Lexis body cladding panels on doors - removing?

[tominboise]

Lexus body cladding panels on doors - removing?

Are the door body cladding panels hard to get off? The manual shows clips and some adhesive that needs to be cut. Has anyone pulled one off of a rear door? I need to do some paint touch up, and it'd be much easier in my basement than in my cold garage.

Thanks, Tom

 

[NorCalDoug]

It really depends on whether or not you want to save the door panels -- either for reattaching at a later time or to sell.

I yanked mine off -- literally.
I had no plans on reattaching mine and tried the "gentle" approach on one panel, but gave up on it pretty quickly.

If you don't care how the panel looks afterward and its final destination is the trash heap, just pull the puppy right off. You'll need to break the loose some of the adhesive to get a good grip, but once you do, you can gently pull the panel off. In the process of doing this, you will break the tabs that hold the panel on the door. I used a pair of needle nosed vice grips to pull the clips and plugs still attached to the doors.

If you want to save the clips on these panels -- the best way to do this is to remove the door panel o the inside of the door and work each plug loose one at a time. I recall there being 3 rows of plastic plugs holding each panel on -- top, middle, and bottom. Be advised that the bottom row will not be easy to get to.

Let me know if you have any other quesitons.

 

[Bear80]

by all means just wait till it gets warmer and keep the mouldings on the door. The adhesive is a pain in the ass to get off and then you still have to buy the new "pad" (rubber trim with the adhesive tap) and apply. Save yourself a ton of trouble and wait till you can use the garage.

 

[NorCalDoug]

As bear80 states -- the adheshive is a major PITA to remove...and there's lots of it around the door panels.