Here’s a pic of a I3 outter door skin removed so you can work on the inner parts of the door,,,,yes almost all the outter skin panels on the I3 can be popped off and replaced very easily,,,,this one needed the outter door handle replaced and mechanical parts of the door handle latch.
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bmwtechnician 
Could you discuss how you removed the outer skin panels from the i3? I have a scratch on mine and was hoping I could take it off to have it repainted. Thanks for your help.
Regards,
David
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You need some special tools to remove the panel,,,,but check with the dealer about buying a new panel,,,,the plastic panel already come painted,,,,,and they told us at school the panels are cheap to buy,,,,that’s why they made it that way,,,,hope this helps
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Is this tool something a regular consumer can purchase or can the panels be removed without this tool? To remove, do you pry from the bottom corner and work your way around or are there bolts that need to be removed first?
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I believe the regular person can by this tool,,,,each panel pops off differently,,,,,there is a certain procedure to remove each panel.
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Could you elaborate on how the door skin is removed? Do I need to remove the interior panel first? I have a scratch on my door panel and was hoping I could remove it and have it repainted.
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You need special tools to pop off the outter door panel,,,,,and no you don’t have to take off the inner door panel,,,,,check with the dealer before you get it painted,,,,the door panel are cheap and come already painted,,,,so just order the panel and have the dealer put the panel on,,,,,then it will look like factory and nobody will know.,,,,good luck
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do you know how to remove the whole side view mirror?
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No I has removed the side mirror yet
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How to remove the handle and remove the panel? can you make a youtube video on this?
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The reason is because a bus skimmed the edge of my door as I opened it… long story but the plastic panel was slightly raised and the handle doesn’t work from the outside… everything else is fine. I wanted to do the repair myself given how “lego” like the car is, and start by popping off the panel and realigning it (it got pushed maybe 2-3 mm towards the front). The dealer wants 2k for this and I imagine it would be an order of magnitude cheaper to do it myself and enjoy the learning.
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I would love to,,,,but I haven’t removed one of those panels in well over 6 months,,,,I don’t know when the next time I will have a job like that,,,,it might be a long time before I can video on how to remove the panel.,,,,I just can’t go up to someone car and remove the panel for no reason.
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I’m sorry it’s just not that easy,,,,I will when the job comes up to remove a panel,,,,I just haven’t had to in 2 years now
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hi, thanks for your reply (in the other post thread), those i3 modifications I mentioned are admittedly not going to be easy, but I’ve done a lot of things with cars and bikes that people told me would be impossible.
Regarding the Comfort Access retrofit, the information I’m looking for is partly shown in your photo of the door skin replacement.
I can see two block-connectors hanging out of the hole where the lock barrel should be. How did you remove the silver, cast lock cylinder? Were those five wires threaded past the lock cylinder?
I’m trying to find out if the extra three wires that go to the 3-pin connector are part of a universal door-loom (and the wires are cut/terminated on the non C-A trim). There’s no information on whether the C-A loom is a different part number.
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It’s hard to describe how to remove cylinder without a showing a diagram.,,,I don’t know if the 3 extra wire are part of the universal door loom without looking at a wiring diagram.
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Hello, someone broke my driver side door handle, left hanging on red and green wire. how can I fix it? Any videos?
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Sorry no videos,,,,the drivers door panel will have to come out also the door glass,,,this is not a easy job for the first time.
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Thanks.
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What does the special tool do?
Can you give us a step by step of how you removed the door skin? I need to replace the rear door glass and it should be similar process as the front door.
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I’m sorry I don’t have a step by step repairs for the door skin,,,I haven’t removed one in over 2 yr now.
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