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It looks like it's textured to look like vinyl. I think it will be complicated to recreate that textured look, but I'm sure there's a way to do it. You could repair the crack and then wrap them with vinyl. If you didn't want to tackle it yourself I'm sure your upholstery person could take care of it for you.

I had no idea how stretchy and easy to manipulate "good" vinyl is until I did my armrests for my Cavalier.

so here's my attempt at making these seat side shields useable.
started with some Loctite 495 super bonder glue, to tack the pcs. back together.
amazing stuff, pricey here unfortunately, $55 for a small 1 oz bottle.
Then I fiber glassed the inside. let that all cure. sanded it down. Applied some body filler to go over the cracks. Sanded that with some coarse paper.(trying the mimic the texture, didn't work all that well)
then I used a cheapo air brush gun to lay some paint on top of the repaired area. The paint was a good match but glossy, so I sanded that down with some 400 grit to take the shine off & to make it passable.

Looks very good. I wonder if the fiberglass would add enough extra support that the flexing and cracking could be minimized. I tried to bend and shape some sheet metal inside around the piece to reinforce the edge but didn't want to add any visible fasteners. Tried holding the metal with epoxy but that didn't work so never found a glue with a good enough bond before getting sidetracked.

I’m hopeful, only time will tell

bead blasted & painted my headliner bows.




the front seat side shields are reassembled & will be put away. the chrome on the bottom trim is very thin & peeling off in a few spots, but otherwise cleaned up nice. to spend $500 CDN to have the re-chromed will have to wait.




What have you folks done to recreate to the trim panels in the front by your feet? Can the cardboard type material be painted?

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Things are looking great!!! Do you have a goal for when you'd like to have it all back together?


I replicated my original kick panels by covering panel board with the same vinyl I used for my armrests. Then used the same binding I used on my carpet for the edge. Glued carpet underlay to the back for insulation, I suspect that was mostly for sound.

“Things are looking great!!! Do you have a goal for when you'd like to have it all back together?”
Hoping it will start going back together in early fall…………hoping

Your kick panels look nice, I will have to see if I can find anything suitable, thanks

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The originals were basically painted cardboard. The vinyl while not technically original on Clippers is a very common upgrade during restoration and it matches the Seniors.

Talk to your local upholstery shop and they can tell you where to get the cardboard. It's door card material.

Since that area is prone for water, I would use plexiglass or big bucks stainless

Some upholsterers are now using 1/8" or thinner ABS or PVC sheets or even foam core board because it is water resistant and saws easily. Large enough pieces for the kickpanels can often be found at local art and drafting supply places and definitely on Amazon and online upholstery places.

If you do want to go with the original material, water resistant door panel cardboard also sometimes called cowlboard is available too. If you go that route, since most local upholstery supply places are wholesale only I would suggest you do speak with a local upholsterer and see if they can get you a sheet delivered from their wholesaler along with their regular order. If you can work something that way, even though you might need to buy a larger than wanted piece, freight charges will probably be a lot less than trying to have a single large piece shipped from an online upholstery supplier.

If you did have the embossed cardboard and wanted to try and sort of duplicate the embossed look, there are some thin shelf and tool box drawer lining products with various embossed patterns. Amazon carries a few different ones and something like that could be glued on the support material and then painted whatever color was needed.