Excellent writeup. I wish there were more of these types of useful posts.

 

hello,
thank you for your excellent door panel removal diy
i have 2 questions about it :

1- i need to pull out my door handles to put new carbon ones. On your picture, i would say there are two screws for it (and not rivets) but i can't see very well. is it right?

2- did you use the old melted rivets or new ones for your new painted door pull covers?

thank you very much for your answer and sorry for my bad english cause i am a french man from paris
stephan

 

Great job.

 

A precaution to take when working on your car around airbags is to disconnect the negative terminal of the battery. Better to be safe than sorry.

 

Just about to ask/mention that! Anyhow thanks for the write up!

 

Gundo, could you please confirm if there is no need to purchase any items to be replaced if door panel gets removed? did you re-use all the hardware you took off?

I wanted to take down those panels to replace stock audio speakers but was not sure if my attempt to put those panel back will not end up with new rattles and squicks i currently do not have. Is there a chance to brake anything off if pulled too hard? What would you advice to be extra careful about?

 

Thanks for sharing.

 

Great thread! I was wondering if it is at all possible to remove just the speaker, wire mesh panels so i could replace them with the leather variety? From your removal of the entire panel does it seem possible that these speaker covers would pop off after the panel was removed and how hard would it be to put them back? Porsche only sells the entire panel so buying a new panel would be very expensive when i only want to remove the speaker covers. TIA

 

Holy smokes - melting plastic! I was looking at changing out the same bits in my car to the leather ones, but whoaaaa - I figured mirror covers and then a few screws - not the entire door panel and melting it off. Hmmm....have to sleep on that idea for a bit....

Nice write up - I know - old, but still - very helpful.

 

Nice Job!

ChuckJ

 

amazing write up! is there anyway u could help me figure out how to remove just the storage bin lids and the "oh ****" handles right in front of them?? cant find any help with this.. do i have to remove the whole inner door panel ?

 

Can you tell me if we are looking at the standard Bose system, or the upgraded version? Those speakers look like total garbage. Has anyone replaced those pathetic looking things with some Focals? What model Focals fit in the designated areas? I have a 2009 C4S coupe with the 13 speaker, upgraded Bose system. Thanks much for the info.

 

Thanks, Gundo for the great writeup.
Another good DIY for door panel removal is here for a different set of photos (not mine)
http://forums.rennlist.com/rennforum...l-removal.html
...but Gundo's version explains how to remove the trim piece behind the door handle. I didn't realize you had to melt rivets!? Geez.

I put in Focal Utopia Be 7's in a 997.2 coupe. You'll need to make your own spacer rings (a real pain), but the 6.5" midbass and 3" midrange fit fine in the stock locations (diameter and mounting depth ok).

Unless you're super careful (and lucky), you might break some of those mounting clips. I'm going to have to pick some up at the stealership. If you're really unlucky, you could break off the plastic where the mounting clip mounts to the panel. That's bad. I was able to take mine off by myself and stick them back on without introducing any new rattles/squeaks...and that's with a broken clip or 2.

 

This is amazing!!!!Gotta look forward for the every weekend to take some stuff apart....

 

I too have this problem. I need a 12-step.

Hint for melting the plastic attachment points...place tip of soldering iron dead-center in the middle of the weld (or plastic disk) while at the same time gently pulling the trim piece away from the door panel. Melt away slowly keeping the iron in the middle of the disk until you feel the connection break, then hold the two peices (trim and door panel) separate for a moment so the plastic can get hard again.

Doing this will leave you plenty of plastic material to weld on the replacement trim piece.

ALSO-depending on the source for your door trim, the rubber bumper may not be the only part you need to transfer old to new. Make sure your replacement trim piece has the spring clips (2 each) into which the mirror triangles will engage when you put everything back together again!