Driver's side door skin clips are corroded and door skin is separating

[Billyjim]

While driving on the highway the driver's side door skin separated from the door frame.
The Torx screws that hold the skin on have rusted and the door skin is no longer firmly attached. And the torx screws will not come out of the door frame. From what I can see the tabs on the skin have broken, so it looks like there is not much left to keep the skin attached. Anyone else have this problem and fixed it without having all the screws and clips working properly. What did you do?

 

[auger]

I bought an '05 Ion that had it's doors fastened on with Pop Rivets, story was the passenger side front outer plastic door skin fell off on the owners daughter on the highway. That skin was replaced and the Pop Rivets were used by a relative who was a 30 year GM body man. I didn't understand why until the outer plastic door skin on my brother's Ion (an 04 kept in better shape with lower Klms than the one I bought) came loose. After researching this on the net and finding some old threads on the subject I soon realized why my outer doors were fastened with Pop Rivets. Seems the plastic that the metal fasteners are attached too break off leaving the bolts holding just the metal clips but not the plastic door panel which is unattached now and waving in the breeze, worse at highway speeds of course. Looks like I'll be reattaching the door skins with Pop Rivets, seems to be the easiest and best method, if you need to take the outer door off then you'll (I) will have to drill the rivets out to remove.

 

[Billyjim]

View attachment 15 I bought an '05 Ion that had it's doors fastened on with Pop Rivets, story was the passenger side front outer plastic door skin fell off on the owners daughter on the highway. That skin was replaced and the Pop Rivets were used by a relative who was a 30 year GM body man. I didn't understand why until the outer plastic door skin on my brother's Ion (an 04 kept in better shape with lower Klms than the one I bought) came loose. After researching this on the net and finding some old threads on the subject I soon realized why my outer doors were fastened with Pop Rivets. Seems the plastic that the metal fasteners are attached too break off leaving the bolts holding just the metal clips but not the plastic door panel which is unattached now and waving in the breeze, worse at highway speeds of course. Looks like I'll be reattaching the door skins with Pop Rivets, seems to be the easiest and best method, if you need to take the outer door off then you'll (I) will have to drill the rivets out to remove.

USE SHEET METAL SCREWS. At my neighbour's suggestion I used sheet metal screws to go through the door framework and into the flanges that support the original clips. You can clearly see the flange with the original clips in the above picture. Has held firmly for a year and the screws can be easily removed. Just pre-drill everything first.

 

[auger]

I was gonna use screws but didn't know if they'd cause any kind of clearance problems between the door frame and the body, I guess not since you seem happy with them, sure would make taking the door panel off a lot easier, I still need to reattach my brother's passenger door, probably get away with one sheet metal screw as it's not loose in more than one spot, I think I have all I need to get the job done, thanks for the heads-up on the screw method.