VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND NEWER 1971-1979 72 corvette door panels

Any tricks or how to for removing and replacing door panels

I paid a visit to Bear Corvette in Linesville Pa. One of the most knowledgeable person I have ever met. I bought a panel from him and he explained in very detail how to install it. Give them a call.

It's been quite a while since I removed a '72 Vette door panel. The key is to work patiently and carefully. Don't force anything. If you do not have a shop manual consider it the best investment you will make in the car.

I start with the window lowered. First step is to remove the door and window crank handle. You can do that with 2 small screwdrivers or save yourself a lot of grief and get the KD GM door handle tool. Also remove the small rotating door lock knob.

There will be a couple of screws (maybe hidden) that attach the door handle to the inner door panel. There might be a few other screws (just cannot remember for that car) so look carefully.

The first really tricky part is snapping the panel retainers out of the inner steel door panel. Get a set of the Harbor Freight plastic panel removal tools. You want to reach in as deeply as you can to get one of the slotted pry tools directly on both sides of the spring clip. Otherwise you could break out the part of panel that retains the leg of the clip. That leaves the spring clip in the door and you now have to figure out how to fix the panel. There will be multiple spring clips around the 3 edges of the panel.

The other tricky part is removing the top edge of panel from the edge of the door. You have to carefully push up and try to find a place where you can pry on the trim piece simultaneously. Otherwise you could separate the trim piece from the panel. That is not the end of the world but it is better if you can avoid that separation.

And as they always say, assembly is the reverse process. Except I always seem to have difficulty getting the upper trim piece to fit on the upper flange of the inner door panel. Once I get that in place then things go fairly well.

The other step I take is to carefully check and make sure the spring clips are really lined up with holes in the inner door panel before I start pushing on the panel. Those clips can move around quite a bit when you are removing the panel and while it is out of the car. If the legs of the spring clip are not lined up with a hole in the inner panel you could push the clip through the panel when you try to push it into place. I take an extra step and use a Q-tip to apply just a light coat of oil on the legs of the spring clip. It reduces the amount of force you have to apple to make it snap into the hole.

As always, doing the first one takes a lot more time than the next one.