Door Lift Off
We can remove the door very shortly. The door just lifts off as soon you undo a few things. This page also shows why I had to swap out the door latches and a few other things from the old door.
Look No Door!
The door is off! Note the Boxster is also good as a tool cart.
Trouble Ahead
This is the NEW Door's latch cable. It looks a bit different that what I have. This is a problem as the door panel that came off the car will not work with the NEW style cable. Two things are different, one is the way it's held into the door panel. The old one snapped in and was secured with a Ty-wrap, the new one just snaps right in. Also the hook end is different and this will not work with the door handle that is in the existing door panel.
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Remove the Hinge Bolts
On the bottom of both hinges are a small 8mm bolt. You need to remove these with an open end wrench. You can get to one with a socket but not the other. Once you have removed these bolts you can simply lift the door off the hinges. This is most satisfying! Initially I though I would have to remove the door hinge brackets off the door but after looking around the exploded parts list online I saw bolts on the bottom and figured this is a better way to go since my door is the same color. So just lift up and off!
Remove the Hinge Bolts
A bit pulled back shot of the work. I had a nice long Craftsman box end wrench that worked out well for this job.
Old Door Latch Cable
This is the old existing cable. Note the simple 'L' end on the cable and just a crimped and to snap into the door panel. At this point it's a cable swap. My hope at that time was that the latch was the same and the cables could be swapped out.
Removing the Door Latch
This is a shot of INSIDE the door. To orient the picture, the outside of the door is on the bottom with the door latch assembly up at the top of the picture. To remove the door latch you need to disconnect the door handle from it. In looking at how to do that I scratched my head for a moment then figured that this must be some sort of fancy precision German engineering going on so the couple between the two must be easily removed. I was right (again)! The black plastic part that you see connecting the door handle (bottom) to the latch (top) is a threaded connector BUT you can slide half of it UP and then it allows you to swing out the threaded shaft. The top hat part is the keeper which slide down to lock, up to release. The next picture is a better shot..
Underside of the Hinge
Surprise, these are not locked in! You have 2 small bolts to remove and you can seperate the door from the car.
