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Replacement doors - How do I change window belt trim & lock cylinder?
Got my donor doors for my car but there are a few things I need to switch over and a question I had:
1. The belt molding along the base of the window is damaged on my new donor doors, I want to keep my old trim. How do I go about this without destroying my good trim trying to take it off? (see photo at bottom of post for which piece I am talking about).
2. The passenger door lock will obviously be keyed differently and I would like to fix that by transferring over my passenger lock cylinder (only the cylinder, not the entire handle). How do I do this without damaging the cylinder and/or door handle?
And how do I align the doors? The hinges seem to be welded to the car so the only points of adjustment would be from the side that bolts to the door, but both doors are sagging now and don't line up in any way.
Thanks everyone!
Here's the trim in question:
Last edited by Auxient; Dec 10, 2019 at 01:33 PM.
Reason: Added question about door alignment.
Re: Replacement doors - How do I change window belt trim & lock cylinder?
1.Remove the inner door panel. Remove the door glass. On the front door IIRC there is a single screw on the door jamb when you open the door, remove that and the trim can just be pulled up(carefully). On the rear door I don't recall there being a screw, I think it can just be lifted up, or the sash trim might lock it int place. Verify that the glass weather stripping is not screwed in place, that may be what locks it in.
It will be easy to see when you get the inner door panel off.
2.Remove the inner door panel. Remove the door glass(allows for more room). Lock Cylinders can be removed from the door handles. If you have the correct color doors just remove the whole outer door handle assembly since you have to remove the handle to swap cylinders anyway.
Re: Replacement doors - How do I change window belt trim & lock cylinder?
Originally Posted by MAD_MIKE
1.Remove the inner door panel. Remove the door glass. On the front door IIRC there is a single screw on the door jamb when you open the door, remove that and the trim can just be pulled up(carefully). On the rear door I don't recall there being a screw, I think it can just be lifted up, or the sash trim might lock it int place. Verify that the glass weather stripping is not screwed in place, that may be what locks it in.
It will be easy to see when you get the inner door panel off.
I decided not to change the trim.
2.Remove the inner door panel. Remove the door glass(allows for more room). Lock Cylinders can be removed from the door handles. If you have the correct color doors just remove the whole outer door handle assembly since you have to remove the handle to swap cylinders anyway.
I was going to do that but the old handles on my original doors were warped and would catch sometimes. I looked inside but cant figure out how to actually get the cylinder detached from the lock rod.
Re: Replacement doors - How do I change window belt trim & lock cylinder?
Originally Posted by Auxient
how to actually get the cylinder detached from the lock rod.
Is it the white plastic rectangular looking thing, then it can be pulled off fairly easily. But it does help to unbolt the handle from the door first. Then you can see what you are doing.