GMC Sierra Door Panel Removal

Below shows how my 1999 GMC Sierra 1500 SLT pickup door panels come apart.
I had searched the net looking for any diagrams showing how the panels attached to the door. Some said they were held on with the little plastic Christmas tree looking pins. Some said one screw while others said two. Not finding anything definite, I decided to just jump in and see what I could find. Hopefully I can help someone else who's wondering how they come off.

The panels had to come off in order to change out the door speakers. I had researched replacements and knew that there was some kind of plastic clip that attached them to the door. I understood the factory mount was glued to the speaker and was not reuseable. Not true as I found out later.  Most people bought from Crutchfield and got a new mount with the speaker.

1    Remove the plastic triangle piece above the panel where the vent window normally is. There are two tabs that push into some slots along the top edge.  I used a small screwdriver to pry the panel up enough to grab and pull.

2   Remove the control panel in front of the arm rest. If you look along the bottom edge you will see two small holes. That's where the two metal clips are that hold it down. Again a small screwdriver was used to press in the clips and pry up with.

3    The door lock slide lever just pops straight out of the hole. Doesn't take much to get it out.  Carefull you don't bend the metal locking rod behind it.

4    The plastic trim around the door handle snaps in also.  Pull it out from the bottom as the top portion has a little plastic piece that slips under the panel. If you try and pull from the top you could break off that little tab.

5    There are two long screws that have to come out. One is under the arm rest and can be seen without removing anything.  The other can be seen when you took off the control panel.

6    The panel should lift straight up about an inch or so and come right off.  Make sure to unplug any electrical connectors.

Speaker replacement

The factory speaker is held in place by plastic piece that slips into a couple of slots below and a spring style press in tab on top. It's glued to the speaker but not very well. I easily pried it off with no problem.  I decided to buy some cheap speakers to experiment with. If it didn't work out reusing the plastic mount then I wouldn't be out a lot of money. I found some 6.5" speaker at Walmart for $20.  The mount has four places on it that stick out that had to be ground down to fit inside the new speaker frame. The new speakers had a dust seal/gasket glued to the inside of the outer rim.  It was similar to that sticky sided foam rubber seals used around doors.  I had to remove them in order for the plastic mount to set down inside the speakers metal rim. It wasn't a perfect fit but it did work. It was a little tight getting the top of the mount to lock into the door. A little bump with the palms of my hand and it went in and locked.

Triangle piece above panel.	Control panel has two slots under it where metal clips are located. The sliding door lock goes in the hole above. That's the rod you don't want to bend showing in the hole.	One screw under arm rest.	Second screw under control panel	Back side of panel shows the plastic pieces that hold it to the door.
Factory speaker with mount attached.	The mount after removing from speaker. If you notice the four places where it looks like a screw would go through, that's the parts that had to be ground down.	Just showing how the speaker mount fits in the door.	Finished product. May not be pretty but it works.

 

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