Interior Door Panels, What To Do "While I'm In There"

[Talewinds]

Very shortly, I'll be replacing my interior door panels with the RSA style (hopefully) and paying some other attention to things whilst there.
The door speakers have reached the end of their useful life, so I've bought replacements for them.
The exterior mirrors are completely chipped and faded after 21 years, and although the mirror motor mechanisms themselves work I think I've narrowed it down to the directional joystick inside the car as the reason I'm not getting all directions of motion from them.
The Keystone Cops recently forced me to remove my side window tint (nevermind that a quarter of the other vehicles registered in Illinois have fully tinted windows...) so I might try to remove the glass, if I can easily accomplish that, and put a very, very light tint back on.

So, to those with experience, what else would you do while you were in there???

[sc_rufctr]

You've got a lot of work planed already but this is what I would do...

Completely gut the door. Get everything off including the door locks and windows frames. This is me remember...
You may leave the window frames in place to avoid re adjusting them. It's not as easy as it sounds.

Clean and grease the locks, door handles, triggers and bit and pieces.
Wipe out and clean the inside of the doors making sure the drain holes are clear.
If the plastic membrane is torn or missing replace it. No need to get OEM stuff.
Just some good thick clear plastic film will do. Use a non hardening mastic to secure it.

Clean and de grease any wiring and make repairs as needed. Re apply tape if damaged and generally try for a complete OEM look. Clean up the blade connectors and check they're secure. They're crimped on the wire but have a small amount of solder at the crimp. They're easy to copy if you need to replace any of them. Just a new crimp on blade connector, some shrink tube (matt finish) and a small soldering iron needed.

The window probably has some tint still on it on the edges so it's good you plan on removing it...

If you car has rust proofing wax sprayed in the doors try not to disturb this too much unless you plan on re applying it.
It's a good idea to leave it there rather than remove it. (Some of the cheaper after market stuff attracts dust)

Take your time when putting everything back. Doors are always fiddly and difficult. Take extra care when putting the window frames back in. The bolts can pull from the threads securing the quarter windows in the top of the frame. You can fix it with a "fixa thread" insert or something similar but it's a pain to do. Also take your time re adjusting the frames, if you removed them.

I always tackle every job on my car as a mini project. First step is planning so it's good you posted this question here.

Just one word of advice... Always aim for an OEM look of the internals and wiring when you're finished. Once done it should look like it's fresh from the factory.

[mpetry]

it's a miserable job but take the window regulators out, clean and re-lube them, and ditto the window motors.

I did mine a few months back and the windows are working great now.

Peter - great post! I agree with your philosophy - do it once, do it right. No patch work!

Mark Petry
Bainbridge Island, WA

[arbita1]

Replace the plastic vapor barriers.

[Cattler]

I pulled my door handles, sanded them down, sprayed them black satin, and replaced the door handle gaskets. They look like brand new door handles.

[Talewinds]

Cross-post between here and the "Car Stereo Installation" thread...
While I'm in there, I made the door speaker mounting boards from thermoplastic cutting boards. It's a stable, workable, waterproof material. Really fun to cut and form this stuff.

[Wavey]

Nice seeing someone do things right Brian!

Who stopped you for the tint - City, County or State? Thinking of tinting mine to help the AC, but...

[skrufy]

another 2cents worth.....

while you have the doors gutted- apply sound deadening materials to help reduce road noise..... you can use dynamat which can be expensive by the piece- go to www.raamaudio.com- you can buy their stuff by the roll- one roll is enough to do the entire car- I gutted my 930 like a race car, replaced all of the factory 'felt' crap, although I haven't done the floors yet.....

you can start with the doors, then do the floors at a later date, etc..... the ensolite foam that you put on top of the aluminum sided butyl rubber matting will replace the plastic vapor barriers- but save those for patterns..... each door will take you about an hour to do- makes a big difference in interior noise IMHO.....

as if you don't have enough to do, all of us can find more for ya....

good luck...

tim
Alpine, Az.

ps: if you pull the window registers, etc., scribe the positions of your bolts and screws, make drawings of where things go, etc the Pelican parts pages are great references to where stuff goes as well- scribing with a sharp tool will save LOTS of adjusting time...

[dipso]

I did the Dyna mat too. Big improvement in sound quality inside.

[Talewinds]

Originally Posted by Wavey

Nice seeing someone do things right Brian!

Who stopped you for the tint - City, County or State? Thinking of tinting mine to help the AC, but...

Guuhh! County if you can believe it! Heading south from Hamel/140 towards Troy. He was on the 143 overpass. Too late before I saw him, had a lot on my mind and I was in the midst of an intestate completely packed w/ cars, everybody doing 80 for some reason. After I saw him I moved to the right lane and slowed down. He absolutely FLEW past me, then paused, then jammed on the brakes to rewind a 1/4 mile in order to slip in behind me. Gee, and to think, I was hoping he was going after the Toyota Sequoia packed full of kids that flew past me at more than 90.
Anyway, it's been a long time and you usually know when your time is up. He didn't even ask me for proof of insurance (which they ALWAYS do around here), which was all the clue I needed. I knew right then that he probably didn't care if I had a license either, but he knew for sure I was going to get a ticket and that I'd get to support the revenue generation machine.... I guess he didn't care either that I hadn't been ticketed in Illinois in 16 years....
So, also got the ticket for side window tint. Admittedly, it was too dark. But I would like a very light tint on the sides to carry on the theme of the car.

[RWebb]

check for any rust in the bottom or sides & treat

check for debris blocking the drain holes - clean out

[Talewinds]

Skrufy, I just bought the Damplifier Lite from secondskinaudio. Similar to Dynamat (foil top, adhesive backed) yet lighter and considerably less expensive. Got a few square feet to throw at the door panels.

But I took your advice and looked up that "Ensolite", which I was not familiar with. I bought a couple of yards from raamaudio to use as the moisture barrier instead of the plastic film. THAT was a very good suggestion. Thank you.

[Talewinds]

Originally Posted by RWebb

check for any rust in the bottom or sides & treat

check for debris blocking the drain holes - clean out

I DEFINITELY did that. I looked for any evidence of possible body damage repair inside the doors, totally clean.

The car spent the first 21 years of it's life in San Diego. It's been used well, but there's just NO discernible aging or deterioration caused by moisture or the other factors that concern us in the midwest, or PNW.

[skrufy]

Tailwinds- you can also use the ensolite foam sheets to make a dust and water proof barrier box for your speakers..... I made mine look like a round hat box, gluing on the round rear piece, and then leaving tabs to glue to the new door vapor barrier- a small slice in the bottom of it to slide in the speaker wires, mount the speakers, crank up the volume!! easy to do and good use of scrap material you might have thrown away...

I put a layer of the ensolite foam over the rubber self adhesive mats in the outer door skins for sound absorption..... my doors go " clunk" when closing, vs the earlier "ka-klink... lots of tricks to do to get rid of road/tire/tranny noise..... good luck!

Tim

[RWebb]

you can just buy these for $2 and save yourself a lot of trouble

...at any car stereo store

[JFairman]

Pelican sells new precut door panel vapor barrier sheets.

I found them in the catalog by mistake while looking for something else and they were something like $6 for both doors.