'05 Ford F-150 (two-fronts)

Now what was wrong with the door panels on the Ford trucks? They were very nice... two screws and the panel pulls right off.

Now, you have to remove the speaker too. There are five screws (not including the speaker), two behind the handle, one behind the window control panel, and two at the very bottom. Four more speaker screws, and not only that, you have to remove the compression clips that the two bottom speaker screws are screwed into... then, finally, the panels pulls up and off like they used to.

I think it took me five times longer to remove these panels than the previous version. I don't get the point of this drastic change in design... I have never seen one that was falling off after time. It wasn't broke, why fix it. I see this, and I just say...

*%^%$& FORD.

Oh yeah, and there are four different sized screw heads... 6mm, 8mm, 10mm, and 7/32". Unreal.

The top of the panel will pull back enough to pull the seal out. I've never had to pull those panels. It is alittle tight but they will come out without removing the panel.

I thought about that before I found those speaker clips. The main problem with this one was the customer/friend standing there watching me. Nothing worse than having the owner of a brand new truck watching as your learning how to pull this new type of panel off. Only 'cause he is a friend, otherwise watchers aren't permitted in my shop.

Next time I will try the 'Grand Prix' trick (as I call it). Only on most cars that I use this trick, there's a lot more room there to get the gaskets back in.

Blade has hit the nail on the head. I remove all the screws and that allows me enough slack as I push up on the panel, to remove the felt strip.

I agree...it is a pain in the ass having 4 different size sockets. I keep them on the top of my tool box. We tint a ton of those F-150's.

Oh yeah. Those four sizes pretty much sum up everything I would ever need on a door panel, minus the most popular panel size (which is the first one I grabbed of course), 7mm. I just had to laugh every time I walked back to the toolbox.

I just finished one. No need to remove any screws at all. When unlipping the top of the panel, start in the middle where the panel curves. It'll pop right out for removing the seal. When reinstalling the seals do just the same. Pull the panel back at the curve and slide the seal in towards the sides from there.

Cool. I will try that on the next one. Thanks.

blade's right. no need to remove any screws.


or loosen anything, or pull the top back, or remove the felt strip, etc.

i do a ton of those, never had to remove or pull, or loosen anything.

i do it the same a blade...wene you are sliding the seal back in after you are done..spray a little bit of your slip sulution on the under part of the seal..and it will slide it a little better...kinda like KY..

hahah i pulled the gaskets out for the first time yesterday and good god was it easy nothing to it and they go right back in very easy. you dont have to pull the whole panel back just the area by the door lock plunger thing and grab it and pull it right out. like was mentioned.

but why?

because you can....and it takes all of 10 seconds

i like to tear peoples new cars up as much as possible

usually i dont take them out, i just cut my pattern to ride slightly higher than the gasket at the bottom and just high enough to not have a light gap

Me to

I don't know why you would even waste the extra ten seconds to pull the seal out when you can just use a white hard card and slip the film down behind it. About the only time I ever waste time on pulling door panels is on a Bug, which I remove the whole panel, and on the Grand Prix like someone mentioned and I just pull the top of the panel out enough to pull the rubber out so I can get the felt trim/liner off. Otherwise I always just use the trusty white hard card.

i get water fingers for days when i try and stuff tint down behind a felt gasket customers come back also what am i doing worg that that happens

yea, when you get water fingers after to try to squeege it down its gets contaminated because of the dirt that accumulates from the bottom of the felt. i either take them out (panels) or just cut slighty above to the point where it doesnt touch tthee felt, so far no problems.

That is true about the water fingers... BUT... I always just shrink the film if needed but most cars you don't have to shrink. Other than the few that you have to shrink I normally don't have any problems with the water fingers myself. If I do I just heat that sucker up on the outside with my blow torch.

Every time that I have tried to install a roll-down without removing that lover gasket, I have had major contamination problems in the bottom 1".

I do not trust myself, or my customers, enough to cut the film above the bottom gasket. I have done it a couple of times with good luck, but I also have had customers who roll there window down while pulling out of my shop to ask me a question... I don't think that the film would have survived these episodes had it been cut in that fashion.