I went to remove the door panels today. Never, ever, ever buy a car from an old man who talks about Miatas being super fast and tries to fix things himself. The previous owner is such a hack! I remove the 4 screws from the door panels and undo all the clips, go to pull the door panel up and off only to find out it's still stuck. The hack of the previous owner decided to duct tape the door panels on despite the pop rivets still working. Not just a little duct tape either, a lot! This picture only shows a small portion of what there really was. The speaker covers were duct taped on as well and ALL 4 POP RIVETS WERE STILL THERE!
Hack Fix by Austin Rajki, on Flickr
Hack Fix by Austin Rajki, on Flickr
I took the door panels off to make new ones, and reuse the uppers. Literally half of the mounting tabs on the uppers are broken. I looked into buying new ones, but these things are expensive. I'm just going to figure out a way to repair the mounting tabs.
I'm ranting a little bit right here, I'll just take my time and fix his mistakes one at a time...
Door Panels Removed by Austin Rajki, on Flickr