I am engaged in interior fiddlings of the vehicular kind. I don’t enjoy this kind of fiddling.
The drivers side door skin on my VW T4 Transporter cracked through the armrest ‘quite some time ago’. Australian sunshine and all that.
‘Some time ago’ I sourced a new door skin via VW Classic Parts. It has now had a few years to get used to the idea of being in Australia so I thought it might be timely to unpack it and install it.
Now... removing and refitting a VW T4 door skin is amazingly simple for a German car. Unclip the window winder; remove a short screw; remove a plug style clip; pry apart the pull handle; remove three bolts and the pull handle body; unscrew the lock button; and lift the entire skin off the door. Reverse process to replace.
Now it’s just the tedious process of swapping all of the pads and insulation off the inside of the old skin onto the pristine ABS of the new one.
Unfortunately, whilst VW is to be commended for being able to supply a replacement part for a near 20 year old vehicle...this new door skin is not the right one. It dates from the earlier part of the model run in the mid to late 1990s.
As such, the storage compartment from the old skin won’t fit the new skin because it is an old skin. Nor will the vent thing from the old skin make the journey to the new one.
And I’ve just realised that the armrest area on the new skin is smaller too!!! Looking to the positive though...it should be stronger.