Im just curious
The door panels on my 94 like to "pop" off at the top. They dont fall off completely because of the screws in the handle and at the bottom, but there is nothing to hold the to the door near the top?

Has anyone else experienced this? can it be fixed?

 

Yea, I have the same issue on my 85, if there's an easy fix, I would love to know it

 

mine does the same thing. so your not alone. not sure on a fix though

 

my panels are so blown out that i need to get new panels...just putting them off but its the biggest thing that I hate about my car. They are an awful design. Some have had luck using small right angle brackets, but mine are too blown out for them to work.

Mike

 

https://www.corvetteforum.com/techti...=242&TopicID=2

I used this tip when I first bought mine...

 

I agree and I have the issue with my 95. The 96 doesnt have it yet. This is another great design brought to us by the high educated GM design engineers from 1983 to 1996.

 

You can probably thank the beancounters rather than the engineers. When GM can save 5 cents on a part, they try to save 10.

 

If anyone does this, is there anyway they can post some pics?

 

I too did the L bracket fix, and it works pretty well, panels are tight now, but what you can also do, if you want to invest in a pop rivet set, is to take the panel off, on your 94, you will see the ribs inside the door have cracked at the angles as they turn to where the door catches on the frame of the door. You can do this fix one of two ways, with a drill and pop rivets, and a few metal braces, to tie the panel ribs to bridge the fracture, which will keep them from flexing and popping off the top of the door frame, or you can drill holes in the fracture at the curve of the ribs, and the lower portion of the rib, and use very strong nylon zip ties, to pull them together.

if you use the L bracket fix, a word of warning.
tie something around your window buffer pads, at these 10mm bolts, and be sure to have an extension magnet with a strong head, that will pass down into your door cavity, cause if you drop the bumper part after you take the retaining bolt off, you will be an angry owner, as you will then have to dismantle the entire door skin, to retrieve the window padding that is under the suggested bolt locations.which will, of course, fall deep under the window regulator, hence the magnet probe! If you tie a small cord around them and cinch them up tight, before you remove the bolt, it is a ten minute operation to take off the bolt, and put the L bracket on, tighten down the bolt, and then adjust the angle of the bracket, to catch the underside of the door edge, and you will feel it snug up as you set the top of the door over the brackets, then tighten up your panel mounting bolts, on the side,
no need to pop out the bottom door retainers. just loosen the side retainer at the panel end and the gingerly stretch the door over the new L bracket catches you made.
the L brackets I bought at home depot, are 1x1,x1/2" wide zinc plated and were pre-drilled w 3/8" holes, you may need to open these holes up to 1/4 to pass the retaining bolt thru them, check yours, so you are not holding a ratchet, a L angle,and making sure the felt bumper pad is in place, and realize the damn hole in the bracket is too small in diameter to pass the retaining bolt thru! Best...Derek.

 

Spot on advice on all points.

Two things to add are I used a ratcheting tie down strap and a roll of paper towels on end to bend the door into shape while I was installing the zip-ties and a small wood chisel is great for removing just a bit of material at the crack so that when the door panel is flexed back into shape you can bend it beyond its original shape. When the zip-ties take the strain it will open up to the original position.

 

On my 1992 I pop riveted a piece of sheet metal to the plastic tab at the top rear of the door that the door panel is SUPPOSED to catch on. I set the metal just a small amount higher than the plastic tab and it has been working fine for over a year now. I also made metal pieces for the reinforcing ridges on the inside top of the door panel as they had cracked, and pop rivited them on, also.

 

I fixed mine by using a heat gun.. And slowly and carefully bending the top portion down so the lip clips in tighter... Worked great... Been about two month and I really have to slam my door since the new weatherstripping...

 

Another common and easy fix for the cracked ribs on the back side of the panel is to drill a small hole above and below the crack and run a zip-tie through the holes to cinch the rib back together - you can also add some glue to the crack at the same time if you like. That worked fine for me, in addition to the L-brackets.

 

I went with this tip when I did mine, easy enough to do:

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c4-g...panel-fix.html

 

Or, better yet, the finest fix I have seen to date for later c4 door panels. very nice job here.

 

Do u have to hold onto the outside piece that contains that felt material while removing that 10mm screw? Last thing I want to do is drop stuff down into that door panel while im ratcheting it off.

 

if you remove the door panel you will see ribs that stiffen the curve of the top of the panel. These crack and allow the curve to relax, then the panel has room to pop off the lip at the top of the door. Mine is doing the same an easy but time consuming fix is to make sheet metal plates that match the ribs and while pulling the panel back to original curve (closing the gaps created by the cracks) you can “sandwich” the ribs and rivet the metal to them. I’m planning on using epoxy on mine at the same time when I do them… other guys have also trimmed the foam rubber of the door seals at the top to lessen the pressure exerted on the panels

 

LOL, how do you come across a 9 year post?

Funny thing is I posted in this post and did this fix and 9 years later the fix is still holding up!

 

My guess is that milton907 fell victim to infinite scroll. On a brighter note, glad your door panels are holding up well!

 

ugh, I did. I had gotten so caught up in reading through this stuff that I honestly don’t even know how I had even gotten to the door panel problem. I had actually started out looking for answers on my burnt out radio bulbs. 🤣