Newbie, needs help with door mirrors.

[cartoon6pk]

Hi everyone,
I wanted to start with something simple on my car so I thought I would put on the passenger mirror. "simple right"
One of the ears where broke off where the mirror screws into. I ordered 2 new clips that came, and they where plastic. I took off the base and I heard nuts fall into the door.
On the drivers side I replaced it and did not remove the base.
My question is what suprises will I find in trying to take the
Door panel off? Anything I need to know? I have done it many times on other cars but I don't know what I will find with my TR7.
Thanks for any help.
Sheldon

[darrellw]

The only tricky/difficult part of taking the door panel off is the light. Hard to get off without breaking the mounting tabs off. Hopefully someone will have a good tip on that, because I don't!

If you have the panel off, good time of course to clean out the inside, and to check the outside handle mounting, if that is loose at all.

Darrell Walker
66 TR4A IRS-SC CTC67956L
81 TR8 SATPZ458XBA406206
Vancouver, WA, USA

[FI Spyder]

The lights will come out with the door, then you just have to wriggle off the electrical wires without breaking anything. The plastic tabs that hold the lights in are brittle with age, heating them up with hair dryer may soften them up a bit. If you do break them they can be repaired by gluing them back on with crazy glue and then reinforcing them at the back with Shoe Goo and the tips of zip ties making them stronger than before. With door card off you might want to wax oil the bottom of door, lube the door latch, replace door waist seal(s) (seal against the window), clean up tan plastic and reset with fresh tar strip, put on new rubber stop to keep door handle flush.

Crazy glue first:



Tie rein forcing next:





- - -TR7 Spider - - - 1978 Spitfire- - - - 1976 Spitfire - - 1988 Tercel 4X4 - Kali on Integra - 1991 Integra - Yellow TCT

[rgsSpider]

Great tip FI! I'll have to try that with mine.

I find I have to be careful with the window felt across the top of the panel when putting them back on. You can't replace those so be careful.

Randy

1980 TR7 <font color="red">Spider!</font id="red">
http://web.me.com/rg_spb/TR7_Spider/Home.html

[FI Spyder]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Century Gothic, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by rgsSpider</i>


I find I have to be careful with the window felt across the top of the panel when putting them back on. You can't replace those so be careful.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

True but if you replace the door cards with the ones you get from VB they are reinforced with aluminum on top third and the felt strip is a replaceable rubber strip held in place with clips similar to the outer strip.

I replaced mine not because of that but because the top curve had straightened up (warped) so it was away from the window.

- - -TR7 Spider - - - 1978 Spitfire- - - - 1976 Spitfire - - 1988 Tercel 4X4 - Kali on Integra - 1991 Integra - Yellow TCT

[darrellw]

Did think there was enough wire length to get the panel off with the lights in place, much better method than breaking the tabs!

If you have the later, square door locks (81 only?), there is a small setscrew holding them on that you need to loosen.

Darrell Walker
66 TR4A IRS-SC CTC67956L
81 TR8 SATPZ458XBA406206
Vancouver, WA, USA

[cartoon6pk]

Thank you again everyone,
The door panel was no problem at all. Trying to get to the back of the screws to put the bolts on was another story.
Thanks,
Sheldon