tompugh

I have to pull the door panels to replace the window anti-rattle pads and the outer door handles. Any advice or special tools needed for this job?. My car has power windows, so theres no window crank to remove. Any other maintanance I should consider while I'm back there? Thanks for any advice, Tom

Eddie 70

Tom, when I had my door panels off I went ahead and cleaned up my door locking mechanisms with some carb cleaner. I cleaned up 33 years of old dried up grease and whatever else had been sprayed into the mechanisms. Relube with white lithium grease. Removing the door panels is just a matter of removing the door lock *****(kind of a pain) and then there are two screws that hold the door panel on. One at the leading edge of the door panel and one at the rear. I always take the door open handle off to remove the door panel, but you may be able to remove the panel without taking it off. Then it is just a matter of lifting the door panel straight up and off.

Enkil

On my car.. ('81)

Remove the lock.. button things. They just unscrew.
Remove the 3 bolts holding the door handle / arm rest in place, big phillips head.

Remove the plastic piece around the door handle, 1 screw.

Remove the mirror adjuster bracket from the door, 2 screws.

Release the cable from the bracket, 1 hex head, pretty small.

There's a couple of small screws holding the door panel in place.

After that, the bottom sorta swings out and the whole thing sorta lifts up.