Ford Taurus Door Panel

How Do I Remove The Passenger Side Door Panel Of A 2003 Ford Taurus. Any Help Would Be Greatly Appreciated!!!!!!!

I don't have the specifics for the 2003, but generally there will be a couple of screws along the bottom of the door trim panel that you need to remove and probably a couple of screws in the area of the door pull handle (used to pull the door closed from inside the car). There may also be a screw towards the upper rear of the door trim panel. Once the screws are removed, start at the bottom of the door and pull the trim panel away from the door. There are a lot of plastic push pins that need to release. They will release as you pull the trim panel. It will require some pretty good pulling to get them to let go. As they release, work your way up the door.

The top edge of the trim panel may be hooked over the edge of the door, so once all the push pins are release, you may need to lift the door trim panel off of the lip near the base of the window. Once you get that loose, you should have access to release the electrical connections.

The push pins are generally reuseable if you don't break a bunch of them.

-Rod

Sometimes it is helpful to have a flat blade like a putty knife or a painters multipurpose tool or a flat screwdriver to get under the push pins if they don't easily come out. I have had some stuck so hard that I damaged the stiff door panel backing right where they attach to it. Since then, since I expected to use it more than once, I bought a special tool for this that looks like a bent shaft, wide, flat-bladed screwdriver with a fork in its blade, kind of like a flat pry bar for nails.

The tool that tripletdaddy speaks of costs less than $10, but it's not that useful in removing a Taurus door panel due to the shape of the panel (at least on MY '97 Taurus). If you're removing a very flat panel, the tool will slip behind it and grab the plastic pushpin very well, but if the panel is contoured and comes well off the door (3-4"), it's hard to get that tool to grab the pushpins because you're not following the backside of the panel with the tool, you're fishing around inside the cavity between the panel and the door trying to find the "volcanoes" (I call them) that extend from the backside of the panel to the door and have the pushpins at the top of them. A longer, slim, slim-jim-like "wonderbar" might actually work better.

Any way you do it be very careful because if you put too much stress on these "volcanoes" holding the pushpins, the circular tops crack off and you're left with nothing to hold the pushpin anymore. This is more likely to happen to you with the pushpins at the top of the door because they're harder to reach from the bottom and you're going to be pushing the panel outward at the bottom trying to create more room to get you hand and tool up and inside there...

If you crack the "volcanoes" at the top (as I did), you can fix them like I did: with a short piece of PVC pipe filled with Bondo, capped off with a very rugged (exterior-grade) Velcro pad. It's either that or buy a new door panel...

Sorry, my bad. That does jar loose from memory having to do such a door panel removal that that trim panel tool was not at all suited. There are hard plastic or nylon trim removal tool sets that are more well suited for those door panels and other plastic panels on the dash and side panels, that I seem to be inexpensive. I would have like to have such a set a few times instead of trying to use metal tools which would more likely to hurt the plastic and any adjoining paint , like as on your door.