Door Panel Question 2004

[Mardenco]

I need to trim the top interior pad of the door panel (no. 5 in the attachment) in order to obtain enough clearance to close the door required after the installation of a vertical hinge. I plan to remove about a third of an inch of the pad at the point where it meets the dash when closed and then recover with existing material. (The alternative would be to notch the pillar trim, but with that hard plastic, there would be a hole.) Can the top pad (no. 5) be removed without removing the entire door panel, and does anyone have a procedure to do the same? GM says the metal retainer (no. 7) has three downward flanges that hold it to the top of the door and I know that no. 7 is a separate piece. The door panels have already been off and I am trying to keep their removalView attachment XLR Door Panel Parts.jpg down to a minimum. Thanks.

 

[firstone]

Lambo??

Are you talking about Lambo doors? If that is what you are installing you shouldn't have to trim anything. The hinges should be direct replacement and the doors should shut the same as with the original hinges. Only difference is, after you open the door it will swing up instead of only out. BTW, pictures are not attached.

 

[Mardenco]

Are you talking about Lambo doors? If that is what you are installing you shouldn't have to trim anything. The hinges should be direct replacement and the doors should shut the same as with the original hinges. Only difference is, after you open the door it will swing up instead of only out. BTW, pictures are not attached.

I guess I was unclear - sorry about that. The vertical hinges are installed but the doors in their horizontal position (down, not up) close at a slightly different angle than the OEM hinges (little closer to the front fender). This causes the top edge of the door trim to hit the pillar trim (below the vent on the pillar trim where it has that bulbous shape at the base). It is not much, but enough to casue a problem and once you push past that bulb, you are fine. The last statement in the instructions from Vertical Door states, "On some XLRs, you may have to trim the top of the door panel" and they have one pic of somebody taking a bit off of the edge of the top pad (where it comes to almost a point facing the dash). So, I guess I have one of those XLRs. I thought about trying to do something with the door trim, but could not come up with an idea, so I figured I would work on the top pad and hence my original question - will it come off without taking the entire door panel apart? - or any other ideas anybody has as I want to avoid screwing this up. Hopefully, I can get the picture to attach.

 

[firstone]

E-mail

Hi. Too bad the hinge kit wasn't exact. Anyways, if you want to give me your e-mail address, I can send you how to remove interior trim, etc.