62 Mercury Comet
 

We have a stuck window, and cannot figure out how to get the door panel off. Any Ideas? Thanks!

panel removal
 

some ford products used a stick on decal over the window crank , and door handles you have to peel it off to get the screw out. then un screw the arm rests. A stiff putty knife or carpenters flat wonder bar nail puller to pry the panel away from the metal door. try to pry near the snap in clips so yopu don't break the hard board backing. I don't think ford used the GM style u clips in those years. IF you push the upholstery panel in, some handles have a u chaped wire clip. HF sells a tool kit. I always used a very small shank screwdriver that the end had been heated and bent into an L shape to pull the GM style clips out.

I'm pretty sure Ford stopped using pins to hold on door and window handles in the 50's. They should have the GM style horseshoe clips. Check out this thread: http://www.hotrodders.com/forum/loos...le-173771.html

I'm pretty sure you have the u-clip retainers. They had them on the 64 Merc for sure.

https://partimages.genpt.com/partimages/303612.jpg
NAPA (Canada) UltraPro #60371
Handle Removal Tool, Removes Spring Clips

If you have trouble finding this style of tool, you could do what we did 35 years ago ... improvise! (We were living in the middle of nowhere!)

I used a hacksaw blade, ground all the teeth off of it so that it slid through without marking the panel. I used tin snips to cut a "v" notch in the side of the blade to the mounting hole, and then bent the resulting hook slightly sideways. I then slid it in from the head end of the clip, hooked it, and pulled it off.
http://www.hotrodders.com/gallery/da.../Clip_Tool.jpg

dan's right
 

As always Dan's right , the screw on handlels were a few years later, I don't think I ever took the handles off on my 63 sprint.

I'm sure that your home made tool works far better than the NAPA tool you show in your post. I never could get one of those tools to work consistently. I have tried them all, and the only one that works easily and consistently for me is the one on the right made by Lisle. Unlike the others, it is obvious when you have the tool positioned correctly, and it works from the rear of the handle, not by going under the handle from the open end.

Hey Dan,
Thanks for the insight.
God knows that you have the experience to know what does and does not work. Those pliers appear to grip the clip from the side?

Anyway ...
I went to Lisle's website, and it looks like the part # is 35200 ... correct?
That is the one I will recommend from now on.
Thanks!

BTW...
NAPA sells those clips in a "lifetime supply" qty of 75. :rolleyes:
https://partimages.genpt.com/partimages/225822.jpg
BKP 665-3319

Yes, 35200 is the new part number, I didn't know they changed it. The tool slips into the groove in the handle in front of the clip, then you close the pliers and pull the clip out the back of the handle's groove. Thanks for the info on the clips being available from NAPA. I'm going past there today and I'll get some more. My buddy, who was a GM mechanic for years, calls them Jesus clips.....every time you drop one on the floor you say "Oh, Jesus!"