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Hello! I decided I'd do a write up on my tan conversion, first up, doors!


So after pulling your doors off, you should have a panel like this,
You'll have to seperate the top from the bottom.


To seperate the panels begin removing the screws from the backside of the door where the top meets the bottom.

Then you'll have to remove the staples that hold the leather from the top piece to the bottom piece, pictured below

Once you have done this, you can seperate the two pieces.



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Keen to see more of the tan goodness.

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I have a large piece of tan leather I will be using, make sure you have enough for 2 doors beforehand



Place your door piece upside down against the leather and draw out an outline about 1" from the edge, this allows plenty of room to staple it to the other side.



Then cut out the shape with a good sharp pair or scissors



Begin folding the leather over and stapling it place, ensure to keep the door central so you don't run out of room on the other side.

While pulling the other side over, ensure to pull tight and avoid creasing, you can continually check it as you go along.



When it comes to the raised notches, cut In the door and fold either side of the notch and cut out the centre piece.




For the corners, like before, make several cuts into the leather, and staple each piece.



After the door card has been covered and pulled tight, you can then cut the holes for the door handle and arm rest.


This is what you should end up with In the end
I didn't cut the arm rest holes as I am not using them



Here is what they look like with a new dash, carpet and seat





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Nicely done.
The doorcard firbreboards you started with seem in really good condition... hard to come by such nice ones!

Great write up, thanks for taking the time and effort to share your experience.

Looks good! I'd like to do the same but leave the top of the doors black to match the dash and then do all the plastics under the dash in tan.

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slug_dub wrote:Nicely done.
The doorcard firbreboards you started with seem in really good condition... hard to come by such nice ones!

Yeah I was quite surprised, not damaged at all, even with 320,000km on my 1989


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Okibi wrote:Great write up, thanks for taking the time and effort to share your experience.

Cheers Okibi, really want to start making more In depth write ups should of done one on my dash swap, was a job and a half!


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It looks to me that the tan material was put on over the existing black vinyl. The Mazda trim also looks like it is glued and the tan has been stapled. If the staple is too long it would presumably perforate through the door trim.

Yes I did put it on over the black.

The original vinyl is glued and stapled.

And I purposely didn't choose stables long enough so they don't come through..


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Interior looks very good- on Jesse's car - much better than some of the all black interiors in the NB P2's etc. The NA is a bit closer in its interior trimming to older British sports cars and sedans which consistently looked more classy that US cars.