaper?

[MEL744]

I am trying to do the same with mine, the fabric is looking really worn. I have been looking at the wreckers for a year or so now, and its seems like most of the fabric trims are in the same condition as mine, or the door card itself (plastic) is scuffed up. The other week I found some leather door cards that were in really nice condition from a 2010 Jetta. Unfortunately when I was putting them in the garage at home I realised the plastic was actually a different colour (mine are anthracite grey on the bottom section, these were titanium black). So that's something else to contend with. What I'm going to experiment with is carefully removing the plastic with the leather on it from these and then plastic welding it into my door cards which, apart from the fabric are in great condition. Seems a bit complicated I know but since I have the parts to do it now I thought might as well. Will let you know how this goes...

[Shafs]

I spoke to the local trim guy and he said that the glue they used is crap and it just falls apart. And if you got to the wreckers the ones you buy will do the same thing. My Mk5 GTI has had the left front trim replaced and the roof lining done but they don't really match up.

And the back doors still look ok but you can see the trim starting to come away because of the glue.

Cheers

[kamold]

It's not actually the glue, its the foam. It tends to perish after about 10 years in Australian heat. Headliner is normally the first place you'll notice it as the fabric delaminates from the foam and it drops

[Shafs]

Yes

My bad it is the foam.

[saabman]

its been interseting to this issue of the foam deteriorate in the golfs in recent years. It was an issue I had with my mid70's SAABs back in the late '80s. The foam in the hood lining would deteriorate and subsequently fall down we tried all sorts of things from staples to spray glue but the only thing that really worked was pull the hood lining and scrape the old foam off and glue in material without a foam backing.

Mid 70's VW were still using "hoops" to hold the hood lining up so didint suffer the issue like the SAAB's. Now I have 3 early 2000's saabs all about the same age as the golfs (and Jetta's) that are suffering this issue but SAAB seems to have solved the problem.

Ive been considering ways to get around the issue in my daughters golf and for the doors particulary the handles that look like a dog a dog has eaten them. I was thinking of maybe painting the handles with plastidip and seeing how that holds up.

ripping the dodgey cloth and reapplying some new cloth is the plan for the doors. She has already replaced all the switches with ebay specials and they look really good and they work. and installation was pretty easy i believe.

[maltbbe]

My approach to dealing with this was to go all-in on replacing the interior... I've got a base model Mk5 GTI - tartan seats, fabric trim etc. - the headliner was sagging, and the door trims were really ratty. I picked up some leather door cards and dash trim off a wrecked R32 (not cheap!), and redid the headliner with black suede trim from Spotlight and lots of really heavy-duty spray glue - which isn't a fun job, and the results aren't perfect, but cost about $50 all up as opposed to the ~$500 I was quoted by trimmers.

To deal with the colour mismatch, I used some spray fabric dye to respray the rest of the grey trim pieces black. I'd really recommend this stuff - I used it on the plastic grab handles and coat hooks too, and it covered up all the marks and scratches. I think it costs about $15/can?

[maltbbe]

I've also seen threads on other forums where people have retrimmed the door cards themselves in the same way I did the headliner - cheap fabric, and lots of spray glue - so I'm sure a trimmer could do it. Once the fabric starts peeling away, as everyone above has said, it's not salvageable - all the fabric needs to be ripped off and replaced, and the foam underneath needs to be stripped.

[Shafs]

Nice job on that trim and the mk6 steering wheel is nice too.

[MEL744]

Regarding the door handles, apparently in later mk5s they addressed the issues with the soft touch rubber. I repainted them but wasn't happy with the colour or texture match, so over time I managed to accumulate a full set of immaculate door handles for under $30 from the wreckers.

I am wondering, do the leather door cards have the same foam and therefore fail the same way?

Maltbbe, this sounds a lot like what I have done with my 06 Jetta. Interior work I've done so far is:
- Replace centre dash vent and the radio surround
- Replace radio with a new OEM unit since the buttons on mine were all peeling
- Change gear shift assembly to one from a mk6r since the shift knob was worn and the boot was cracking
- Retrim headliner (paid someone to do it since have never done upholstery work and didn't want it to fail after I went to all the trouble of removing it)
- Replace centre armrest with a leather one since the fabric was worn and the mechanism wasn't operating properly
- All window switches replaced with chrome tipped eBay ones because the factory ones were peeling
- Replace all door handles with used ones
- Switch the factory centre ashtray for a storage bin from a base spec golf since I don't need the ash tray and the soft touch was peeling
- Change the bottom trim on the steering wheel for a silver one from a Golf, since the soft touch was peeling again

Next up wouldn't mind a GTI steering wheel

[Cheezel]

I replaced all of mine with leather ones from a wreck, and they are beautiful. I paid $200 for the set of four. The little trim pieces inlaid in the doors are black compared to the original silver, but I don't really care about that. Those are actually replaceable fairly easily, and I kept the silver bits from my doors in case I change my mind in the future. I also kept all my window switches etc, as my door cards came with the switches too, so I have new ones that haven't worn off yet.

[neil]

Ive just done this to girlfriends beetle and what a pain.
Yeah its the soft foam that fails , getting the door trim off is the easy bit , Not sure about golfs but beetle which the material
around handle seems to have same setup , its actually a piece within the door trim and is spot hot plastic welded.
Had to brake the spots to get the inner card out , had no luck trying to reglue the old vinyl back on , had local guy make up some
new stitched vinyl inserts made up and glued back on then had to urethane the old plastic welds back on.

If any decide a DIY make sure you buy the door plugs for the trim because you probably break some taking the trim off.
you can get them cheap off ebay.