Hello, sorry for yet another thread asking for help (am i getting annoying by now? hehe)

Anyway, i am in the process of fitting central locking (With recovering from a broken back, its difficult to reach over to unlock the doors, and twist around to unlock the rear doors).

Anyway, i have fitted the actuators to the rear doors, getting round to the front ones i discovered that i will have to remove the metal door panel in order to fit them.

Obviously i have got the inner trims off (i wouldn't say without any problems, they are awkward to get off!). Well the haynes manual says that upto 2003, the door panels are held on by bolts rather than rivets. This is true but there seems to be 3 or 4 black 'bolts' stopping the door panel from coming off. Now you could say just unscrew them and it will come off, but they don't seem to have any way of undoing them. They have a hole in the top like any other screw, but the hole is just round so obviously i can't unscrew them. I am wondering if i will have to drill them out in order to get the panel off. If so, does anyone know what i will need to replace them with?

Or maybe they aren't doing anything at all and i am being a total numpty. I didn't get any pictures as it was cold outside and wanted to get the door back together.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Matt:)

are you sure they are not rivets?. My 2000 year car has 10mm (head size across the flats) bolts which a normal spanner will undo. The 'pop' rivets I have seen on the forum look about 10mm diameter,perfectly round,with a pip in the middle which ,is the end of the broken off nail when the rivet was fitted.

Methinks hose round ones will be the ones holding the window carrier to the inner door skin!

the black bolts you're talking of sound like the rivets that hold the window mechanism to the door card.

think you'd be best removing the glass and carefully taking out the mechanism still attached to the carrier.

to remove the glass wind the window down about 3 inches and remove the 2 rubber grommets on the door card, you should see bolts and the edge of the glass behind them, slacken the bolts only a couple of turns and the glass will lift up and twist out of the door.

I had an incling it would be something to do with the window mechanism (bloody DIY windows!).

Thanks guys, will give your posts 'thanks' . Will proceed with fitting the 2 front actuators tomorrow and then i can wire up the central locking at the weekend.

Thanks again

Matt