Hi, I have a 98 Honda Accord Coupe with a badly damaged passenger door. I've just purchased an entire whole door (same color and model compatibility) and would like to take the old door out and replace with the new one. I'm not sure where to begin to do this.

I've have purchased some basic tools and the Haynes Repair Manual in preparation. With that in mind, I have a few questions.

1. How difficult will this job be I have limited experience with car repair, but can follow instruction well. I just want to know if it's worth doing it by myself or go to a professional.

2. What should I do first?

3. What about the original lock? Do I take it out first and put it into the new door before doing anything?

4. I have an original alarm system. Do I have to do any electrical work?

Below are pictures of the damaged door (it is cracked and the body is damaged pretty bad) and the new door.

I welcome any advice you can give. I really want to do this on my own because it saves money and I do have an interest in car repair. Thank you.

 

IIRC back when I stripped my 95 EX all I really had to do was...
-unplug the harness going to the door. There should be a connection at the door that you can just unplug.
-unbolt the hinges from the car and remove the door.

you will want to swap the locks from the old door to the new door. You can do that with the doors off the car or on, doesn't matter. You will need to remove the door panel though, that will require finding a removing a few screws and then popping the clips on the back free to remove the panel. You can buy a tool to help popping those clips free, can be bought at Sears or AutoZone, etc.

Check out this thread...
https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1786985
I'm not sure where in that thread it is but I'm pretty sure somewhere in there he shows how to take the doors apart and all that. It may even show you how to remove the lock assemblies. He should also be able to answer most of your questions though since this is what he does.

 

Thanks for your advice Touring Accord. I've decided to swap out the lock without taking out the door. My goal right now is to remove the new door's panel and get access to the lock so I can take it out.

I removed the door's panel today. However, I am not able to access the lock by simply removing it. It looks like I need to get inside the metal interior. Any ideas as to how I would do this? Below is a picture of what I have done so far. What should I do next?

I am going to read the link you mentioned and see if I can get more info regarding this process. Being fairly inexperienced, I just want to take my time to do this. Any advice you can give me is greatly appreciated. If I can pull this off, it would be a great achievement for me.

Side note: It was actually pretty exciting to get the door panel open without any complication. I just took out the screw from the door handle, disengaged the three hooks, and disconnect the electrical connection. From there, I used a pry tool to disengaged all plastic clips. Then I removed the electrical connection to the power window. Pretty satisfying thus far.