Perhaps a stupid question, I am vary afraid to demolish the car, how can I take off the rear door panel???
Perhaps a stupid question, I am vary afraid to demolish the car, how can I take off the rear door panel???
Most doors have plastic clips that just pop out. You do have to be careful when you pry on them though. Pry as close to the clips as you can. You can find the clips by pulling up on the door panel a bit.
find all the screws around the bottom and side of the panel. theres probably another in the handle and maybe one behind the lever(depending on model?) then you got like 4 clips.
Not stupid at all, but would help to mention model year on this sort of request as things change over time. One snag on the early cars is the door latch lever which is held to the door by a couple plastic hooks & screw and has a trim ring that snaps over the door panel. Some say popping the trim ring off by pulling on the panel won't damage the ring. I have done this once without a problem, but prefer to release it from the back. Pulling the panel towards the rear of the car after it has been loosened from the door will release the plastic hooks on the back of the lever; the panel will then pull far enough away from the door to detach the rod after which the lever with trim ring can be removed (fall out, actually) from the front.
One other thing is that the top of the panels often hook over the door metal a bit, so they usually have to be lifted slightly to pull away. This means you will also have to remove the black plastic trim piece next to the window in order to lift the panel. The trim simply pops off, but is tight - especially on the front doors. You can search the forum for other comments about this.
Last edited by rodo; 11-03-2011 at 08:09 PM.