w00t! JDM Door Panel In! (And A Question for the RHD'ers)

Nd4SpdSe · Post by **Nd4SpdSe** » February 14th, 2006, 12:53 pm

Well, after almost 3 years of searching and looking for one for a decent price, I finally got on in! In large, I must thank Taras for the help. It may have taken longer than expected, but there was no rush for it and I own him many thanks for his help.

We'll here she in all it's JDM glory

Thank you so much for keeping the wiring AND ESPECIALLY the connectors.

At first, your probably wondering one of two things. First, your may not notice a difference, but there is!

This door panel is actally the panel from a passenger side right-hand drive Mx-3, so this panel will be going on my drivers side, essentially making my driver side exactly the same as the passenger side.

Secondly, you're probably saying "Wow, a handle on the drivers side tht you've looked for for 3 years" with sarcasm. Well, there's a bit of history to it. When I started to drive, i learned and drive on my parents '90 626, which i currently use as my winter beater (16 years and 300'000km strong

). I drove that for almost 5 years before i got my Mx-3 and had gotten into the habbit of holding onto the handle during tight turns. So i've been on this mission for quite a while. The hard part wasn't finding one, the hard part was finding one what wasn't going to cost my $400 in shipping.

Technically (And I learned about this much afterwards) is that your not suppose to hold yourself by using the steering wheel, if anything your suppose to push yourself into the seat using the dead pedal, but that just doesn't do the job for me. Plus, this wil be another unique mod for me

And third, I've already have the wiring done and a passenger side switch in use for my driver side window, so that's no a problem. I do have an idea to control the passenger side window using the driver side switch, but I can't test that and start working on it until i pull the mx-3 out of storage.

Last questions, this is something I dont remember noticing on my passenger side panel is this hole. I got the space holder for it too, and I got a few ideas for her already, but I was curious to know what it would be used for?

Aston Wards · Post by **Aston Wards** » February 14th, 2006, 2:29 pm

Congratulations, that hole is an access panel for a bolt 'n bracket that holds the door panel to the door, i'd be surprised if your (other) passenger side didn't have it?!

PATDIESEL · Post by **PATDIESEL** » February 14th, 2006, 3:03 pm

All drivers side doors have it. It does hold a bolt that goes through a bracket and into the door frame. However, the passanger side probably does not have the necessary hole or threads for the bolt. You'll have to weld a nut to the door frame to hold the bolt. Otherwise, the door panel will be really flimsy and the handle will tear off the first time someone uses it.

Good luck with the switches, it will be a sweet mod when you are finished. I love mods that are so simple that only a true MXer would notice.

Nd4SpdSe · Post by **Nd4SpdSe** » February 14th, 2006, 3:20 pm

PATDIESEL wrote:All drivers side doors have it. It does hold a bolt that goes through a bracket and into the door frame. However, the passanger side probably does not have the necessary hole or threads for the bolt. You'll have to weld a nut to the door frame to hold the bolt. Otherwise, the door panel will be really flimsy and the handle will tear off the first time someone uses it.

Well, this panel is obvously going on the drivers, side. Now, I remember the handle on the stock panel has a bolt at the bottom of it...i'm curious and it would make sence if the mount on the JDM panel bolts onto the same mount. I'll hafta see. As soon as I get a nice day, I'm going to take the Mx-3 out of storage and try it.

For the window controls, that I want to do is have a type of selection switch, put the switch to one side, the switch on the handle will control the drivers side windows, then put the selection switch to the other side, and it'll control the passenger side. In theory, the way i figure it, it should be really easy, especially since I already have a passenger-style switch wired to the main driver side control box, most of the work is already figured out.

What I plan on doing, according to what i've figured out is to splice M1 to M3 and M2 to M4. Normally doing that *should* raise and lower both windows at the same time, but if i have a selector switch, it would go in between, break one circuit and complete the other, so only one window works at the same time

mr1in6billion · Post by **mr1in6billion** » February 14th, 2006, 5:47 pm

I remember someone else on here doing the same thing, except he just leaned over whenever he wanted to roll down the passender window. I eventually plan to do this mod, but I was going to take the switches out of the door and use the handle plug from the RS so that non of the door had any switches on them, and then make new switches in the style of the miata. It's a much more comfortable position imo.

Nd4SpdSe · Post by **Nd4SpdSe** » February 14th, 2006, 6:36 pm

mr1in6billion wrote:I remember someone else on here doing the same thing, except he just leaned over whenever he wanted to roll down the passender window. I eventually plan to do this mod, but I was going to take the switches out of the door and use the handle plug from the RS so that non of the door had any switches on them, and then make new switches in the style of the miata. It's a much more comfortable position imo.

Lol, i have to lean over as well, but that's only because the passenger control switch on the main control box went and i didn't care to replace it until i figured out what i wanted to do.

What are the switches in the miata like?

ariesdude · Post by **ariesdude** » February 14th, 2006, 6:45 pm

There is enough space on the stock panel to put 2 switches (even bulky ebay ones) -

I dont know about the JDM panels though ....

mr1in6billion · Post by **mr1in6billion** » February 14th, 2006, 9:27 pm

Right behind the shifter. It's incredibly comfortable since you can keep your left hand on the wheel and your right hand barely has to move off the shifter.

Jacbs2007 · Post by **Jacbs2007** » February 14th, 2006, 9:57 pm

that panel is an incredibly kool Idea, I would've never thought of that, but it's a great idea. I always found myself wanting a handle on the drivers side door! Props for the originality and simplicity!

-Curt-

GregoryChristian · February 15th, 2006, 6:18 am

looks Great ....Good find

freakyalien · Post by **freakyalien** » February 16th, 2006, 12:09 am

Why doesn't the drivers side come with one?

TREVO123 · Post by **TREVO123** » February 16th, 2006, 5:45 pm

Man,that is very neat,Good luck on gettin everything to work..
I really want a RHD mx-3 in the future,but i can never find them on website forsale..ive only seen a few on cardomain,,,but hey good idea..