Door trim removal
Door trim removal
Author
Discussion

edward1

Original Poster:

839 posts

297 months

Monday 28th April 2008
quotequote all
Can anyone advise on how to remove the door card and the locations of the hard to get at bolts that hold it on. I did a search and one of the previous posts on this topic indicated that it had some pictures showing this but they no longer seem to be there.

Any help gratfully recieved.

raceboy

13,933 posts

311 months

Monday 28th April 2008
quotequote all
Now it's been while since I did one but I seem to remember there are screws behind the ashtray, and the speaker (and a certain amount of skin from the forearm) need to be removed. wink

thenick

4,027 posts

243 months

Monday 28th April 2008
quotequote all
Not tooo difficult but can be a PITA. Here's how to do it:

- Remove speaker grill

- Remove self tappers (x3) from speaker and then remove speaker its self.

- Remove the 4x nuts from behind the trim. If its the drivers side, there are 3x 10mm nuts & 1 x 8mm, if its the passenger side there are 4x 10mm ones.

- To do this, sit on the floor with your back to the car with your shoulder as close to the speaker hole as possible. With the window fully raised, reach into the speaker hole up towards the glass until you can get your elbow into the hole. Then reach down towards the rear pocket in the door, your first bolt will be down by that rear pocket, probably towards the forward edge. Remove this and carefully get it and the washer out using the reverse of the method to get in (might scrape your skin a little but not too badly I promise!).

- The next one is down between the gap between the two pockets, 10mm on the passenger side, 8mm on the drivers side (and nyloc'd on the 8mm one).

- The last two are pretty easy, being only a few inches from the speaker hole to the forward and rear side (feel around for the threaded bar sticking out, then remove both nuts and washers.

- With these removed, you'll next need to pull out the ash tray (might require a bit of prying with a flathead screwdriver but a good yank should get it out no problem). Behind this, there will be a self tapper which needs to come out to free up the trim.

- The whole trim hooks over the top of the door so to remove, pull the trim gently upwards and outwards. Having the window down may help if it's tight.

To remove the carpeted fibreglass panel that covers the window mechinism, there are 5 more screws embedded in the carpet around the edge previously covered by the trim. 3 along the top edge, one lower towards the rear of the door, and one lower towards the front of the car. This may be different on different cars though! Remove all of these and the door card should simply pull off.

All in all it took me around 30 minutes to do both doors, including a while swearing trying to find the two washers that dropped down into the bottom!


Hope that helps!

S7Paul

2,103 posts

265 months

Monday 28th April 2008
quotequote all
More (though very similar) info here:-

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=379...

Cider Andy

1,889 posts

256 months

Monday 28th April 2008
quotequote all
Here are some photos to go with thenick's instructions.



Green arrows show the 10mm captive bolts.
Red arrows show the holes in the inner card that the bolts pass through.
Yellow arrows show the location of the self tapping screws. Note that one of these is behind the ashtray (if fitted).

edward1

Original Poster:

839 posts

297 months

Monday 28th April 2008
quotequote all
Thanks guys. I look forward to scraping the skin off my forearm! Need to get at the mirror electics so I don't know whether just removing the speaker will be enough. Knowing my luck probably not.

spend

12,581 posts

282 months

Monday 28th April 2008
quotequote all
The bolts are fairly fixed, but I think the self tappers 'wandered around' quite a bit during production.

More importantly wear a long sleeved T-shirt & gloves wink

Worth having something handy to rest the door trim on so you can make a note of the electrical connections, some seem to have a problem on reassembly?

You have to strip the door to access the mirror switch & relay, all you can access through the speaker hole is the mirror connector block (with difficulty).

im

34,302 posts

248 months

Monday 28th April 2008
quotequote all
Now this is what PH is all about!

What a top thread guys!

Descriptions, photo's, advice...excellent stuff chaps...and all without a subscription.

I've bookmarked it for when the inevitable happens and I need to get the trim off.

Again - Great stuff.

thumbup

edward1

Original Poster:

839 posts

297 months

Monday 28th April 2008
quotequote all
Only want to get to the mirror connect block. After some one kindly removed my mirror for me on Sat, I need to replace the cableing from the connect block to the mirror, along with the mirror frame. My next thread will probably be mirror related, although I've found some good threads on here with pics already.

I second the previous post, great information and pictures, just what a community like PH should be about.

fenderbender

339 posts

255 months

Monday 28th April 2008
quotequote all
Just be aware that you need a relatively slender forearm to reach into the speaker hole and get to the distant nut. Blokes like me with fattish forearms (I'd like to claim it is muscle but not with a straight face) cannot.

I get my son to do mine for me, but a girlfriend who can use a spanner, or even a passing boy scout, will do the trick equally as well.


Cider Andy

1,889 posts

256 months

Tuesday 29th April 2008
quotequote all
edward1 said:
Only want to get to the mirror connect block.
In that case you should only need to remove the speaker, although that might depend on which mirror control you have. Certainly if you have the later electronic unit that's all you'll have to do. It's an aluminium oval pad with two circular buttons at the top, the 'joystick' is a circular pad below them.


The_Ox

103 posts

258 months

Tuesday 29th April 2008
quotequote all
If you haven't already done so, I'd highly recomment getting yourself a set of ratchet spanners for a job like this. It saves time, effort, dropping the spanner and lots of cursing!!!

Ox