Door Panel Removal

Jensen continues to turn up the heat at AMSOIL Speedway

For the first time all season the weather cooperated as warm temperatures and sunny skies brought out the best crowd of the young 2011 racing season at AMSOIL Speedway. A total of 90 cars were on hand to qualify for the five feature events. Two make up features from June 3 were also on tap.

The first make-up feature was for the pure stock division and was for 15 laps. Dustin Follett grabbed the lead after a caution at beginning of the second lap of 15 scheduled. Follet never let go of the lead and won going away over Steve Udeen, Josh Johnson, Corey Lonetto and Ashley Smith in the top five.

The final make up feature from June 3 was for the WISSOTA modified division. The 20-lap event went to Forest Lake’s Joey Jensen in the aptly numbered V2. He took off like the rocket namesake from the outside of row three and went three wide with Steve Lavasseur and Destin Lorimor to take the lead.

Jensen slid high in turn four allowing Kelly Estey to close up just as the caution flag flew for a door panel from the No. 11 of Jody Bellefeuille. Jensen maintained the lead at the restart as Scott Hudack raced into second. Jensen recorded his third feature win of the season over Hudack, Estey, Rick Rivord and Al Uotinen. It was also Jensen’s 14th career feature win at AMSOIL Speedway.

Days of rain had made the speedway very soft as the clay absorbed a lot of water. Despite the track crew’s valiant efforts including grading the surface completely twice during the program, the track remained difficult to race on. The first attempt at smoothing the track came midway through the heat races.

Qualifying heats went to George Dalbeck and Skeeter Estey, Midwest modifieds; Scott Lawrence, Cody Carlson and Donnie Lofdahl, super stocks; Cory Jorgenson and Jeff Provinzino, late models; Kelly Estey and Alan Hartel; modifieds and Justin Madsen, Dustin Follett and Austin Blom in the pure stocks.

First up for feature action were the Midwest modifieds. Neil Balduc and Dan Kingsley led off the pack for the 15-lap event. Bolduc took the lead and Cody Wolkowski raced into second, Scott Herrick also got by Kingsley into third. Skeeter Estey was charging eighth and suddenly there was a five-car pack battling for the lead on the fast but treacherous surface. Wolkowski made bold move and planted himself solidly in the lead while Balduc, Herrick and Dave Flynn driving the absent Taylor Leuthner’s No. 7 skirmished for second. Estey lost control and slid into the first turn wall bringing out the red flag as the No. 37 was hung up on the wall.

2008 Caravan power lock actuator, door panel removal ...

I have a 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan minivan with power locks - the locks work fine except the drivers door - when you try to unlock it you can see movement and it trying to pop up to the unlock position - it just doesn't go up. Sometimes it will move a little up and once in a while it does go all the way up, but most times it just sits in the locked position - so it looks like power is getting to the mechainism. First - how do you remove the door panel? Second - is this a common problem? Is replacing the lock actuator the reccomended fix? The door panel comes off by removing the small trim panel adjacent to the mirror, then remove the 2 screws in the door panel, 1 in the pull cup and the other behind the door handle. Both of the screws may be behind small covers. once you have these screws out then slide a plastic trim tool between the door panel and the door and pop the door panel off of the door. This may take some effort as these clips are pretty tight. Some of the clips may stay in the door. Before reinstalling the panel you will want to remove those clips from the door and reinstall them in the panel. OMG - this is a horrible job (but thanks for the great information!). I've replaced windows, doors, handles, locks, ... before in various vehicles and I figured there would be a new twist to this, but I can't believe this is so hard. Is there any easy way out of this - like replacing the top end of the door lock knob (the thing that actually pops up and down when you lock the door) so that you can grab it to unlock it and just use the metal key to unlock the door? Any idea how much a mechanic would charge for this job? I can tell you this they are a PITA!!! I have done several of them for various reasons. Unfortunately not much way around replacing that latch. You can usually expect to pay close to 2 hours labor. Not sure what the labor rate is where you are but here in Hagerstown our labor rate is $93.00. Plus the price of the part. If you want to just use the metal key to unlock the door then that is always an option until it locks up and that no longer works.

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