Custom High Relief Car Door Panel - Automotive Upholstery

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A customer asked me if I would be capable of sewing down raised channels on his car door panel. For this reason I made a sample to train and show how I would approach it.To tackle this project I had to do the high relief channels on a sheet of thin cardboard. It is a flexible thin cardboard (1 mm thick) used for insoles in the shoemaking industry.
This cardboard has the advantage it can be rolled over under the sewing machine head to make the sewing process easier. It does not alter the raised foams nor the drawings.I have used a 6 mm thick Latex Eva foam.
The gaps between the cut Eva foam pieces is 8 mm. For a real door panel I would like the crevices to be 10 mm wide. An Eva foam from 3 to 4 mm thick is more than enough for car door panels. It is important to consider the window handle rotation. If the foam is too thick, it would rotate with difficulty.
Once the desired pattern is sewn down over the thin cardboard it is then thoroughly glued down to the main door panel cardboard.As we can see it was necessary to create and make a special presser foot (prototype) for the sewing machine. Otherwise it would have been somehow difficult to do the sewing with a regular presser foot.
A heat gun was also very useful to soften the vinyl in order to make the sewing lines easier.I hope you find some inspiration in this video that can be used not only in cars but in furniture too. Of course different sewn patterns can be done following this method.
Cesar