[bombfactory]

Upon reinstalling the door panels after doing my stereo, the tops of the door panels now sit higher and more inboard, away from the glass, than they should, leaving a big ugly gap (see pic below - notice the inner weather strip sitting about 1/2" too high). All screws and mounting clips on the door are lining up perfectly, but once I tighten down the arm rest screws, the top of the door panel rises up and inwards. I took a panel off and put it back on three times with the same results. What's going on here?



Has anyone else run into this problem and figured it out? Thanks for any help!



   

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[hot968]

I have taken the door panels off and puting them back is tricky. The arm rest holes if I remember are clips that can move with out u knowing. These r the hardest holes to line up. I think that maybe the problem here. I am not sure but it may help. I don't think u can line them up without taking the panel off to see the clips and check if they r straight

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[Cloud9...68]

Ugh. Sorry about your predicament. I"m of absolutely no help here, but while I'll yank my engine and strip it to the bare block with minimal provocation (re-assembly could be a different matter altogether ), working on the door panels of this, or any other car, absolutely gives me the willies. They never seem to go back the way they were originally. I have a similar problem on the passenger side as yours, and after a few very frustrating hours of tugging and banging with the palm of my hand, taking it out and putting it back several times, I've gotten it so it's close enough. I feel your pain, in other words, but I can't remember what ended up getting mine reasonably close to right (though still not perfect by any means). Good luck; I hope somebody here has the magic formula; the next time I take these wretched things off, they're staying off, as it will be the final step of the conversion of my car to a pure track car. That's a ways down the road, though.

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[tamathumper]

I had a similar predicament with mine when I installed the new speakers. With some jostling, the passenger side re-aligned nicely, and feels solid. While the driver's side is back down to it's original height, I still give it the hairy eyeball once in a while because the gap seems to be bigger than I would imagine a car of this quality to allow.

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[Lim Yong]

Done it quite a few times. Make sure the top lip of the panel is pushed down securely and there is that piece of metal on the panel (secured by a nut/bolt behind the arm rest) goes into the door fits properly. If not, as you screw in the panel, that piece pushed out the whole panel and you get the gap. Luck........

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[Cloud9...68]

The other thing to be careful of is to not damage the solder connection for the alarm LED. Mine was broken (not as a result of the R & R of the door panel), and it took me many very frustrating hours to solder it back together, because the wires are so small.

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[bombfactory]

Yes it's got to have something to do with the armrest screws and/or the metal piece at the top end of the armrest that wedges into a rectangular slot in the door metal. The door panel hangs fine at first, inner weather strip even with the outer one, but once I start tightening the armrest screws, the top, and only the top, of the panel starts rising up and inwards.



I think I need to check the angle of the metal piece that holds the top of the armrest on. I haven't fiddled with that yet. Thanks for the ideas guys!

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[DaveN]

+1 on post 5, been there done that. Definitely makes the panel stand out and up for no apparent reason.

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