00 ford escort Door Panels

[nicster 10+ year member]

Hello, It seems to me that everyone is having trouble getting door panels off, well i am among them. How the hell does the Escort front door panels come off? I took out all the screw and chrismas tree looking things furthest away from the door handle.. Whats next? I feel as if there a clips on the outer rim of the door panel. Well anything will help me .

Thanks

Nick

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[Frraksurred 10+ year member]

I'm not a Ford man, but most cars / trucks I've installed on had push retainers along the edges of the doors on the bottom and then both sides. The top usually had hooks or a lip that you needed to lift up on(after all the push retainers are pulled). The push retainers you can pry out (carefully) with a big flatblade or a panel puller. I have an old mouse pad I use to sandwich between the door and the screwdriver to keep it from garffing up the paint. Start at the top rear of the door panel and work your way down and around to the front top. After the first time you do it it's a snap.

Have fun, make sure you put some sound deadening material in there while you're there.

 

[gearhead008 10+ year member]

heres waht you do. Dont be afraid to pull on the door. If you pull hard enough, the door will come off. Im not being fecitious, im serious. It may be thta the door handel is whats keeping the panel on there. I had the same problem in my truck and i was afraid of breaking it but my dad jsut pulled it and the sucker came right off. I hope it helps. If not, let me know and ill do waht i can to help you. Matt.

 

[nicster 10+ year member]

Okay heres the deal with the 00 ford escort. But before i get in to that lets get some thing clear, This is my Girlfriends car, got sick of her telling me how crappy the system in there is. Anyhoo, It gos down like this There are 2 pins that come out on the left side, a door handle screw and a window crank. after unscrewing the 2 screws and poping the 2 pins, the door crank is removed by taking off the clip, then like you guys have said, YANK. The screwdriver was in need tho, beccause of lttle snaps all along the door. Funny thing is, My dad went out there and was the one who said YANK it. POP there we go.. I have surpisinly enough a new question. There is a lot of space to fill, i swear i could stick an 8in subwoofer in there, the 6in speaker that is supposed to be in there and a 6'9, keeping in mind the 8 would be inclosed. But forget the 8 and the 6 by 9, how hard do you think it would be to getrid of that door panel and custom build a new one out of fiberglass, to show off the speakers i could add in there? Well Either way Its been very help full and I hope this helps someone else with a Shitty ass 00 ford escort, A lil advise to anyone with this car who wants to get an aftermarket deck. The kit to install it is about 65 - 75 bucks, depending on where you go and you have to cut away some of the dash, so watch out.. if you have never installed a deck before, it might be alright this one time to let someone else handle it, someone who will pay for the damages they cause. ( i got this unfun chore in with out costing more than the install kit, but i seen it go bad before)

 

[Frraksurred 10+ year member]

You can certainly build a glass enclosure if you want, there are some interesting examples on SoundDomain.com. However, you could just as easily sound deaden the door, mount a 6.5" component set to a piece of wood (make sure to test fit for window clearance, it may look like you could fit an 8" in there but after you roll the window up and down a couple times you might see otherwise), and it will rock just as hard. Not to mention saving you a lot of time and maybe even a little money (eDead v.1 is pretty cheap).

If you want some fiberglass tips check out here and here. Both links have some good glass articles. I couldn't find the one I saw on SoundDomain.com. That one was all MDF covered in Vinyl anyway (8" woofers in ported enclosure in the doors of an F150).

Hope that helps, take care and God bless you.