Door Panel Popper - Any Suggestions?

[DonDubber]

Hi Deep Blue,

Ah the delights of VW door card removal I've enjoyed removing door cards/clips occasionally from Golf 6, Golf 7 & Tiguan mk1, and still have some mainly minor physical & mental scars from early encounters.

I guess your CC will have similar plastic clips to these VW models, which are in effect a type of push lock rivet. They have an inner push in/pull out mushroom shaped stem which clips into the door card, and an outer mushroom shaped spreader rivet type design which locks into the hole in the metal frame of the door panel when the inner stem is pushed in by pressing in on the door card on assembly.

I've found the trick to removing these clips without breaking/deforming the door card is to use a two pronged fork wedge shaped plastic trim removal tool to slide between the door card and the metal door panel and then directly onto the middle section of the plastic clip to push/pry the inner part of the clip up/out about 5mm from its locking position in the outer part. When this is done, the whole two part clip still attached to the door card should lift out from the hole in the metal door panel fairly easily without too much extra force needed.

Attached photos show the rivet type clip both closed in the locking position, and open/extended in the removal/reassembly position. The type of removal tool which I've used successfully is also shown. There is a VW special tool set (of course) which is the black one pictured - this one is a Chinese version (of course) which I got from eBay for about $20 for three different wedge/fork types.

There are also a couple of good YouTube short videos on Golf mk5 door card removal (Google) which show the two part clips and how to pull these out, some techniques are a bit rough but seem to work without damaging anything.

Regards, DonDubber

[Deep Blue]

That's fantastic DonDubber!!! Really appreciate such a detailed post! It's clear so many modern cars are built to deter the DIYer and force people to go to the stealership! I just plug away and eventually get there with help from forums. Want to change the door lock actuator (I have one from the wreckers) - wife said to me, "You should be able to fix it in 15 - 20 minutes?"

[Deep Blue]

Okay, picked-up the trim remover (panel popper) yesterday - it looks good - strong with a nice handle.

Anyway, here's the bad news:

My son went and accidentally locked the car!!!

This time around I just can't seem to open the driver's door from the inside or outside (all other doors fine). Any ideas/tricks?

(Need to open the door in order to change over the actuator)

[JustCruisn]

Use the physical key to unlock, you may need to remove a small trim piece first to expose the lock depending on your model.
Turn it a lot further than your probably expect, it should unlock.

[Hillbilly]

What have you disconnected in the door. If possible hook it back up. If you havent got the card off it should still open with the inner handle

[Deep Blue]

I took the 2 x T20 and 2 x T30 screws out, but couldn't (without risk of damage) pop the six clips. So, I put it all back together as it was and got a decent panel popper from an auto store. Before I went out to tackle the driver's door for the second time, my son had closed/locked the car with the key fob! I opened the car with the key fob, but the driver's door won't open; tried opening from outside and inside manually - no luck with the driver's door.