Front Door Panel Removal Trick

Hello all! Thought I would share a useful tip I've learned from all the times I've taken my front door panels off- whether it be rattles, squeaks, insulation or inserting hush mat... I have come up with a way to remove the front panel without the need of a "trim tool" that I know some of us don't have.

This obviously applies to the portion of the removal when you have to take off the trim piece behind the door opening mechanism on the inside. It's a pain in the @$$ if you haven't done it before and even then, can prove to still be a pain.

You will need:

A dog leash

See pictures below, sorry if they're side ways I'm on my iPhone right now.

Take the spring loaded part that you hook to the dog collar, open the handle and pull the spring latch open with your thumb on the leash. Once it's hooked around the plastic corner, pull it out. Flawlessly comes out and in the 20+ times I've done it, have never broken any plastic. I know it's a bid odd, but hey it works. Hope this helps some of you in the future!

Here is a better picture of how you hook it into the plastic part (shown with the piece out obviously)

Nice!

Nice, looks like that would work pretty well. What I did for that piece was take an old butter knife and bent the tip over 90 degrees in a vice. Slide it in on the front edge, a quick tug and it pops right off.

Thanks for the tip. I'll be digging int my door panels soon.