Door panel broken! Help!

[d_hoots]

My door panel seems to be the victim of the previous owners stereo installation endeavours.

Basically, the plastic portion under the "screw cap" in the door handle... is totally broken off and missing. This means that the load bearing bolt under that "screw cap" is no longer holding anything on the door at all, but merely fastened to the metal clip on the door frame for decoration.

I have replaced the X-mas trees twice now and they are just not enough to hold the door panel on.

Does anyone have any suggestions... or happen to have a Mocha Gen III drivers door panel (minus the switches... I have them)?

I am not sure if that door handle "cup" section comes off of the door panel from the inside, but I am sure that finding one of those for sale is just as hard as finding the whole thing.

I appreciate any helpful information on this matter. I have tried Al Fitz and he doesn't have the door panel.

Thanks!

 

[97V8SHO]

Try ford, they should have one. Go to fordparts.com and search for it on there. If you want to do a ghetto fix just get a washer and then put the screw through it. It should hold.

 

[d_hoots]

fixed the problem

Just for everyone's info, in case someone ever has this problem.

I ended up "fixing" this myself. First things first, I went to good ol' Lowe's and bought a nylon spacer 1/2 x 0.257 x 1. I then took a dremel tool and shaved down the top 1/4 inch or so to a smaller OD to fit inside the little plastic ring that has the screw cover. Then I cut off the bottom, so that the total height was just from the top of that ring down to the retainer clip nut thing. This was also done with a dremel cutting disc, rather than clipping it and bending the shape.

Then I took the retainer clip nut (not sure what the tech. name is) and found a nice pan head screw that fit it correctly... had to be longer than the stock screw, since I am now going through the nylon spacer, rather than just the thin plastic which has been broken off. I got extra long to make sure that I would make it, and I didnt have to worry, because there is nothing important directly under that area... just some foam.

Then I made a trip to the local Ford dealer, where I explained that I had been here before and someone had given me a bunch of the plastic christmas tree retainer clips. He then grabbed about 30 of them and said see ya... no charge. I guess they want me to come back in a few years to buy a car.

Anyway... The combination of new clips and the nylon spacer/bolt mod has given me a perfectly operating door with no slop when it is pulled closed.

I am hoping that since the nylon and bolt will not allow the panel to pull away from the frame any, that the christmas tree clips will now be able to do their job, problem solved.

By the way... for information, the clips they gave me are a different color than stock, but are otherwise virtually identical. They are made by a company called S&S Automotive Inc. and the part number is J825590 and they are called "door panel retainer 25P". I believe that they are the manufacturer, but could be a distributer.