I told you to blow the bloody doors off!

[masterb]

Well i dont really fancy blowing the doors off,
But how hard/easy is it to remove the doors?

Had a quick look, but it was just that a quick look, no time for a thorough investigation.

And i was a little worried as it looked like i might have to take off/loosen front wing to get a hinge bolts and remove door.
Can anyone who has done this already enlighten me.
Ta PaulB.

[Brakebuster]

nothing has to be done to or within the wings, access is all footwell, or inside the door its self....

if you dont need to remove the hinges from the body , then it isnt too bad, but you will need help

first of all take off the door-card, and make safe the electrics, take off the footwell side cover, and unplug all the electrics to the door ,

then in the door, undo the nuts to the hinges , leaving one in each hinge to support the door , remove the electrics of the door through the body grommet and then remove the remaining hinge nuts

the door is now free to come away

a simple but effective tip is to use a padded jack under the back end of the door to support it when undoing the hinges , while keeping it at the same height while its open......

be careful , as there may well be some shims between the hinges and door , replace as you find them, or shim correctly when refitting...

same goes for the hinges to the body if they have to come off, access to the bolts is quite tricky from inside the footwell ,

if in doubt , dont do it

BB

[masterb]

Sounds a bit fiddly but do able , i take it the door card is just those pop on/off plastic lugs? and maybe a few screws in the arm rest?

Only reason i was going to take the door off is so that i can repair the bottom of the door more easily.

I thought if i take it off, i can take it into my companies workshop and work on it there, as in cutting out and fabricating patch panels.
They have metal bending/forming and cutting equipment there.

I could always work on it attached to the car in my garage but, i would be limited to using my vice and angle grinder, and some poor tin snips.

If i could get the door off in 15 mins to half an hour i think it will be worth doing.
Thanks very much for the reply BB.

[iain1980]

Could I add a little footnote here?

The doors are HEAVY. When I helped a friend remove his I was shocked - they were easily twice as heavy as i thought they were going to be! If you just support it on a jack at the open end there is a real risk of it dropping as you undo the last bolt. To support it we used an engine hoist and tied the top of the doorframe to it.

The screws you need to undo to get the door trim off are under he armrest and one under the chrome trim at the end of the handle. Also the striker plate for the door switch has to be removed as the screws go all the way through to the door. Once undone the whole thing lifts off hooks at the top edge.

While you are in there I would also check the gutter that holds the quarterlight in place, they can get scabby, let more water into the door and then the mirror switches and connections die, not to mention keeping the card damp and mouldy.

[masterb]

Well I guess i was being a bit optimistic at 15mins to do this.
However just come back in the house at 11 at night, and it took me an hour to get the door off.

Would have been quicker but i was working on my own, so some of that time was spent, thinking how am i going to manage this on my own.

I ended up supporting the door underneath with a jack and a wheel with a block of wood on top and a old coat.
I then hung/supported/suspended the door from my garage roof frame with a lovely pink flannelette's sheet(not mine i must add, honest).

Think the worst part was trying to get the wires thru from the car body thru such a small hole.

I am going to post some pics tomorow, but am too tired now and am celebrating inside a much warmer house with a bottle of hobgoblin ale.
Ta for your posts.

[masterb]

Angle grinding is fun dont you think! however angle grinding a piece of your finger is not! glad i had the grinding disc in and not one of my really fine and sharp cutting ones.

Worst has been cut out and cleaned up, and made myself a nice template out of a piece of card for the new metal to go in.

Here are a few pics.


Used the nice pink flannelette sheet as i thought i could support/hang from a wider surface area and would be more soft/forgiving than some nylon rope.
http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak ... 0286_a.jpg

http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak ... 3670_n.jpg



P.s. if webmans there how can i get the pics smaller on here and not distorted?

...webman here, you'll find help in the FAQ and Gallery FAQ and near the top of the BB index. Essentially you need to define the image's actual dimensions, like this....

[img width=180 height=240 border=1]
http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak ... s060.snc3/
14750_171986206956_618941956_3445793_1510286_a.jpg
[/img]


I had to split the link to get it to fit in the code box, BUT it is important that the link is NOT split. http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak ... 5280_n.jpg

http://photos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak ... 1558_n.jpg

http://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak ... 5181_n.jpg

http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak ... 0964_n.jpg

http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak ... 8910_n.jpg


http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak ... 1754_n.jpg

[Brakebuster]

good effort there,

top marks for getting it off without killing yourself.....

one word of caution, using the top of the window frame for support can distort it , and when refitting, ensure a good fit to the door seal by persuading the window frame once the door body has been put in the correct position

only do this with the glass wound down, as it will shatter if wound up.////


BB

[masterb]

Still alive BB but with a few cuts and a partly angle ground finger.

Making progress bit of new metal back in place.

http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak ... 6902_n.jpg


http://photos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak ... 2071_n.jpg


http://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak ... 6570_n.jpg


now got the wing to do and then a bit of filler,sanding and spraying to look forward too.

Oh yeah then got the other side to start on.

[masterb]

How come my pics are not coming up?

[almcl]

Your pics aren't coming up because of mistakes in the syntax. The first one is missing the square bracket at the beginning, the next two have the opening and closing brackets transposed.

The wedding group doesn't seem completely relevant.

[webman]

I agree with Al but at least the fairy in the wedding group has waved her wand!

[masterb]

something Bizarre must be going on with my facebook or Jec account.

There is definitely not any wedding pics in the folder those pics were supposed to have come from.

It's all just pics off the car? I would like to have seen those, just to see if its someone i know.
Very Odd.

P.s. ta webman and i would never call you a fairy.

and p.s.s ta Al

[poprivet]

Thanks to the above posters for the door info. I found the info very useful as I've removed the drivers door to tackle the rust in the bottom front corner. It came off much easier then expected, working alone as well.

The top hinge is very sloppy, but I'm not sure if it is worn or if its supposed to be like that as it has a spring within it to control the door position. The door closes fine and everything lines up so it can't be too bad? The bottom hinge was very tight and in much need of some lubrication, you don't notice due to the leverage of that long door so everyone out there, lube those hinges!

I wanted to remove the door mirror but one of the captive nuts is turning with the bolt which might explain why I could never tighten it up. I guess I will have to drill it out and locate a new chrome machine screw.

[Brakebuster]

am afraid the door mirror screw is a little more complicated, as the screw locates into a ' Bear-nut ' that is crimped tot he door skin, its this so called captive nut that is turning as the screw is seized into the thread ,

you can still get bear-nuts, in fact i have a few , but i abandoned that idea for the later Jaguar modification of a back-plate that has threaded holes , these are perfect for our mirrors, and come in around £10 if i remember correctly ,

simply( ha ) remove the old screws, remove bear-nuts from the door skin , and than from inside the door offer up the plate and some new screws, there is the ability to pop rivet the plate in place so you dont need to hold it , i may/may-not do this , as i have the plates

top hinge is ' sloppy ' in its movement until the spring catches, then it should be hard by hand to close it, there should be no movement laterally around the pin, as this would be wear , the bottom hinge should be free all the way , again , no movement around the pin apart from the pivot ,

BB

[poprivet]

Thanks for that, I will have a closer look at the hinge at the weekend when I'm back.

Interesting point about the mirror plate, although I might retain the 'feature' of being unable to easily remove the mirror for security reasons, as I was told the door lock rods can be operated through the aperture. I've not tried though, maybe an urban myth?