The door plate, also known as the door card, is an insert to cover the interior parts of the car door. These door panels are usually made of the same material as those used in your car’s interior, such as leather, plastic, metal, or vinyl.
The durability of this door panel depends on the quality, type of material, and the process of use as well as the storage conditions of the car. Typically, door panels will last for at least 120,000 miles and will show signs of deterioration if not maintained regularly.
Therefore, this is also one of the parts that many people are interested in choosing the right materials for use when replacing. What is the best material for car door panels? To answer this question, let’s learn more about the advantages and disadvantages of each material.
What Is The Best Material For Car Door Panels?
First, we need to specifically analyze the advantages, disadvantages, and uses of each quality to find the best material for you. From there, you will have an overview of the types of materials and can make the best choice for your intended use.
1. Metal Door Panels
Door panels made of materials such as aluminum or metal have the advantage of always being more durable than other materials even under the harshest conditions.
Especially, in the area where you live in extreme weather conditions such as too hot, too cold, snow, or high humidity, metal material can help you better protect the car door.
In addition, if you are a person who has a habit of using your feet to open the door or cannot control the force every time you open the door, then metal material will also be the ideal choice to protect the car door better than other materials.
However, metal materials will increase the weight of the car’s wings and the whole car can affect the vehicle’s fuel economy. At the same time, if the metal material is too heavy, it will also cause the door to fail to close or sag because of the heavyweight from the door panel.
Therefore, you should consider choosing the right metal material for your vehicle if it can meet the criteria for safety and easy door opening and closing.
2. Leather Door Panels
Leather is always the top material that brings elegance and class to your car. Leather door panels have the advantage of being lightweight and will not affect the car’s structure, weight, and fuel economy.
However, one of the top problems with leather materials is still cleaning and periodic maintenance to get the best durability. As you know, leather material is often difficult to clean and requires specialized products to clean.
In particular, if you often use your feet to open the door or children can draw on the door, the leather material will not be suitable because it will take you a lot of time to clean.
Moreover, the leather material will completely reveal the small imperfections on its surface that will make you feel extremely uncomfortable. So, if you decide to opt for leather, make sure to clean it properly and periodically to save on replacement costs.
3. Door Panels From Cardboard Or Hard Fabric
Cardboard or hard fabric materials can also be used to form car door guards. However, these materials were commonly used before the 21st century and are not very popular today.
However, there are still some customers who may love using this material because it is light, low cost, and does not have to spend a lot of time and money on replacement every time it is damaged.
Light materials do not affect the weight of the vehicle and the assembly is also simple and can be made at home is also an outstanding advantage of these materials. However, the durability of these materials is usually very short if not well maintained, or a sturdy and thick material is selected.
4. Door Panels Made Of High-Quality Plastic
To overcome all the disadvantages of materials such as metal, leather, cardboard, wood, glass, or fabric, car manufacturers have begun to choose the optimal solution, which is plastic with high quality.
Plastic is a perfect balance between materials in terms of weight, durability, hygiene, and aesthetics of cars. High-quality plastic materials can make car doors durable, easy to clean, and cost-effective.
In particular, it is not easily damaged when subjected to harsh impacts during use. Some of the outstanding advantages of plastic materials are as follows:
- It is more affordable when comparing it to aluminum and steel, plastic costs less, and is easy to replace.
- Plastic can be produced into many different textures and shapes thanks to high machine technology. Therefore, plastic designs will be more diverse in form and aesthetic.
- Plastic door panels are very flexible and respond better to impact. It can’t be as durable as a metal material, but plastic doors are not easy to break because it has a certain hardness. In particular, it is resilient to impact and that is why plastic is a popular interior material.
- Out of all the materials that can be used on car doors, plastic is the lightest. So it will help save fuel for your car.
- Unlike metal, plastic does not rust. Although today’s car manufacturers use rustproof metal, it is not comparable to rustproof plastic.
- Cleaning is easy and requires no special products. You only need common tools like soft rags and common cleaning products.
Conclude
Door panels with different materials each have advantages and disadvantages. However, door panels with high-quality plastic are still the best choice on the market today.
Car manufacturers have also gradually replaced this material because of its outstanding advantages. So, if you are planning to replace the door panels, you should not ignore this plastic material.
In particular, each material is also suitable for the needs of each person and the aesthetics of the vehicle. You should consider personal factors such as maintenance, cleaning, or daily use habits to choose the best material for your car.