02W203HOUSTON

Had done a lot of searching, and had not found a detailed DIY on the subject, so I used the coupe one to get me going, and another thread kind of explained it verbally. I decided to take the time and document the process as I went through it, trust me it gets easier each time.

Disclaimer: I am an amateur enthusiast, follow at your own risk.

Tools: Pliers, Flathead SD, T25, T20, T10(for what I was doing), I was wrapping my trim with suede.

1st - Pop the tweeter cover off, I used a thin screwdriver and pulled it from left to right by the tab, and used my finger for the rest. Should pop off easily.

Not sure how to keep the pictures with the instructions, so I will just reply and post pics with instructions.

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Next I pulled the door pull handle off. I did this by wedging a flat head SD towards the bottom, and popping it upward. Once this is removed you use the T25 to loosen the two screw, 1 at top, and 1 at bottom. Here is what this looks like.

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Once those were removed I went ahead and lifted the SRS badge out, pull from the top middle towards you. This used the T25 as well. Once that is removed, I unscrewed the door latch trim piece, this uses the T20, and is pretty straight forward. Once unscrewed pull down and out.

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Do not forget to pull the door lock pin, just unscrew that and pull out.

Now the door is ready to be pulled out. The panel is now only being held in with plastic clips. I found that the easiest way is to just grab from the bottom towards the outer edges by hand and just pull. This gets most of them out, pull all along the outer edges to ensure they are all loosened The picture shows what it will look like.

Next you can lift it up and out, I would grab the top right corner and work it up to get the adhesive loose, and wedge the panel away from the trim that keeps stuff out. Work it slowly and eventually it will give, do not be afraid to pull on it.

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Now that it is completely loose it is being held to the door by the door handle, and some speaker wiring. For what I was doing I just need to get the door handle loose to work with it.

Pull on the wire to pull out of the slot, and it will give you more play, once you do this it is just a hook that slide off. This will give you room to work with.

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Now that i have that disconnected, I can unscrew the trim piece that is holding the window controls. This uses a T10 and has 3 gold screws, this is the same for both driver and passenger door panels. Once you unscrew then you can pop it out. It will come out as a piece attached to the wiring. You can slide the white part and pull those two pieces apart giving you just the trim alone. The pics will help you picture it better.

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Now the long trim part was the hardest for me to remove. I am sure there is a better way or tool to get these off but this is what i did with the resources on hand. THe trim is held in place with a gold washer that keeps it tightened against the door. I used a flathead to wedge it upwards, and some pliers to pull it off. You will need to work it left to right until it comes off. It may look a bit mangled until you get better at it, but they will still work when putting trim back on. May even be worthwhile to buy some in advance so you do not have to worry about saving them. Once those are removed they just slide out. There are 4 of them.

Note I initially just pulled on the trim and almost broke them in the process. So any advice from people on the proper way to remove these would be greatly appreciated, until then this worked.

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Not too bad once you get into it. I think it came out pretty good. Now after lurking and using ideas I feel I have contributed to the site! Hope this helps!

Hatchman

Awesome post! I wish I had this last weekend. I took off my back door panels in my '05 to replace a blown speaker. Great write up and pics. Thank you! I'm sure this will come in handy for others in the future.

zcurtis00

How did you wrap the trim in suede, I like it a lot. It looks really good.

W203E35

Great writeup. Vote for Sticky

raymond g-

in case this helps clarify a bit....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Jz696uWxPk

FrankW

good write-up. old thread's been there you've just gotta search.

not a big fan of the suede trim tho. to each his own.

02W203HOUSTON

Same process outlined here: http://www.pyspeed.com/category-s/577.htm

Thanks for the feedback.

I used the same fabric on my headliner, and felt it would mesh well to wrap the trim in the same fabric.

emanresu

Are there any airbag connections or sensors that I would need to look out for when doing this door panel removal?

FrankW

no