Fixing bubbling interior soft vinyls?

[aquariuscsm]

There's a couple of spots on the soft touch interior on my Accord that are starting to bubble. Is there any way to fix or repair these?

This one is the arm rest on the driver's door.

This one is the driver's door interior side panel.

This is another shot of the driver's door arm rest.

 

[Trav]

Not really. Remove and recover it is the only way, the glue has let go and without stripping it off will never hold again even if you did manage to get glue under it the stuff they use as a backing has turned to dust..

 

[Imp4]

Time for a run to Pull-a-part...

 

[chrisri]

Originally Posted by aquariuscsm
There's a couple of spots on the soft touch interior on my Accord that are starting to bubble. Is there any way to fix or repair these?

This one is the arm rest on the driver's door.

This one is the driver's door interior side panel.

This is another shot of the driver's door arm rest.

Nothing really, my 02 Nissan started with drivers door last summer, now the passenger door trim too. Heat is the problem.

 

[Silverado12]

You're in a pretty hot environment. I would guess that a used part from the same area will be about the same. Maybe get a part from up North where it would be in better shape? I did that with interior parts when I was restoring an old Chevy pickup. Parts were in much better condition from WV than they were here in VA where it gets hot.

 

[gregk24]

Replace it. Common on 8th gens.

 

[Dave9]

If you end up deciding to replace it, a last ditch effort is heat it with a hair dryer or heat gun (at much further distance), and manipulate with your fingers if heat alone isn't enough. This may work better on driver's door interior side panel than the armrest. I wrote last ditch because while it could help, it could also make it worse.

It's not just that the adhesive backing has failed (if there was ever any there to begin with) but also that it has either stretched from wear or shrunk from heat, a dimensional change one way or the other. If it looks more like it has shrunk, apply heat around the area instead of on it, to stretch out the rest so there's even tension on those sections. If it has had a significant amount of direct sun exposure, trying to stretch it too much could make it crack so again it's a last ditch effort.

 

[aquariuscsm]

Originally Posted by gregk24
Replace it. Common on 8th gens.


My brother has a gen 7 EX-L coupe and the interior is much better quality than mine. Built like a tank!!

 

[carloz]

Replace it with a real leather and not vinyl.

 

[grampi]

I second the suggestion to use a hair dryer on it...