Tools:
Tresalto Auto Trim Removal Tool Kit
amzn.to/2Lfqaxf
ARES 70227
amzn.to/33NBrvi
Related tools mentioned:
Noico 80 mil 36 sqft car sound deadening mat
amzn.to/2LgCoWq
Transcript:
Hey, I’m Donald Bell for Cool Tools and in this video I’m going to show you the weird hidden world behind your car door panel and some inexpensive tools to help you peek inside.
Poking around in your car can potentially compromise your safety. So, let me state up front that opening up your vehicle is a project you undertake at your own risk. There’s a chance you could disturb an airbag or short out an electrical connection.
That said, fixing or upgrading your car yourself is great and rewarding feeling, and if you have a popular car model there’s a good chance you can find reliable DIY content online for your specific vehicle.
In my case, I’ve been chipping away at little projects with my van -- upgrading the speakers, adding insulation, and putting in sound dampening mats for a quieter ride.
As someone who’s relatively new to car projects like this, one of the biggest surprises to me is the complex hidden system of plastic fasteners that are used to attach interior panels to the metal frame.
The exact type of fastener can change depending on the manufacturer, but the process is often the same. Each panel is like a puzzle that seems impossible to open at first. But by carefully prying at a corner you can reveal the next step, or uncover elements with concealed screws or retaining clips that you have to take out in order to make progress.
Fortunately, enough people have done this over the years that there’s a pretty standard set of tools for the job. Some are better than others, and there’s a lot of inexpensive kits on Amazon that have great ratings but terrible scores on Fakespot.com.
The one kit that stands out as universally recommended is this one from Tresalto. You get four panel removal tools made from a sturdy ABS plastic, and you get this long-reach metal tool for removing the plastic rivets that most cars use to hold the panel to the metal frame. This one is a lifesaver, and I’ll show you why in a minute.
First, let’s look at the panel poppers. I’m sure a professional could tell you the best use case for each of these, but don’t let that be a hang-up. Like I said, every car and every panel is like solving a new puzzle and you just need to feel out which one of these is going to work best for the task at hand. Some will give you the leverage to yank on a stubborn panel, and some will give you a small, slim point that you can wedge into tight spot.
Once you get some visibility inside your panel, you’ll spot the plastic rivets that are holding it in place. You can usually yank these out with enough force, but you risk damaging your car and the rivets.
If you can, use the metal rivet remover to pop these out. Something about the mouth of this tool pinches the rivet in just the right way to make taking it out much easier. As you can imagine, I have a lot of tools to throw at this. Most of them resulted in broken rivets. This thing just eases them right out.
It’s also handy after you’ve already removed the panel and there are a few rivets left hanging in the frame. You can use this tool to take them out and place them back on the panel when you’re ready to re-mount it.
Now, I thought this rivet removal tool was so cool, that I went to see if there’s an even better one out there. I found this $9 one made by Ares. The grip is a little nicer, which could be great if you’re spending your whole day removing these rivets as part of your job, but it’s essentially the same thing.
Considering that the Tresalto kit is just a $1 more and gives you all the panel popper tools too, I’d just go with the kit.
Now if you’ve made it this far in the video and you’re curious about this silver stuff I’m adding inside my panels, it’s called butyl mat. I’ll leave an Amazon link for it in the description. It’s an adhesive rubber mat that absorbs the vibrations from your car panels.
A big steel container like this creates a lot of ambient rumble when it moves around. Adding a little of this to each panel helps to turn that noise down.
So there you go, those are some tools for opening up your car panels and maybe optimizing it for a quieter ride. You can find Amazon links to everything mentioned here down in the description and you can find thousands of reader recommended tools like these at Cool-Tools.org
-----
You can find thousands of reader recommended tools like these at cool-tools.org
Special thanks to Monkaboo, Brian Panther Kurtz, Michael Rodriguez, Benjamin Bean, Bill Schuller, Matthew Humphrey, Gareth Branwyn, Ray Perkins, Martin, and Saud.