I've got a ding between my driver's door and the gas cap. I took it to my local MINI dealer that has one of the (supposed) best PDR guys come around. He thought the best way to get to it would be to drill a hole in the door jamb and put a plug in that would cover a few ridges on the jamb. I'm a bit leery about how that plug would look.


I pulled out the Bentley manual to figure out how to take off the side trim panel to allow access to the ding that way. When I took a look at the car, it seemed to me that I would have to pull out the majority of the trim in the back of the car to get that panel off.


Does anyone know of a way to get the trim panel off without having to pull off a whole bunch of other trim pieces? Are there any write ups out there?
(I did search the forum, but didn't find anything that gave the detail I'm looking for)

 

Hear is the rear left ( driver side ) panel interior diagram: , you might be able to take the inside plastic trim off and rear through oe of the body cavity cut out to access the body.

You will have clips and trim in the little boxes that correlates to the number diagram.





Here is the rear left side trim panel ( body metal ).






Filler cap / gas cap in the rear left :



Thanks

 

Remove the rear seats.
Start at the very back at the trunk, and work your way forward.
B and C pillars nee to be removed also.

Yes, pretty much every thing, except the right side.

No Im not kidding, I replace my rear speakers a few months ago.

 

Do you mean take off piece # 10 in the diagram below and drill a hole through the underlying panel to access the exterior panel?

Would it be possible to take off the wheel well trim and have the PDR guy drill through the space under the trim?

From the diagram below, it also looks like a possibility to remove the trim around the gas cap (piece #1) and get access through that. Are there any structures that would block that access?

Thanks for digging these diags up and posting them.

 

How long did it take you to get it all ripped out?


I stopped when I realized I had to take a felt piece off that was covering the area in the center where the seat backs were attached. Seemed like I had to get all the trim behind the panel all the way back to the trunk before I could get the seats removed.

 

Helpful, in the process of a PDR guy as well as speakers - thanks!