Driver door panel won't stay hooked at top edge

[Greg Gore]

I don't know if this is the case with your door panels but it is common for the row of vertical strengthening ribs on the backside near the top to crack. This weakens the door panel and allows the top to ride up over the door frame and come off at the top. The cure is new door panels or an epoxy repair on your originals. I glued mine and used several small ratcheting tie downs to pull the door panel back in shape before the epoxy set up. New ones are expensive and every used panel I looked at either on eBay or at swap meet flea markets were cracked as well. The door panels also crack very easily around the mounting holes at the bottom when you attempt to pull them off. Special tools designed to remove the ribbed plastic retainers are available and work well to prevent damage.