Doppelgänger

Do you ever think of changing the door panel insert color on your 01+? Well, i just did. It's rather easy, but by no means a "bolt-in" affair. Since i have never seen anyone do this, i figured i'd do a little write-up/how-to on getting this done. Mazda offers several colors for these inserts... black,tan,saddle brown,blue and red. My 02 SE came with the Saddle Brown interior. As much as i love the color, i wanted to put a pair of 10AE seats. But you know, the brown door panel inserts just don't flow with the blue seats. So i went to Mazda and ordered a set of blue inserts for a 03 Shinsen. Here is what i did....


After removing the door panel from the car, i flipped it over to find that the insert is 'melted' to the door panel. This can be seen in the next few steps.




I found using a small flat head screw driver, i could push down and turn and 'dig out' some of the plastic. I'd recommend this rather then a drill to reduce any chance of damaging the door panel. The plastic is farly soft. This is fairly similar to removing pop-rivets.






After digging out some of the plactic, use a pair of cutters to cut the head of the plastic off.




2 of the plastic 'rivets' are hidden under some styrofoam padding. Placing the new inser over the back can give you an idea where they are. I used a razor to dig away some of the styrofoam.




Almost out!






Done!




You can see the old inserts are a one time use only item. Don't expect to sell them. Either find a creative use for them or throw them away. No wonder they cost about $15!




Now, here comes the fun part. Get a towel or other plush object to sit under the door panel. This will keep some pressure under everything so you can attach the new insert.







I just happened to have a small heating element handy to melt the new plastic 'rivets'. This step can be done a few ways, a hot glue gun probably being one of them. The tool i used came i na vinyl/leather repair kit made by Pyrmatex and found at most auto parts stores.



It takes about 30-45 seconds of moderate pressure to melt the plastic all the way down to the door panels. Be careful, this tool gets VERY hot!





Once you get to the bottom, hold it for ~5 seconds and 'scrape' it off to one side. This pushes the melted plastic into place and keeps it in place.




All the plastic studs are now melted into what resemble plastic rivets.







All done!!!

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l2...G/IMG_4062.jpg