Door Panel Removal Pictorial and Leather Door Panels

Door panel in place to start.

Remove center cap plastic piece to get at screw underneath.

Screw exposed

Open the front plastic piece with screwdriver blade.

Remove door handle screw

Carefully wedge blade in between to pop arm rest off.

This exposes door handle screw.

Don't forget to remove this plastic cover.

Which exposes another screw to remove

If you wedge a screwdriver above the lock mechanism you can pop this snap clips off.  This is probably the most difficult part.

Trim removed, you can see the plastic above the lock toggle and below the handle that catches on the trim ring.

Here is the back of the door panel.  Note the foam piece installed to reduce outside noise.

Door panel removed.  Note the stereo guys did a great job installing, they didn't damage the plastic film.  My film is also tinted yellow, others I have seen have been clear.

A close up of the MB Quart speakers.  The shop did a nice mounting job.

Ah the discovery! This stuff is just glued on! It isn't a separate covered piece!

So I cut a piece of leather and began wedging it in along the crack.  I advise working with a dull tool, not a screwdriver!

I cut a hole for the door handle after I had finished wedging the leather in.  If you were gluing the leather to start I don't think this would matter.

Completed Door!  I bet the folks in the factory wish they could do this! :-)

A picture of the leather seats and the door panel together. SWEET!  Now of course I need to go back and glue it all down, but hey, it works!

As it turns out, you don't really need to glue anything down to cover the panels with a fabric or leather.  I took NHALE's advice and looked around for some sort of cord that I could wedge the fabric in around the edges without requiring any glue.  I first envisioned some sort of rubber string, sort of like an O-ring but linear.  I wasn't able to find anything made out of rubber that was like this but I did find a black leather cord sold at the popular craft store "Michaels" for $2.29 for a package of 2 yards.  I bought 2 packages, one for each door.  I was glad I did because one package will not do 2 doors, although you will have about a foot left over.  The pictures below demonstrate the process of covering the door panels with leather and using the leather cord to wedge the leather to the plastic tight enough to not require any glue or other adhesive.  One piece of advice, make sure you have enough fabric or leather to wedge all the way around and still fit tight, this may require you to do a little trimming as you go along.  It is better to have a little too much than not enough.  If I can do so, I'll scan a pattern that I used to make panel covers for my doors.  The thickness of the fabric used will also determine how well it wedges with the leather cord, I was using a fairly thick leather so it was not a problem.

Simply tucking the leather in didn't last, with the top down the wind took it out of the seams. I didn't expect it to hold.

Here is the black leather cord from Michael's.  This stuff is real easy to work with.

Here's a close-up of wedging the cord in along the seam to keep the leather in place.

You knew there had to be another use for chopsticks didn't you? When not busy eating Sushi, I use them to wedge the leather in the seam

Driver's door all done!  If I didn't tell you, you would think this was from the factory this way.

Passenger door all done!