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First of all, do this in a driveway
or someplace where you can find the screws that will fall out of the
skin when you take it off the door. After you get the skin off, be
careful. The same bolts that used to rotate so freely exhibit an
alarming tendency to fall out of their pockets after the skin is off
the door.
Before you pull the skin, you want to
disconnect your remote mirror. Remove the escutcheon from the door
panel, then disconnect the 3 control cables. Both the cable ends and
sockets on the back of the escutcheon should be color-coded (red,
green, and yellow). If the paint's worn off, mark them before
disassembly. Push the cable through the door.
Insert a screwdriver between the door
and door skin close to the offending bolt as you can. As you gently
twist the screwdriver (like you're trying to pry the skin off),
unscrew the nut. The pressure from the twisting blade should hold
the head firmly enough to get the nut off. Twist so that the edge of
the blade next to the bolt is pushing against the door skin. This
will put more pressure on the head of the bolt. When you get the
skin off, you may notice that some of the bolts seem to be caulked
in place. It's my experience that the crimped pockets don't work
very well. The bolts tend to rotate. I tried "recrimping" the
pockets with a hammer and punch, but that's some tough steel. I
ended up recaulking them. It seems to work "well enough", but I'm
banking somewhat on the fact that I don't intend to pull the door
skin very often. |