Hope this will help someone else who feels intimidated by just text. I found some good write ups on how to do this but none for my vehicle, plus I need pictures! My car had the vinyl coming loose on both the driver and passenger doors. So I decided to remove the door panels to fix them.

• First remove the triangular trim piece by the side mirrors. Both of mine were already loose and just kind of hanging there. The handle will need to be removed on the drivers side. There is a key at the back of the handle that I removed by pressing in and down on the key teeth with a small screwdriver. I don't know if this is the recommened way, but it worked.

• Unscrew the door lock knob at the top of the panel.

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__________________
97 E300D 103,000 mi - Mobil 1 Delvac 5W40
87 E300D 145000 mi - Rotella 15W40
05 2500 Duramax 27,000 mi - Rotella 15W40
“You’ve got the using kind of religion, not the meeting house kind” - Rev. Pile

• Pull from the top of the triangle down. There should be a clip at the top that could break if your not gentle. Mine was already broken off. Pull back and up and it will come right off.

• Next go ahead and unplug the courtesy lamp in the bottom of the panel so you don't forget about it when pulling the panel off. Take a flat head screwdriver and wedge it in between the panel and the light on the end towards the back of the door. Pull down and the light will pop out. Undo the wires, taking care to keep the wires separated so you don't blow a fuse if they accidently touch each other after being removed from the light.

• Remove the U shaped bracket around the door latch. Remove the one screw and pull out from and bottom and then down

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__________________
97 E300D 103,000 mi - Mobil 1 Delvac 5W40
87 E300D 145000 mi - Rotella 15W40
05 2500 Duramax 27,000 mi - Rotella 15W40
“You’ve got the using kind of religion, not the meeting house kind” - Rev. Pile

• Next pull off the seat adjustment buttons. They pull straight off. There is a plastic retainer ring that is easy to miss. It must be removed also (see arrow).

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__________________
97 E300D 103,000 mi - Mobil 1 Delvac 5W40
87 E300D 145000 mi - Rotella 15W40
05 2500 Duramax 27,000 mi - Rotella 15W40
“You’ve got the using kind of religion, not the meeting house kind” - Rev. Pile

• Pry off the seat switches cover.

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________
97 E300D 103,000 mi - Mobil 1 Delvac 5W40
87 E300D 145000 mi - Rotella 15W40
05 2500 Duramax 27,000 mi - Rotella 15W40
“You’ve got the using kind of religion, not the meeting house kind” - Rev. Pile

• Pry off the door handle cover and remove the 10mm bolt (arrow points to bolt location) holding the door pull to the door

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________
97 E300D 103,000 mi - Mobil 1 Delvac 5W40
87 E300D 145000 mi - Rotella 15W40
05 2500 Duramax 27,000 mi - Rotella 15W40
“You’ve got the using kind of religion, not the meeting house kind” - Rev. Pile

• Take out seat adjustment box by removing two screws and unlatch from the door handle box.

• Lift the rod out of the door latch handle with your screwdriver. Note that needle nose pliers come in very handy when putting the rod back into the handle.

• Push the door handle box forward (to your right) and then pull out. It will slide about a 1/4" to undo the clips in the back before pulling out.

• Your now ready to pull off the panel. There are several clips on the back that will break if you try to pry the panel off. It has to come straight up. I started working the panel up with my hands at the bottom of the panel. Keep applying upwards pressure around the bottom of the door and it will finally come loose

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________
97 E300D 103,000 mi - Mobil 1 Delvac 5W40
87 E300D 145000 mi - Rotella 15W40
05 2500 Duramax 27,000 mi - Rotella 15W40
“You’ve got the using kind of religion, not the meeting house kind” - Rev. Pile

• I was now ready to do the vinyl repairs. These pictures show how the vinyl had come loose and looked pretty bad

Attached Thumbnails

     

__________________
97 E300D 103,000 mi - Mobil 1 Delvac 5W40
87 E300D 145000 mi - Rotella 15W40
05 2500 Duramax 27,000 mi - Rotella 15W40
“You’ve got the using kind of religion, not the meeting house kind” - Rev. Pile

• I used contact cement to do the repairs. I don't know if that is the correct product to use or not, but so far it seems to be holding well. I just covered both surfaces with the cement and let it dry. Then worked the vinyl down around all the edges.

• Repaired pictures.

Attached Thumbnails

     

__________________
97 E300D 103,000 mi - Mobil 1 Delvac 5W40
87 E300D 145000 mi - Rotella 15W40
05 2500 Duramax 27,000 mi - Rotella 15W40
“You’ve got the using kind of religion, not the meeting house kind” - Rev. Pile

• Since the top clips on the triangular trim piece was broken, I added a strip of double stick tape to the back of the piece to hold the top in place

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________
97 E300D 103,000 mi - Mobil 1 Delvac 5W40
87 E300D 145000 mi - Rotella 15W40
05 2500 Duramax 27,000 mi - Rotella 15W40
“You’ve got the using kind of religion, not the meeting house kind” - Rev. Pile

• Putting the panel back on is just the opposite of taking it off (I guess that's obvious). I had expected a struggle getting the clips back into place, but it went on first try. The passenger side however took three attempts. The third time was because I forgot to fish the courtesy lamp wires through the lamp hole before installing the panel and ended up binding them between the panel and the door. I didn't discover that until I had nearly everything back together. Let that be a lesson to you.

• Door panel and trim piece back together and looking good as new.

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________
97 E300D 103,000 mi - Mobil 1 Delvac 5W40
87 E300D 145000 mi - Rotella 15W40
05 2500 Duramax 27,000 mi - Rotella 15W40
“You’ve got the using kind of religion, not the meeting house kind” - Rev. Pile