96 Door Panel Install Question
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 102
Likes: 0
From: Medicine Hat /Phoenix Arizona
96 Door Panel Install Question
Hey guys I’m restoring my 96 GS and at the stage of reinstalling the door panels back on. There must be a proper way to install these! The top won’t stay in properly and keeps popping out! I’m trying to line it up properly still not fitting correctly. I put new window weatherstripping in and everything went smooth till now.
Heel & Toe
Joined: Oct 2015
Posts: 21
Likes: 1
From: Santa Barbara CA
Hey guys I’m restoring my 96 GS and at the stage of reinstalling the door panels back on. There must be a proper way to install these! The top won’t stay in properly and keeps popping out! I’m trying to line it up properly still not fitting correctly. I put new window weatherstripping in and everything went smooth till now.
I never got mine to feel tight or sit firmly from front to back of the door, and installed an L bracket on the top of the door(there's a bolt already there) that extends higher than the fiberglass tabs. It's not permanent and makes the door panel fit much better.
Best of luck!
Last edited by SB96CE; Jan 14, 2018 at 12:43 AM.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Aug 2015
Posts: 6,145
Likes: 2,014
From: St. Charles MO
Are your door panels in good shape, or are the plastic webs in back all cracked? The (poor) design relies on the panel's stiffness in bending to stay hooked in at the top. But the webs have a stress riser angle where they have to clear some bracing, and the webs usually crack at those angles. Once the webs are cracked, the panel is no longer stiff enough to stay hooked in. There are some threads here where people show how to make some reinforcing webs out of metal and either bond on with JB weld and/or rivet or bolt them in. That fixes things pretty permanently. I have had to do that on my passenger door, and the driver door is on its way to needing it.
