Door insert repair

[notorious]

Looked at quattroworld link and not impressed with quality since a strip of platinum colour is still visible between wood and black.

I still think that without removing 'wood' it is impossible to paint it properly.

I would make an assumption that wood is not glued. If this is correct I would take Dremel, use cutting disc and will shave off securing points/rivets or whatever is used. If it can be separated I would then paint and glue to slicone or other gentle glue so it'll be possible to disassemble in future again.

If my assumption is wrong and the thing is actually glued, then I think it is impossible to separate them without damaging structurally.

[The_Laird]

I've got a few spare door inserts that I bought to play with. The 'wood' trim is almost impossible to remove without damaging it, but if you were painting the insert the same colour, it might work. I'll give it a try on the spare inserts first!

[Goran]

maybe the wood can be carefully separated with a sharp razor?

[The_Laird]

It's metal, not wood. But I'moff to see an interior trim specialist tomorrow, so I'll report back then

[The_Laird]

Here's a few photos to show how the 'wood' is attached and why it's not practical to remove it.

The first 3 photos show the underside of the 'wood' (actually a thin, tin-like metal) illustrating the attachment method of folding over the edge of the 'wood' plate. You can also see that, to remove it, you have to prise the folded edge upwards on at least one long side.

The fourth photo is an attempt to show the damage that this does to the 'wood' side. It doesn't show up in the photo, but there are small cracks introduced into the 'wood' at right angles to the edge.

The last two photos show the underside of the 'wood' panel and the top of the plastic door pull beneath to illustrate that there's not much glue used at all.

I've not attempted to refit a 'wood' panel, but I'd expect that to cause even more cracking to the wood effect.