SAAB 9000: Guide to fitting walnut door cappings
Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2009 6:22 pm
Alright, so finally got myself a nice set of walnut door cappings and proceeded to fit them today. Took pictures along the way and as I haven't seen any guide to this anywhere I figured I'd write it up for ya. This took me roughly 20-30 mintues per door working at a steady but comfortable pace. 
First up, tools:
You don't need much. WD40/3-in-1 for cleaning and greasing up every moving part in sight once you get the door cards off. A few torx drivers (I used the ones in Saab toolkit). Small screwdriver for prying off window switches and such. Pen for marking where to drill. Drill for drilling. Socket for bolting the capping on. Big ol' screwdriver and hammer for wedging up behind the door cappings and tapping to loosen the window seal. And that's it! Easy.
I started on the rear doors which are much more of a pain to deal with than the fronts.
Here are the various screws you need to undo to free the door card. Getting at them is easy and is just a matter of prying off some covers and removing the puddle light, etc. Self-explanatory. Don't be tempted to try and prise off the vent just above the door pocket...it will break and it doesn't need to be removed. The blower motor is attached to the card, not the door itself:
To get the card off (once you've undone everything) it's easiest to have the window all the way down. Then you pull the bottom of the card away from the door. At this point you can try and just lever/lift it up but I found that it wouldn't let go at the top. This is when I pulled the card away at the bottom, shoved that big screwdriver up behind the door card at the back, set the tip against the top of the card and gave it a wack. Once one end is a little loose the rest will come off fairly easily.
Bit hard to see but this pic is the top of the card where it slips into the window channel. The arrow is pointing at one of a bunch of annoying little clips that like to fall off and disappear. Keep your eyes open.
I then covered everything in WD40 and 3-in-1 oil. Mainly these bits:
Make a note of how the lock is sitting because it's just held in by a little plastic clip and WILL fall off when you're refitting the door card. It can easily be fitted the wrong way around (and still LOOK fine). I've been having problems with my central locking where it'll sometimes take 10 tries to work, and the OS rear door would never lock or unlock. Once I took it all apart it was obvious that somebody had fitted it the wrong way round so it couldn't move. I was expecting central locking controller problems (as is usually the case) but after refitting the lock the right way my locking works PERFECT. First time, every time!
Here it is drilled. To find out where to drill I just laid the capping on top kind of approximately where it ought to be and pushed down hard enough to make a little indent in the top of the door card, which I then marked with a pen. Drilled out easy peasy just watch out for the insulation as I wasn't paying attention and it got all wrapped around and tangled in the drill bit one time.
The capping now bolted to the door card. I used some thread lock on all of these as I'm not keen on them working their way loose over time. I wouldn't tighten these TOO Much as you don't want to put loads of pressure on the wood. Just enough so it sits nice and as flush as possible.
This is looking at the underside of the top front of the rear card where the ACC vent is. There's just one screw that holds the vent cover in place. Because there's now a capping inbetween, the screw that originally held the vent cover to the blower isn't long enough. Find a suitable replacement.
The hardest part, and the part which I couldn't really take a picture of, is getting the thing back on the door. You have to sort of lever it in top first, making sure the lock knob thingy slips into the slot where it fits and push real hard to get the window seal/trim side of it far enough in (the rears are extra fiddly due to the rear quarter window). Keep trying, you'll get it. It was annoying though...especially as the lock knob thingy tends to pop out of the door and fall down. Make sure you've connected the wire to the blower motor up, and you've fed the wires for the puddle light and window switch through the appropriate holes.
And here it is finished!
Now for the fronts, which are much easier.
Fixing points are pretty much the same:
The only real hitch on the front doors is the drivers door where the side mirror adjustment switches are. This doesn't just pop off like the others. You need to pop off the two knobs, then remove the little foam piece behind the left/right switch and behind there is a little plastic tab that releases the switch cover and gives access to the screw holding the door card in place.
Removing the front cards is the same as the back, but a bit easier as the whole window goes down (ie, they don't have the fixed quarter window). Here are lube points again. Main difference is on the fronts there's an access hole that gets you into the back side of the door hinge (mine were squeeky!):
Then same as rears, use the capping to find your drill points, drill and bolt up. Due to the capping being in place, the plastic trim around the lock knob isn't long enough to properly clip in. I just gouged out a bit of the card and prised open the clip arms which worked fine:
Refitting is the same as the rears just quite a bit easier. And here it is finished:
And now just gratuitous shots of my new woody interior.
I'm VERY pleased with it!
...now I'm just missing a walnut centre console lid and rear ashtray.
And hopefully this guide will be helpful to somebody.
First up, tools:
You don't need much. WD40/3-in-1 for cleaning and greasing up every moving part in sight once you get the door cards off. A few torx drivers (I used the ones in Saab toolkit). Small screwdriver for prying off window switches and such. Pen for marking where to drill. Drill for drilling. Socket for bolting the capping on. Big ol' screwdriver and hammer for wedging up behind the door cappings and tapping to loosen the window seal. And that's it! Easy.
I started on the rear doors which are much more of a pain to deal with than the fronts.
Here are the various screws you need to undo to free the door card. Getting at them is easy and is just a matter of prying off some covers and removing the puddle light, etc. Self-explanatory. Don't be tempted to try and prise off the vent just above the door pocket...it will break and it doesn't need to be removed. The blower motor is attached to the card, not the door itself:
To get the card off (once you've undone everything) it's easiest to have the window all the way down. Then you pull the bottom of the card away from the door. At this point you can try and just lever/lift it up but I found that it wouldn't let go at the top. This is when I pulled the card away at the bottom, shoved that big screwdriver up behind the door card at the back, set the tip against the top of the card and gave it a wack. Once one end is a little loose the rest will come off fairly easily.
Bit hard to see but this pic is the top of the card where it slips into the window channel. The arrow is pointing at one of a bunch of annoying little clips that like to fall off and disappear. Keep your eyes open.
I then covered everything in WD40 and 3-in-1 oil. Mainly these bits:
Make a note of how the lock is sitting because it's just held in by a little plastic clip and WILL fall off when you're refitting the door card. It can easily be fitted the wrong way around (and still LOOK fine). I've been having problems with my central locking where it'll sometimes take 10 tries to work, and the OS rear door would never lock or unlock. Once I took it all apart it was obvious that somebody had fitted it the wrong way round so it couldn't move. I was expecting central locking controller problems (as is usually the case) but after refitting the lock the right way my locking works PERFECT. First time, every time!
Here it is drilled. To find out where to drill I just laid the capping on top kind of approximately where it ought to be and pushed down hard enough to make a little indent in the top of the door card, which I then marked with a pen. Drilled out easy peasy just watch out for the insulation as I wasn't paying attention and it got all wrapped around and tangled in the drill bit one time.
The capping now bolted to the door card. I used some thread lock on all of these as I'm not keen on them working their way loose over time. I wouldn't tighten these TOO Much as you don't want to put loads of pressure on the wood. Just enough so it sits nice and as flush as possible.
This is looking at the underside of the top front of the rear card where the ACC vent is. There's just one screw that holds the vent cover in place. Because there's now a capping inbetween, the screw that originally held the vent cover to the blower isn't long enough. Find a suitable replacement.
The hardest part, and the part which I couldn't really take a picture of, is getting the thing back on the door. You have to sort of lever it in top first, making sure the lock knob thingy slips into the slot where it fits and push real hard to get the window seal/trim side of it far enough in (the rears are extra fiddly due to the rear quarter window). Keep trying, you'll get it. It was annoying though...especially as the lock knob thingy tends to pop out of the door and fall down. Make sure you've connected the wire to the blower motor up, and you've fed the wires for the puddle light and window switch through the appropriate holes.
And here it is finished!
Now for the fronts, which are much easier.
Fixing points are pretty much the same:
The only real hitch on the front doors is the drivers door where the side mirror adjustment switches are. This doesn't just pop off like the others. You need to pop off the two knobs, then remove the little foam piece behind the left/right switch and behind there is a little plastic tab that releases the switch cover and gives access to the screw holding the door card in place.
Removing the front cards is the same as the back, but a bit easier as the whole window goes down (ie, they don't have the fixed quarter window). Here are lube points again. Main difference is on the fronts there's an access hole that gets you into the back side of the door hinge (mine were squeeky!):
Then same as rears, use the capping to find your drill points, drill and bolt up. Due to the capping being in place, the plastic trim around the lock knob isn't long enough to properly clip in. I just gouged out a bit of the card and prised open the clip arms which worked fine:
Refitting is the same as the rears just quite a bit easier. And here it is finished:
And now just gratuitous shots of my new woody interior.
I'm VERY pleased with it!
...now I'm just missing a walnut centre console lid and rear ashtray.
And hopefully this guide will be helpful to somebody.
