Dave's Adventures in Door Panels

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

My wife has an 82 911SC. One of the door-mounted speakers (aftermarket) was really badly blown, so as an early Christmas present I decided to replace them for her. When I did that, somehow I jammed the lock in the open position--the knob and button will not move. The obstruction appears to be at the latch end of things, as I can see the rod trying to move slightly.

Anyway, I dug back into the door after getting it just about all the way back together again. I figured the Pelican article on door card replacement could use some pictures, so I took a bunch. Here they are:


The wiring for the window switch doesn't match that found in Bentley, nor that on our site.



This is for the driver's window. Again, the wiring doesn't match the references I have available. You can see the aftermarket tweeter to the left of the picture.



This is my solution for unscrewing the bezel or "escutcheon". Also works reasonably well for the ones that hold the switches into the dashboard of my 914.



...More pics to come in further posts!

--DD

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

The lock knob. I have already pried out the cover and removed the retaining screw.



The front screw that holds the top cover onto the door frame.



The rear mounting screw for the top cover. A plastic plug should cover the hole.




Next, we move on to the door pocket!

The front mounting screw goes into the plastic block you can see there.



There are three machine screws (most others in the door are sheet-metal screws!) that hold the bottom of the pocket onto the door. From front to rear, here is where they are:







The next screw (again, a sheet-metal type screw) goes into the back of the hinge for the cover.



The final one is inside the pocket itself, going into the bottom of the door handle part.



More in the next post.

--DD

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

Now we remove the hinged lid to the compartment. There are two screws on the back, and when those are removed, the lid pulls back out of the door handle part.



Next we remove the block on the front which we saw earlier.



Then remove the window switches. (Fortunately that stain is covered by the upper door panel.) Be careful, especially if you use a small screwdriver like this to pry them out.


Yes, that is the new tweeter on the left of the picture.



Now you disconnect the door pull rod from the flapper. This, BTW, is the improved metal flapper that we sell. We managed to break the original plastic part; the metal one should never break.



More next post!

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

Finally, we can remove the grab handle. It is held in with four Allen-head screws. The top two are easy to access, the bottom two are gotten to through holes in the handle base. The rear one of those can be difficult to access due to the flapper being in the way. I was able to work around that--barely. It would have been easier with a "wobble" (ball-end) Allen wrench, but the only one of those I had was a socket and the base was too large to fit in the hole A long Allen socket would have worked even better.

The top:


The bottom:



The door panel is now unencumbered. You can carefully pry the plastic retainers out of the holes in the door structure. On this car, there were only two of those, one at the front and one at the rear, both about two-thirds of the way up from the bottom. I do not know if there were more that have been broken off; check yours and be careful because they are fragile!

You can also see the crossover for the new speakers in this picture.



Once the door card is removed, you should see the moisture barrier sheet.



So those are my adventures in taking the door apart for the second or third time. In another week or so, there is a reasonable chance that I will have pics of the window mechanism removal procedure.

I hope this helps someone else down the road!

--DD

[mlfox]

Thanks for posting this as I'm preparing to swap door panels soon.

Regards,
mlfox

[dlearl]

Originally Posted by Dave at Pelican Parts

I hope this helps someone else down the road!--DD

It certainly would have, had I found it before I replaced my woofs and tweets last week.

Luckily, as a veteran of numerous BMW 2002 window regulator repairs, I was pretty familiar with how the Germans do doors.

Originally Posted by Dave at Pelican Parts

My wife has an 82 911SC. One of the door-mounted speakers (aftermarket) was really badly blown, so as an early Christmas present I decided to replace them for her. When I did that, somehow I jammed the lock in the open position--the knob and button will not move. The obstruction appears to be at the latch end of things, as I can see the rod trying to move slightly.

--DD

Here's the funny thing: I did the same thing. I had the door half re-assembled when I realized the inside lock lever or knob wouldn't operate. (although I SWEAR it did one time.) I pulled it back apart and looked at it all, never fixing it, so I gave up. Lo and behold, when I got it all back together and I shut the door, it all worked fine. Then I remember that Germans have idiot-proof doors (so you can't lock the keys inside.) AFAIK, the inside lock mechanism WON'T work with the door open. But it works just fine with the door closed. IIRC, this is exactly how the BMW locks worked, as well.


One thing to add to your excellent how-to: When removing the retaining screw from said knob, put a pair of channel locks (very gently) on the knob when you loosen the screw. When I did mine, the screw was tight enough that the torque spun it around and cause a very loud POP as something in the lock mechanism gave way, which led me to believe I'd messed something in the mechanism up in the first place. Turning the screw counter clockwise is the same direction as unlocking, and I thought I'd popped the rod off the lock. Tightening isn't so much an issue as you're tightening against the locked lock, pulling on the rods, not pushing them against their little plastic keepers.

[nineball]

Originally Posted by dlearl

Here's the funny thing: I did the same thing. I had the door half re-assembled when I realized the inside lock lever or knob wouldn't operate. (although I SWEAR it did one time.) I pulled it back apart and looked at it all, never fixing it, so I gave up. Lo and behold, when I got it all back together and I shut the door, it all worked fine. Then I remember that Germans have idiot-proof doors (so you can't lock the keys inside.) AFAIK, the inside lock mechanism WON'T work with the door open. But it works just fine with the door closed.

did the same thing when i was working on my doors, only i had the entire thing back when i found the locks "didn't" work. nothing like making an extra hour of work for yourself over nothing

[dlearl]

Originally Posted by nineball

nothing like making an extra hour of work for yourself over nothing

I like to think of it as "practice."

FWIW, the passenger door was a snap.

[Salserito]

Hi there I am the proud owner of a 1984 911 and recently the door handle (exterior) stopped working, can you tell me how to remove the door handle please/ thanks

[cdrik915]

There are two screws INSIDE the door .

Door panel removal needed.

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

Sorry, Salselito, I don't know enough about the exterior door handle to be able to diagnose it remotely. I didn't have to remove either one from my wife's car, either, so I don't have any real insight into that.

My issue turned out, as several others pointed out, to be the "idiot-proof door" mechanism. But I also wound up needing to repair the window lift (the spring holder came out, evidently a common problem--see my post with pics of that) so I'm glad I got the practice of doing this job twice.

--DD

[Neel]

Very nicely done, Dave!!!

[Fullblown5]

Awesome! As a new and proud 911 owner I highly appreciate this detailed awesome guide!

[OsoMoore]

Very handy pictures indeed. The first time I took the door apart it was a little overwhelming. After you've done it a few times, its not bad at all.

The pictures help when you can't figure out where a hidden screw is at, or what to pry at when.

[OttoBob]

I just took my driver door panel off, and I got hung up on the lock knob surround. I removed the knob cap, unscrewed the knob and thought the surround would pull off. It took me a while to realize that you simply rotate the large plastic surround counterclockwise to remove it!

[HRHski]

Great posts, I was about to attempt this and so glad I found your photos.

[wrxnofx]

Originally Posted by HRHski

Great posts, I was about to attempt this and so glad I found your photos.

You don't say what year you have, but there may be slight differences if yours is a newer year. Here is door panel removal for an '87.

[seamore2001]

Great post - been there, done that, and likely will be doing it again this weekend.

Would love a post on replacing the cable for the interior door handle. The old cable in my '84 eventually began to freeze up and I replaced with the 993 parts kit per Porsche instructions, but I seem to have installed it wrong - I wish there was a how-to walk-through on this process; so far my contributions have been unprintable.

[4flyboy]

Very nice Dave, thank you.

I'm going in for a full speakerectomy on both doors, the pictures make things particularly clear.

My absolute favorite part though?

Your wife drives a 911.....now that's cool!

Scott

[therotman]

Originally Posted by seamore2001

Great post - been there, done that, and likely will be doing it again this weekend.

Would love a post on replacing the cable for the interior door handle. The old cable in my '84 eventually began to freeze up and I replaced with the 993 parts kit per Porsche instructions, but I seem to have installed it wrong - I wish there was a how-to walk-through on this process; so far my contributions have been unprintable.

Can you give me more information on this?

I can no longer open my door from the inside. I took the panel off and found the Bowden Cable is broken. After searching online for a long time I can't find anyone who will supply a replacement cable.


(Yes, the picture is upside down)