I've gotten several pms in the past week asking about my panels, and I had a thread a long time ago about installing 4th gen door panels, but it looks like some of the pics are gone, and it was kind of a mess. So I figured I'd just make a new thread illustrating how I did mine.

I know they aren't everyone's cup of tea, this is just for the folks who might want to give it a try in the future.

first things first, if you are going to do this, you need to commit, because there's no going back.

The first thing I did after removing the old panels, handles and the plastic sheeting was hack a hole in the rear upper corner, where a square piece sat out, and pounded the outer edge in. I had a heck of a time getting the panel to sit on the upper rail on the door otherwise.


Once that was solved, I installed the 4th gen door handle. I really don't see any way to use the old handle with the new trim. Locating it was pretty easy.


You can see one of my screws behind the handle. The other screw is at the rear. I'm pretty sure I either reused an existing hole or just drilled a new one. What's one or two more holes going to hurt?

The hardest part (I thought) was dealing with the front corner. There's several different solutions used by various people, but what I chose to do was cut some of the plastic off the edges, and use a heat gun to push the corner towards the outside of the car.




Then I sat down with a heat gun and bent the corner of the panel til I was satisfied.





Let's see what else. I bent my seat belt retractor inwards to clear the panel.


That's all the hard stuff. I used some miscellaneous screws around the outside, and also the screw in the arm rest, and under the side pocket to hold it all together. I had to take off the bracket where the old arm rest went and make new holes.
Here's a few more pics, but I think that covers it. Any questions, let's hear em!









And the full album:
http://s236.photobucket.com/albums/f...nel%20Project/

 

panels are a lil small for are doors it looks like, or was it just not lined up all the way in the pics? other wise looks good man

 

I noticed the same thing - I _REALLY_ badly want to install 4thgen bird door panels in my Z28 but they've gotta look seemless or it'll just bug me.

 

They did end up a little short. Front to back they fit great though. I dunno, it seems like everyone installs them a little differently, so maybe there's another way to do it to make them line up better. I'm a little wreckless, so I just jumped in and started cutting pieces off of my doors lol.

 

well if the doors color matched the panel that would be one thing, but i think seeing the red standing out would just annoy me after a while.

 

how did the arm rest bolts go?