No harm taken!

For me, I guess it's a personal thing. As a mechanical engineer who makes a living "making machines that make things", I am always inquisitive about everything. How things are made, what they are made of, how they go together, how much they cost to produce, etc. I find myself always scrutinizing everything, looking for a "better solution".

With John's door panels... well, my arm was on the armrest - where I thought it should be - and my hand was idle beside the window switch. After noticing the texture of the door panel, I wondered if Saturn was actually bold enough to put simulated leather on a substrate doorpanel skin, so I "touched". It took all of 1.384627 seconds, and I had my answer!

Because of the no-gloss finish, I was expecting maybe a synthetic vinyl with simulated leather texture to be laminated onto a basic plastic (or heaven forbid... metal) door panel. No way was I expecting to find real leather in any grade in a car of this class, but I was wondering how they decided to simulate it - and NOW I KNOW!

Now, I find myself wondering what the cost advantage was to go with a fully texturized molding of the panel in the correct finish color, versus making a standard door panel and laminating a mass-produced vinyl skin onto it, where the vinyl contains the color agent. Original textured mold must have cost a ton to develop and take into production (that leather-texture is some very acute and detailed tooling to make, especially in hardened steel as required for high-pressure injection molding), and the maintenance on an exotic mold is still expensive even after the tool is built.

I guess the other part of my inquisitive nature is based on past experiences. I have had cars where the interior faded like a Sunday paper left in the sun. Upholstery developed runs or got thread bare from regular use. Headliners separated from the foam/board backing and sagged, etc. Then again I have 1 car with 368k miles on the original seats - me as original owner - and the cloth seats look absolutely as good as new - NO JOKE. Cloth doorpanels have a little fading at the top, but look great from the armrest down. Some dashes seem to crack and fade, some seem to live forever. So I guess I just want to know how these surfaces look and feel now, so I can have some reference if I get to see them in a few years - you know, to judge how well they take abuse and tolerate conditions like heat/sun/UV.

Personally, I'd rather have a nicely-done interior with cloth door panels, vinyl armrests and wear surfaces, and cloth seats, simply because I have had much better service life in my experiences, and they also seem to look better longer. Even leather seats that are treated occasionally with cleaners and protectants get hard, brittle, and start to crack and look ugly. I think plastic door panels show abuse faster (scratches, gouges, etc) than cloth ones. They are also harder to repair if you have to service one. I look for light-colored materials to be used on dashes to help control interior solar heating, reject UV, and generally ease the eye for contrast while driving. I personally prefer as much sheetmetal as possible on top of my dash - it's the best surface to maintain (just keep it clean of dust and dirt - that's it!). The padded portion nearest the occupants obviusly needs cushioning, but when the correct materials and colors are used, it blends very well. Dashes in the later Fox-cars, and the early Ranger/Bronco II units from Ford were about the best I think I have ever seen to combine styling with durable wear. The early Fox Mustang with the cardboard dash (1979-1986) were about the WORST I've ever seen - they are ALL rotten, hard, brittle, faded, and they turn into powder when you touch them now.

So, I guess this is probably more info than you wanted, but I just have an inquizitive nature, and I think a little non-destructive investigation into the material choices and the process of manufacturing a part are fair grounds for ANY engineer who is worth his/her metal.

 

Wow, you win...I am going to need toothpicks to make it to 4pm though.

 

Don't think it's the world gone mad. I think it's just something people have taken for granted, but now notice.

As a kid, I remember touching everything in a new car. Did it in the 80s and 90s as well. Did it with my Camaros as well.

It's just that now, when people feel up an interior, they are shocked at what they find now that soft padding is replaced with hard plastic, and they mention this. That's all.

 

So you were a dash stroker from a young age?

 

Every time the parents weren't looking.