You get "R" door cards that use a 3 piece stitched leather insert instead of the stretched vinyl over foam.

It's one of the most notorious p80-x70 issues. The leather ones are quite nice actually and a whole set is a pretty quick install. Usually they go for $150-$200 depending on condition. There's a 98 R partout in CT that may have what you need still.

 

It's one of the most notorious p80-x70 issues. The leather ones are quite nice actually and a whole set is a pretty quick install. Usually they go for $150-$200 depending on condition. There's a 98 R partout in CT that may have what you need still.

Thanks, this is great information. Just to be clear, when you say $150-$200, are we talking for the set of 4, or per piece?

At $150-$200 for all four, I'll probably give this a shot. at $600-$800, I'll probably just live with it.

Appreciate your input.

 

Mine is same, and even worse, those small panel starts to be separated from panel frame. I just ignore it. Not a big deal for me. Today when I open the rear door panel, all the anchor and brackets are separated from the panel. Seems got wet before somehow. Or may have been pulled off when it was repaired by someone.

Rolling, Fusion Red XC60 T8

 

My car has the same problem and it kills me looking at it!! And a squeaky dash!!!!! The car has only 78k miles.

 

Welcome to the world of the P80!

 

I think SB was referring to a "going price" by those who put them up for sale.

 

Oops. I see that now.

 

Price has come down a bit - used to be a $100 a panel or $400 for all four, a number I would have gladly spent instead of the half-baked job I did refinishing mine many years ago.

 

Shipping kills though. I’d do $175 shipped in a heartbeat for a set of four in 3960 that I need. Taken apart and shipping just the inserts seems like more pain then gain in the end.

 

There is also Redline Leather, probably the option I'll go later since I can't see a 20 yr old mint oem set dropping into my lap any time soon. I have their two gray boots and they're excellent. Not sure I'd get suitable door panel color though. I bought their sample material set , many dozen , but there is nothing close to 3960. About $230 shipped for the four and you'd have to separate and install them or have an upholsterer do it.

https://redlinegoods.com/V709800shiftboot.php

 

Jeez.

That looks like quite a lot of work.

And not the easy "stick screw in pre-drilled hole" kind, either....

 

Those doorpanel inserts are hideous. Holy crap.

Out here they sell panelpads, not the most beautiful solution either but better than mentioned above. And they're 80$ for the 4 and way easier to install.

https://www.ronaldjan.com/panelpads

 

Out here they sell panelpads, not the most beautiful solution either but better than mentioned above. And they're 80$ for the 4 and way easier to install.

https://www.ronaldjan.com/panelpads

Interesting solution, Yannick. I emailed Jan and he says the screws are short enough to support removing the door card in the future without any problem. This is what it would look like on mine. Jan does claim that it looks better in person and matches well to the gray trim. Hmmmmm.

 

Oh man Im glad that I already have the better panels and do not have this problems...But it looks good though.

 

In addition to the panel insert fix he offers, that Ronald Jan guy's website has a whole "white paper" devoted to the "classic" (i.e., the p80 wagon). Quite the labor of love and some interesting nuggets in there.

 

Those do look super, Matthew! Best of luck. I’d probably do 600 mi round trip to buy confirmed nice door cards.

 

What you will probably end up doing is swapping the inserts out of the panels. 00 use a darker carpet so those little door carpet patches won't match exactly.

 

Seriously?
Every single carpet on every single P80 has faded, who cares if that tiny section is a hair off, no one will ever notice this except you, if you dwell on it!

I thought that it was just fade too but every 00 has a much darker carpet. T5XC, Emerald R, Emerald T5Ms new interior, GLTSE. I just swapped the 99 pewter wagon carpet out with 00 GLT carpets and it's fine now. Had the benefit of refreshing the floor nicely.

Back when I had my 2001 Saab 9-5 Aero, it had a multi-tone grey-black interior where panels and seats and headliners were all slightly different in color from eachother, and I thought it gave a nice luxurious kind of texture to the interior. Later when I got my 2000 Saab 9-5 Aero replacement the GM engineers made everything the same flat grey, and it just felt a lot less premium.

I'll look at the panels when I get them and compare the shades of colors to what is in the car, but in the end, unless it really bothers me, I'll probably just do what is easiest.

 

He just means price. No worries.

 

Just got back from my road trip to Connecticut to pick up the door panels.

I was worried they would be difficult to get out and I would spend hours there, but it went very smoothly in part thanks to this video:

The leather wasn't in QUITE as good shape as I had hoped, but still very excellent, and I think after some conditioning it will look very nice.

I had agreed on $200 for the four cards with the seller, but he took $50 off in exchange for me removing all the panels myself without him present.

Here are some quick pictures in my basement using my cellphone: (click for larger)

Driver's Side Front:



Passenger Side Front:



I was a little disconcerted about the discoloration on the left near the speaker grille on this one.

Driver's Side Rear:



This was the one I didn't have the picture of before going, and as I feared it was the worst of the four, with what looks like it might be some water damage and drying almost resulting in cracking, but not quite. Hopefully a deep conditioning will help this out out a lot.

Passenger Side Rear:



I'd greatly appreciate any tips and tricks and product recommendations for conditioning this leather.

 

So I decided to go ahead and do a quick and dirty cleaning and light conditioning using an all in one product before bed.

I thought I had had a more thorough conditioning product, but I must have finished it years ago, and thrown it out, so I may need to go shopping for something new.

This Mothers All-in-One Cleaner and conditioner for leather, vinyl and rubber is what I used:

It's not what I would have chosen to use, but rummaging through my old cabinets for leather cleaning products, it's what I have on hand. A more thorough conditioning with real products will certainly follow.

Here are the results after the quick cleaning: (click for larger)

Drivers Side Front:



Passenger Side Front:



Looks like that discoloration I was worried about on this one must just have been dirt, as it looks to have come right out.

Drivers Side Rear:



The quick conditioning doesn't seem to have helped this one much. I'm hoping a deeper conditioning product will do better. I'd appreciate any suggestions. Even if it doesn't improve much, it's not terrible. I'm much happier with this than Vinyl that's coming apart.

Passenger Side Rear:



So, as mentioned above, I'd greatly appreciate any suggestions regarding technique or product when it comes to a more thorough conditioning!

 

It's an incredibly hard job

 

I haven't seen them in person just yet, but might do so soon. Very curious to see how it looks. On video the quality seems good.

 

I just used the trick in the videos below to restore the door panels, and they look amazing now. I had bought a leather repair kit to fill in some of the small nicks and cuts, but I am not even sure if I need to do that anymore. It looks scary and potentially dangerous, but worked like a miracle with next to no work and gorgeous results:

Worked so great on the door inserts that I did the ailing drivers seat in my S80 as well.

 

I had bought a leather repair kit to fill in some of the small nicks and cuts, but I am not even sure if I need to do that anymore.

So, I did go over it afterwards with the 3m repair kit, and I'm not too pleased with the results. The repairs are more noticeable than the cuts were after the dying process above.

Maybe I did them in the wrong order?

I'm going to try to do the dying process again on top of the repairs and hope that smooths them out and makes them less noticeable.

 

Thanks for sharing those videos. Kind of scary, but the results speak for themselves. What type and color of spray paint did you use for your charcoal interior?

 

Maybe I'm color blind, but it looked black to me, so I just used a glossy black rustoleum spray.

I don't think the color match is incredibly important. Just getting in the ballpark is good enough. Based on the guys explanation in those videos, most of the color fill comes from the dye already in the leather being pulled up by the laquer thinner. The paint just gives it a small boost to help fill out particularly bad cracked or white areas.

 

Epoxy a washer onto that it's really not that bad

 

The washer won't help, because the crack is around the bottom. (My bad, maybe I should have put a red circle around the actual crack or something)

I wonder if I can weld it back together. Seeing that it is ABS, maybe either chemically with MEK (though that **** is nasty) or with heat with my soldering iron.

Maybe if I can just get some MEK in the crack with a dropper and then squeeze it together, it will re-weld back together as strong as new.

 

“Pop a cap in it...”

Tried but failed to pull off a funny...

 

"Pop a cap in it..."

Tried but failed to pull off a funny...

You know, I hadn't even thought of the other meaning of that phrase.

I'm not much of a rap fan so I don't really use language like that.

 

Little bit OT, but is it possible to spray the leather at the steering wheel with the same stuff as you do the seats?

 

It is but that's a bad idea.....it peels and pills. If you want a nice wheel find a nice leather one or rewrap it.

 

The R steering wheels have alcantara suede on them.

 

Ahh, that makes sense. I usuall wouldn't use the term "leather" to refer to suede.

 

(Some?) 1998 R wheels have suede inserts, 1999 and 2000 models were all leather.

 

So, I reattached the inserts today. I thought alignment may be difficult, but Volvo designed these well for assembly. They really only go in one way, with ridges that help line everything up.

I found that the 3M trim tape didn't work for me. I tried it on the drivers door, and it just kept coing loose. I squished it together anyway, and hope it holds enough for me to get it on the door. After that it should be sandwiched in there and it shouldn't matter. I also added some of my adhesive to help make sure it stays on.





The next ones I did with all adhesive tryhing to not use too much, or get too close to the edges, as I did not want any of it getting on the leather inserts.






Seems to have worked, but I wont know until after curing is done tomorrow.