07 ES350 - LH Front Plastic Trim Puncture

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Mar 4, 2015 | 06:49 PM

2007ESOK

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07 ES350 - LH Front Plastic Trim Puncture

Had an unfortunate incident today due to ice scraper....

The passenger door was closing, and in the midst of closing, there was a long-handle ice scraper wedged between the seat and door inside the car, and when the door closed, resulted in about a 1" - 1 1/2" long puncture into the lower plastic trim piece (near the corner where the reflector is located).

I'm having difficulty searching online for a way to patch this area myself, and I'm not really interested in forking out $500+ to replace the whole interior door trim just for a small hole in the interior door panel.

Any suggestions for patchwork? Is this something as common to repair as a leather tear, and I'm just not looking in the right places for suggestions?

Please help! Thank you.

Mar 4, 2015 | 08:27 PM

xanderES

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I believe that place is covered in leather correct? If it is its as easy as taking the door panel off and reinforcing the back of it and then using a leather repair kit to patch it.
Of course professionals are going to make the outcome considerably better.
You can also try and get a door panel off ebay or some other auto yard.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2007-ES350-L...2c31e7&vxp=mtr
175$ for the door panel but the grill cover has two small holes.

Mar 4, 2015 | 09:21 PM

2007ESOK

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The damaged area is on the very bottom of the panel near the curved portion, and this part of the panel is a hard plastic, which surprised me how a plastic ice scraper managed to break through this area, somehow the scraper won.

The leather only occurs across the middle portion of the door panel, at the arm rest area.

Behind the puncture, I see what looks like fibers or some type of sound proofing material as a barrier. I know there are tons of filler type products available to fix punctures, but it's a matter of color matching to the area I'm concerned about.

I considered the type of option you posted, in a salvage panel, but really not sure how much $$$ it's worth to do a proper repair.

Concealing the problem over a full-scale repair is probably more favorable to me at this point.

Mar 4, 2015 | 09:43 PM

xanderES

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Since color matching is a major concern I'm assuming your interior is either tan/grey.

Plastic parts are incredibly difficult to repair to pre-damaged condition. If I were you I would just take the door panel off, heat the area CAREFULLY and try to push the displaced plastic by the puncture back to where it was. It'll at least make the hole a whole lot smaller. Then you can decide how you want to fill it. Color matching will never look right as the shades are always going to be off by a bit. Painting any of the surrounding areas will make it look obvious.
I would personally probably just learn to live with it since it cannot be seen with the door closed. Out of sight, out of mind.

Mar 4, 2015 | 09:55 PM

2007ESOK

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Thanks. I'm already starting to accept it. I'm a little on the OCD side, so it will always bother me, but if I botch a repair and make it look worse, that will bother me more.

It may sound cheesy, but I'm considering a concealer repair with a decal of sorts; if I can find a small enough size "L" logo decal or something similar to cover the area, maybe it would look like it's always been there as trim. A chrome piece would be best for that I think, but it needs to have a solid backing to hide the hole.

Just trying to be creative about it I suppose.