Removing door panels... Is there some trick to it?

[Smoky]

Upgrading door speakers and wiring and am having trouble removing the door panels. Have all screws and push pins removed. Door panel is lose except along the top edge. Seems like it is requiring way more force than expected to lift up and remove the panel. I've read that some piece along the top edge is fragile so I'm trying to avoid anything that feels like forcing it. What's holding this panel on along the top edge? Feels like those toothy panel pins most cars use. Do I just need to muscle it or am I missing something?

Thanks

[SNKEBIT]

They are really hard to get the clips pop loose. The clips are attached to the black trim piece along the top. They do break......... Hit or miss if they come off in one piece. After you have done a bunch, you get the hang of it. Worst design ever. Good luck, it can be done, just be really careful....

[Smoky]

Got passenger panel loose and I see it's two metal clips. Working from front to rear seemed to get it done. Driver door rear clip is being a pita. Is there a better way to release these clips? Afraid I'm gonna break something

Also is there a trick to releasing the pull handle cable or do . I just remove all those screws inside the trim panel around the cable? Would make life easier to just separate the panel completely but I suppose it could just hang there by the cable while I work.

Thanks

[Smoky]

OK thanks. Got driver door loose. Rear clip came off the panel instead of out of slot in the door but didn't break! Wahoo!

[Viktimize]

You don't need to remove the whole door panel to change the speaker out. But if you're doing all the wiring too then I see where you're going with it. I did a write up over on the other forum before this place opened up. I can post a pic here of the top trim piece to show where the clips are. It is definitely a PITA, super poor design. Some people say to go in from the bottom with a screwdriver to pry it out, but I still can't see how thast works myself. Looks like the only way to do it is with the window all the way down and then go at it from the top with some sort of L shaped tool to pry in and release the clip.

The door latch cable I just pryed on with a screwdriver, I was worried it might break but it just popped right out of it's clip.

[Smoky]

You're right the clips are definitely designed to be pinched loose from inside the panel but no idea what tool could get that done. Got those off now.

When you say you pried the latch cable out of its slot can you elaborate? Is it a ball or a T at the end of the cable? Did you just pop it back into the slot?

Thanks

[Smoky]

Figured it out. Once the cable holder came free from the clip I could see the metal piece at the end of the cable is a T in the slot. Just turned it and it came free. Thanks again!

[Viktimize]

Figured it out. Once the cable holder came free from the clip I could see the metal piece at the end of the cable is a T in the slot. Just turned it and it came free. Thanks again!

You're talking about where the cable actually ends and hooks onto the door handle itself. Right before that it is a plastic tab clipped into the door skin, that was the art I was worried about breaking that had to be pryed out. Good to hear you got it all sorted though.

Doing it once is enough to breed confidence to do it again. I will have to do my other window regulator this summer, and I am positive I can do it in at least half the time the second time around.

[Newport Viper]

Pics or Ban!

[Viktimize]

Pics or Ban!

Here is my whole Window Regulator write up I made. Not amazing by any means, but there is a few pics in there.



This is my first actual DIY write up, and I did the job almost a week ago now, so I'm working off memory here. If for some reason I miss something, please inform me and I can add it to the original post. I unfortunately did not have a great camera on hand and I never planned to be doing a DIY for this till I was almost done the job. So you'll have to excuse the crummy cell phone pictures also, and the fact that pics for certain steps will be missing all together. On to business..............


If you're a Viper owner then you have surely heard about, and possibly experienced the dreaded window regulator failure. This issue can have a variety of different symptoms. Mine in particular was I rolled the window down, then tried to roll it back up but the window wouldn't move and all my electronics cut out for a second. Lovely! Ultimately I would prefer to just drop the car off somewhere and come back to get it when this issue is resolved. But I have a problem finding places I trust to work on my car, as well I have read that many times the regulator is damaged on re-installation. So most importantly I wanted this done right the first time.


First things first, open the door.

http://forums.viperclub.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=29136&d=1381337994

-There are 3 pop rivets. One at the top back side of the door, one at the bottom backside of the door, and one at the bottom front side of the door. Just pop the center pin in slightly and then pry the rivet out.

-Use an Allen Key to remove the single bolt on the door pull. The piece then tilts out from the bottom and pulls stright down for removal.

-In the door latch cavity there is a plastic square that needs to be pryed out. Behind it is a phillips head screw to remove.

-Remove the speaker now, and behind that is 2 screws that need to be removed as well. It's the one I'm holding in the pic and the one directly west of that. The other screws are for holding the speaker ring to the door skin, so don't remove those.

http://forums.viperclub.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=29137&d=1381337994


-Now remove the last 2 phillips head screws that were behind the door pull cover

This is the point in the job that most people dread. The top of the door skin is held in place by 2 clips. And if you're not careful you'll break the top frame of the door skin. I read someone else say that they used a flathead screwdriver and went up from the bottom of the door skin and were able to pop the clips that way. You can try it if you want, but the physical design of the door frame actually makes that impossible because the clips are blocked, so I'm not sure if I read that tip wrong? Or what that person was doing?

-Only way I could see to do this is to peel out the molding running along side the door skin. Then use some sort of L-shaped tool to stick in where the window rides up and down, and pry towards the inside of the door to release the clip.

Here is the top frame piece removed.

http://forums.viperclub.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=29143&d=1381337994

In my case my door skin peeled right off the top frame piece anyway. So it was easy. But then I had to staple the 2 pieces back together.

Here is what the top piece looks like when it's cracked.

http://forums.viperclub.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=29142&d=1381337994

I sprayed some 3m adhesive on it and put a clamp on it for a bit, seemed to hold ok for now.

-Once the door skin is off, there is 3 connectors to unclip in behind.

-The door handle cable also needs to be removed. just pry it up and it will pop out of it's clip. The cable is held to the handle by a T-bar. Just twist it sideways and out it comes. Set the door skin aside.

I'm not sure if this standard equipment on the Viper? But these came falling out of my door skin when I pulled it off. I've heard the old mantra that "The Vette Gets em Wet". Maybe the "Snake Makes a Lake"??

http://forums.viperclub.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=29135&d=1381337994

-Peel off the vapor barrier

-At this point you need to remove the window. Optimally your window failed here close to the top where it needs to be perfectly aligned to remove those 2 window bolts.

http://forums.viperclub.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=29145&d=1381337994

-ine had failed all the way down. So I used a 10mm wrench to reach through the main hole and undo the one bolt I could reach. Then I had to wiggle the actuator line around to get it back in it's sheth that had pulled apart. Then I could grab the bottom of the window and force it up to where I could get at the other bolt.

In this pic you can see slightly through the speaker hole, the silver clip that holds the front of the window in place on the actuator. Just pull the pin straight out towards the rear of the car.

http://forums.viperclub.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=29147&d=1381337994

Here is the front window when it's removed. I fought with it a bit trying to get it out, but you won't get it out unless you move the window up far enough that it can clear that bar running through the inside of the door.

http://forums.viperclub.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=29151&d=1381337994


-Now you can remove all the actuator nuts. There is 7 in total if I remember right, but I never marked them on this photo. It's fairly simple to figure out though. Don't remove the nut against a brass backing that you can see through one of the door holes. It's part of the actuator frame.

http://forums.viperclub.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=29148&d=1381337994

-Unplug the actuator harness just inside the main door hole

-There is a couple spots where the actuator harness and the cable sheath are clipped to the door, you just need to push those cable holds back through the door frame. You'll figure there out pretty easily once you try to pull the actuator out.

-Pull the actuator out however you see fit. If you want to salvage it as much as possible for some reason, then you'll want to remove it much like the new one will go back in.

-Now for the other fun part. Re-install the new actuator. It's going to go in front first. I don't have many pics for this unfortuantely. Hold the front and tilt the back side toward the ground, stick the front open end in the hole, then twist the back end back up and start sliding the front side as far in as you can get it. Then reach in and lift the front arm up and through the window slot like this

http://forums.viperclub.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=29150&d=1381337994

-At whatever point along the way that you need to, start fishing in the actuator motor

-Now the rear arm can go in, but the top side goes in the hole first

You have to be really careful doing this so that you don't crack the cable sheath at either end. If you can get that front arm up through the window slit then the rest should go semi smooth.

The rest is basically opposite of removal. Install all the actuator nuts
push the cable holds back in
plug in the actuator
Then turn the key and test the actuator to make sure if functions, and to line up the front window clip through the speaker hole
Clip just pushes in opposite of how it came out
Then roll the actuator up to line up the window bolt holes at the back side
Tighten those bolts then roll the window down
Re-attach the vapor barrier
Put the window mold back on
Grab the door skin and plug everything back in and hook up the door handle cable
Clip the door skin back in place
Put all the screws back in
Install the speaker
Put the door pull cover back on
And re-install the pop rivets. To put them back in you have to shove the pin back into them.

Here they are when pulled out
http://forums.viperclub.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=29139&d=1381337994

And here is how they need to look before they go back in
http://forums.viperclub.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=29138&d=1381337994

Once installed just pop the center pin back to flush and you're done.


Hope this wasn't a train wreck. I know it could've used a few more descriptive pictures, so I will update with that when I do my passenger door in the future. Hopefully it is good enough as is to get approval for the DIY area. But creative criticism is welcome :-)

[Smoky]

Nice writeup!

[Joel]

Victimize

Curiously when I copied your DIY and pasted it in Word, your pictures appeared. Imagine that! Thanks!

[Smoky]

^Neat trick. Will have to try that on other forums too.

[ACRucrazy]

When I removed the door panels on my '08 for tint, I removed the door panel and top trim as one, I did not separate the two.

http://forums.viperclub.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=29143&d=1381337994


And also, on mine the drives side was not wanting to unclip, like others have mentioned. So I removed the passenger side, that one came off easy, once that was done I was able to see exactly how it all came apart which helped with confidence on removing the drivers side.

[Viktimize]

Victimize

Curiously when I copied your DIY and pasted it in Word, your pictures appeared. Imagine that! Thanks!

Ya the pics showed up for me when I pasted it all in the reply window, then they disappeared when I posted it. ???

[Viktimize]

When I removed the door panels on my '08 for tint, I removed the door panel and top trim as one, I did not separate the two.




That's what I attempted to do, but they broke apart when I was trying to get the top part to unclip. I added the info about reattaching it incase it happened to anyone else too.