We will be waiting for their arrival....

Hi All,

Mostly a lurker, but I post when I have personal experience with something that might help others.

The door panels on my 981 Cayman have started de-laminating. The drivers side is worse but the passenger side shows some early signs. Pedro says best to do both so today I spent several hours boxing them up.



The car: 2014 Cayman 34,000 miles always garaged in NJ

Pedro has a wonderful video on removing the door panel, but I couldn't find much info on boxing them up and where exactly to source a box. I did find that the recommended box size was 48x24x8. Not being able to find that precise size I went with a U-Haul Grand Wardrobe box ($13.95) and set about converting it to a 48x24x8 size.



I did end up removing the small triangular trim piece, looked like it might not make the round trip unscathed



All ready to go at 48x24x8 and 29lbs

... nice job packing!
Happy Porsche'ing,
Pedro

Pedro Bonilla
1998 Boxster 986 - 314,000+ miles: [www.PedrosGarage.com]
PCA National Club Racing Scrutineer - PCA National HPDE Instructor - PCA Technical Committee (Boxster/Cayman)

---

Racecar spelled backwards is Racecar

"Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting" ... Steve McQueen as Michael Delaney in "LeMans"

"If you wait, all that happens is that you get older"... Mario Andretti

"Being second is to be the first of the ones who lose" ... Ayrton Senna

The panels arrived yesterday after a nine day round trip to TechnoLab. I installed them today and they are perfect; thank you Pedro!

Pedro Bonilla
1998 Boxster 986 - 314,000+ miles: [www.PedrosGarage.com]
PCA National Club Racing Scrutineer - PCA National HPDE Instructor - PCA Technical Committee (Boxster/Cayman)

---

Racecar spelled backwards is Racecar

"Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting" ... Steve McQueen as Michael Delaney in "LeMans"

"If you wait, all that happens is that you get older"... Mario Andretti

"Being second is to be the first of the ones who lose" ... Ayrton Senna

Pedro,
There used to be a video on this site showing the process of repairing the delaminated door panels. No one in my area would touch it. I've found a new German repair shop that is glad to take it on. I had bookmarked the video, but it's no longer there.

I realize that this is your business, and you need to turn a profit, but if the video still exists, is it possible to share it again since you had previously? Maybe even for a fee? I am not capable of removing the panels myself and shipping.
Thanks for any consideration.
BeverlyMcN

Google "Porsche 981 door panel repair"

...is in no way a DIY project.
Even professional upholstery shops with decades of experience have found out and send their customer's door cards to me.
Same with many, many Porsche Dealerships. When they take in a trade in that has delaminating door panels, guess where they send them.
The repair is not about the adhesive, as most people believe, it's much more complex than that. It involves a lot of prep work on the surfaces.
They need to be treated chemically with adhesion promoters, then the unique adhesive is applied, the panel is then placed in a special jig overnight.
After spending 8-12 hours under pressure the panel goes into another jig at controlled higher temperature to be reshaped back to OEM specs.
I'm attaching the link to my website which has the video.
If you are not comfortable removing the panels, have your local shop do it for you and ship them to us.
All of the needed information is on the website is here.

Happy Boxstering,
Pedro

Pedro Bonilla
1998 Boxster 986 - 314,000+ miles: [www.PedrosGarage.com]
PCA National Club Racing Scrutineer - PCA National HPDE Instructor - PCA Technical Committee (Boxster/Cayman)

---

Racecar spelled backwards is Racecar

"Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting" ... Steve McQueen as Michael Delaney in "LeMans"

"If you wait, all that happens is that you get older"... Mario Andretti

"Being second is to be the first of the ones who lose" ... Ayrton Senna