40th Anniversary Ruby Red Door Panel Fix?

[m0rdecai89]

The door panels on my Ruby appear to have broken and are now hanging off the door a little. I looked at it and the plastic piece in the panel cracke in 2. Is there anyway to fix this or do I need to buy new door panels?

 

[cjvitco25]

Hi there, I might have a set of used door panels. Would you be interested? Please advise. You can have them both for $175.00 If interested i will send you pics. Write me directly to my email which is; cjvtco25@yahoo.com

 

[m0rdecai89]

That email didnt work but I do want to see pics. send them to

m0rdecai8908@gmail.com

 

[mbwebb]

Pictures?

Can you post pics of the cracks in your panels?

 

[ruby-red]

The door panels on my Ruby appear to have broken and are now hanging off the door a little. I looked at it and the plastic piece in the panel cracke in 2. Is there anyway to fix this or do I need to buy new door panels?

same troble with mind only the right side, and the panel is not broke, pictures : help door panel? - Corvette Forum

 

[92BlackVette]

I was thinking about making this fix but when you look at my door panels nothing is cracked.

 

[ruby-red]

mind too

 

[92BlackVette]

I think the issue appears to related to the panels warping from heat. I have no window tint and it appears to get worse by closing the door too hard. I have seen fixes but the latest one I see appears to fix the gap caused by cracks in the material, not from what mine has... I have hooks on the top of mine that latch the panel inwards to try and force it back, and it doesn't have enough force to keep it there, so its gotta be warped.

Honestly guys I have just about had it w/ the look of mine. I am probably just going to get new ones and tint my windows.

 

[CLABORN1960]

My mechanic took two metal screws (looks like to me), held the panel tight against the door and screwed into the panel and the door... in essence he pinned the panels where mine were loose to the door itself... not a problem since.... maybe I'll take some pics this weekend and post...

 

[ruby-red]

My mechanic took two metal screws (looks like to me), held the panel tight against the door and screwed into the panel and the door... in essence he pinned the panels where mine were loose to the door itself... not a problem since.... maybe I'll take some pics this weekend and post...

like to see a few pictures on the fix

 

[Stuart]

Door Panel Rant - Long

like to see a few pictures on the fix

It was a beautiful day here in Georgia. The girls went shopping together. I have no sons so here I was all alone and I decided to put up the garage door and try to fix something on my car that has bugged me ever since I got it about a year ago. And that is... you guessed it, my passenger side door panel has pulled away from the door at the top leading edge.
Now I have the FSM and I reviewed it carefully and thoroughly before starting on this endeavor to correct the panel fit. I noticed that there are no fasteners in the top leading edge of the panel, you just hang the panel in the channel at the top and the other fasteners hold the panel against the door.
I figured that at some point someone had taken this door apart and not put it back together properly, so I was going to take it apart and then reassemble it properly. Using the FSM I got the panel off without any problems. What I found was
1) The panel was taken apart at some part and reassembled hastily w/o all the screws put back in place.
But that did not really account for the poor panel fit. What I found was that when I reassembled the panel to the door there was no way to keep that leading edge in it's groove and tighten everything back up. More importantly I found that at some point (the factory?) A two sided adhesive foam strip was placed in the door panel to try to keep it up against the door :ugh
I've gotta say that IMO this is a poor design. There are no fasteners up there to tighten the panel up with. I suppose that as was mentioned earlier the panel has warped some and now just plain doesn't fit. I'm really disappointed in the quality of this piece.
Well anyway I was thinking that maybe I could drill a couple of holes and securely fasten the panel in this trouble spot. Then I thought I'd check here first to see if anyone had a similar experience.
Sooo if anyone can post photos of a fix they may have come up with then let's see it.
Now I am going to have a beer because believe it or not, even though I'm not happy with the door panel design, I still love my car and I had an enjoyable day working on it and learning about it. Cheers