Door Plastic

[Glenn 'Stinky' Stankevicius]

When fitting up the internal door plastic, do I need to cover the whole door card recess or just the major opening?
I have seen it done both ways on the cars that I have.

[Burnsy]

I would say you only need to cover the opening.  A trick is to use silastic to glue a flap of plastic that is longer (hangs lower) than the plastic that covers the opening to the inside of the covering plastic.  This flap directs water that enters down your windows over the flap and through the drain holes in the bottom of your door instead of it running down the door plastic and onto the inside of your door onto your floor pan.

Clear as mud - bit of a hard one to describe

[RET]

Only the glass access hole.  Covering the whole thing is actually less effective, as explained below.

If you glue or tape the plastic wholly on the outside, you have to rely on that adhesive sealing the hole against moisture: it either traps the water against the edge of the door, or allows it to run down the inside edge of the trim card, thus completely defeating the purpose of the plastic.

The best way to do it is to cut the plastic about 4 inches wider than the opening, and about the same amount taller, and attach the plastic to the outside edge of the door above the hole (obviously).  Then cut a little horizontal slit about 2" down either side of the opening and feed the plastic into the window well, so that the overlap below that point is inside the door.  Then put some masking tape across where you cut the slit to stop it spreading.  If you can get a dab of glue or tar to hold the plastic at the lower corners, that's even better.  With this method, anything that runs down the plastic should fall into the well and run out the door's drain holes.

HTH

RET

[Burnsy]

That is the same effect that I was trying to describe but mine used the flap to direct the water into the door well.

RETS description seems simpler   and less frustrating - I think I will go that direction for my next lot.