i have never taken a door panel off of any car that i didnt break. found out after i broke them how they should have been removed. dont want to do that with my 70 vette. can someone give me the 1.2.3 and save me the expense of buying new panels. i know its a one wrench job on a scale of four. it seems all i have is three hammers. thanks for the help..matt

 

Remove the door pull. It has two screws that attach it, top and bottom. Remove the handle that opens the door. It has one screw that is accessed by pulling the handle as if to open the door. Remove the screw and the handle slides out forward off its mount. If you have manual windows, you have to remove the crank. There is a special tool that removes the retainer, but a thin screwdriver or putty knife will work too. The door lock **** is removed in the same manner. The retainer is a little U shaped wire that locks the handle to the shaft that sticks out from the door. You access the retainer by sliding the removal tool between the handle and the door panel. There are four screws that attach the door panel to the inner door. Two go straight through the panel, and two are in little brackets that attach to the jamb area of the door. There are also plastic "hook and loop" fasteners that just pop loose when everything else is loose. They get brittle with age and tend to crack, but don't lose any sleep over that. When you pop the panel off the door, pop it loose from the bottom and rotate it away from the door, then move the panel upward to release the top of the panel from the channel it rests in at the top of the door. Not exactly one-two-three, but it is do-able. Chime in anyone, if I missed anything.

temvette72

 

well put--once you get one of the U or horseshoe shaped clips off and see the slot in the shaft it tends to make a little more sense on how to do it the next time. As with anything on this old of car--take it easy--and try and enjoy the journey

SEMPER FI--1970 Dave

 

I used a small flat screw driver (like the one's in a glasses repair kit) to very carefully to remove the reatiner. Just be careful it doesnt shoot accross the room.

 

temvette72 sounds like he has at least as much experience as I do at this! I took mine off this winter to fix the door locks and lubricate the window mechanism and temvette72's description sounds about perfect to me. The tool makes getting the window crank off easy, but doesn't do much for the lock *****. I fashioned a little hook from a stiff paper clip and was able to grab the lock **** retainers with no trouble at all. I found the tool for the window cranks at the local NAPA for $8, I see this month that Ecklers has them for $4 so if you are already ordering anything from them, it will save you a few bucks to have them throw one of those in there, but not worth the shipping on its own.

IMO, the hardest part of the whole job was when putting the door panels back on, getting the top screw for the door pull started in its hole. Good luck!

 

buy one of those nice little specialty tools and your life will be ALOT easier. but the second post describes the procedure PERFECTLY. I have seen manuals that don't describe it that well.

 

Amen to that. I still don;t think I did that correctly.

I wonder if you could use a big flat washer to attach the door pull to the panel and avoid having to do that.

 

I find the hardest part to be putting the door operator handles back on through the lock trim plate and sliding it onto the lever. I have been using a large flat blade screwdriver to get the lever in the "door open position" and place a small flat blade in the crack between the lever and the body of the lock mechanism to keep it open while I slide the handle on.

If anyone has a better method please let us all know!

cc

 

hey cCrane72-- Believe it or not, when you're putting the panel back on, you can reach two fingers through the hole and pull back the door latch then slide the panel on and line everything else back up.

I've had my panels off way too many times to count now, and this works for me every time.

 

IMO, the hardest part of the whole job was when putting the door panels back on, getting the top screw for the door pull started in its hole. Good luck![/QUOTE]

100% agree, only I couldn't even get them out without 2 hours work. The screws are at strange angles and my top screw was slotted and the bottom one was phillips- or maybe I have that backwards but they were definitely different. Almost impossible to see them too, i used a flashlight and a little mirror up inside the door behind the panel. Complete PITA...

 

thanks temvette and everyone else..im going to give it a try saturday. im feeling good about it based on all the good info..thanks again..matt

 

not to steal the thread, but the bottom "heavy duty velcro" paches wont hold on my 74 new door panels, I tried putting super glue on them and bracing them to hold over night, but that didnt do it, would it be advisable to put JB quick or something like bondo on them? I know that it would be hard as crap to pull off but it would actually hold

Miles

 

bump

is this a bad Idea?

Miles