In preparation for PDR later this week (trail damage lol) I took my right front passenger door apart.

Very cool design of the interior door panels. There's an inner panel, then the base it mounts on (with the bolts all around it).

My random observations:

-- There's a door ECU on the inner panel. When you unplug it (4 plugs), be aware that window & door lock on that door will no longer work (to be expected) but I did not expect that *all* the other door locks, the alarm, & keyless entry will no longer function.

-- There is a neat looking foam insulation around the wiring harnesses in the doors. However it's not holding up well. Mine has build date 10/2020, and hit the street 1/2021 -- the foam is deteriorated. And further turns to dust when you touch it. Car's less than 4 years old. Ugh. The reason I think this is of interest, there are drain holes on the bottom of the door. The rearward drain hole was clogged and not draining from... you guessed it... pieces of foam combined with a good bit of sand from my sand dunes adventures. Moral of the story = check your drain holes. I'm in Oregon so not necessarily a very hot environment where I'd expect this rapid deterioration. Let's hope they didn't use this foam in the ventilation ducts...





-- It is possible to dismantle the entire door panel without breaking any clips, as I'd read was "going to happen" on this forum. I only broke one wiring retainer clip and that's because I pushed it in the wrong direction.

-- The outer door shells are most definitely steel, not aluminum.

Re: PDR -- the dent is right behind that support in the middle of the door so it's going to be more interesting than I thought originally with PDR. May not be possible unless he un-adhesives that little diagonal support from the door sheet metal. (which I've watched them do on another car on the roof to fix a dent).

 

I had a similar situation on my old P63. Dent right behind a reinforceing brace. I left the dent, made it look "seasoned" Literally got speared by a branch on a trail. That car was being replaced and ended up as the crew car at the FBO I had. Amazingly lasted 4 years in that role.

My wife's Evoque had an irritatingly visible dent right next to the door handle. An OCD person simply cannot un-see it. It was also not accessible from the backside. The PDR guy used the hot glue thing and pulled it out. tapped it back, pulled it out, tapped it back about 15 times. Can't see it and her car is that Carpathian, let's just call it black. I was amazed.

 

Bad news about that foam insulation disintegration after only four years. l hope it's not extensively used around the vehicle.

 

I had one on my LH front door in that general area and they used glue. I was worried the door would have to come apart but they made quick work of it with the glue. Did you ask your PDR guy if that was an option?

On another note, I might be the only nut that notices things like this, but my RH front window doesn't roll down flush with the top of the felt glass sweep like the LH side does. Instead, it sticks up a tiny bit above the felt weatherstrip at the rear part of the glass. I am curious if there is anything you can see in the window track that might cause this.

 

A friend of mine once told me: You only care about the car until its first dent. After that, you're no longer worried about anything happening to it.

Just get that first ding over with! Mine occurred in a spectacularly stupid fashion. I left the dings to remind myself that I'm not as smart as I imagine myself! I drove into a covered parking space with my MaxTraxx brackets on without lowering the Defender. Ripped them RIGHT off in a loud surprising second. The damage to the roof rack was easily "adjusted" since I don't have to look at it. When the bracket hit the rear quarter panel, I now have two small creases to reinforce - something may be up there...

 

Oh haha this is far from my first dent... I have a regular recurring series of appointments with my PDR guy for the fleet...

 

I rolled the window up and down a few times looking at it. It doesn't seem like there's any adjustment really for height or for the glass in general. The only thing I think *may* be possible is there are 4 silver screws in the photo that are where the window regulator mounts to the door frame (look at my pic, there's one at the top and bottom on left and right side of the regulator tracks).. maybe those have some adjustment up and down. ?