It actually costs a lot more than that if you're having one of the notable DMC vendors doing the work.Originally Posted by mluder
Posts: 576
It actually costs a lot more than that if you're having one of the notable DMC vendors doing the work.
Location: Happy Valley, OR
Posts: 1,709
My VIN: 4456 - Owner since March 2011
Club(s): (PNDC)
That's the "ballpark" figure I was quoted by Toby at DMCNW - a notable DMC vendor if there ever was one.It actually costs a lot more than that if you're having one of the notable DMC vendors doing the work.
Cheers
Steven
Cheers
Steven Maguire
#4456
IT'S A TRAP!!!!!
Location: Florida: Pinellas County
Posts: 2,110
My VIN: 5003 Never placed Concourse
Club(s): (DCF)
Hi Matt,
I did consider the weatherstripping posted. Removing the current stripping would result in a huge mess to clean up (current one is packed with some kind of paste in the channel and it is not easy to remove) so I haven't gotten up enough will power to do it yet. The bulb on the one you posted is 7/16 height and the one I'm using now (if I'm looking at the correct source) is 7/8 so my only concern would be it not containing enough rubber to seal but for the price it would be worth a shot.
-----Dan B.
Posts: 576
If Toby can swap a complete door, including but not limited to: removing and replacing the t-panel, glass, interior trim and headliner, regraining, adjusting torsion bar and hinges, rub strips, mirrors, wiring harnesses, door seals, and latch and lock adjustments - all in 8 hours as you allege, then more power to him. Even if only 1 hour was spent on each of the items I just listed, he would not be able to complete the swap in 8 hours. DMC franchise rate is $125/hr.
I have had a door replaced twice and can tell you that this estimate is discrepant by several magnitudes.
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Posts: 396
My VIN: 6472
Rob was in Northern California at the time and offered to look at my car if I was willing and able to make the drive up there. He said he would need a t-bar fixture to adjust the torsion bar and hinges realigned. He also mentioned the door may need re-twisting and/or re-welding. But hard to determine without seeing it in person.
Location: Happy Valley, OR
Posts: 1,709
My VIN: 4456 - Owner since March 2011
Club(s): (PNDC)
I never said he could do it in 8 hours... Like I said - It was ballpark and I would't take it as an exact price quote. It was conversational... I asked what it takes he said (paraphrasing) "It's $1000 for the door but that's just the start. It's swapping out all the components which can take another day so there's another $1000 or so there..."
Cheers
Steven
Cheers
Steven Maguire
#4456
IT'S A TRAP!!!!!
Location: Mosinee, Wis.
Posts: 632
My VIN: 00778 and Formerly 06770.
I'm trying to do some adjustments on my driver's door. It seems like the front latch isn't moving as freely as it should. It just looks like the small rods and plastic pieces in there that are supposed to move are all Gummy so I'm sure that old Grease is affecting the movement. My question is how to properly remove that latch so I can decrease and regrease that entire area for better performance. The shop manual just says to remove the three screws that hold the latch in place. It also says to slide that latch and three connecting rods out from inside the door. Just for my reference, is it really that simple? I remove it, I clean it, I put it back in and everything is pretty much in the same alignment as before I took it out? Or should I mark something to verify the current latch positioning before I remove it?
Posts: 265
Haha, I just tried to do this too without the knowledge... I saw in another thread someone posted steps that seem simple for adjusting how the door fits. YOU CANNOT AND SHOULD NOT LOOSEN THE FRONT HINGE WITHOUT RELEASING THE TORSION BAR!. The front hinge has pressure applied by the torsion bar and it will not reset without removing the torque from it first. Over the last couple weeks I built the "PJ Grady" apparatus for releasing/applying the torque to the torsion bar and I have reset the front hinge on my passenger side door with it. Works like a charm.
Here's a photo of my car with the torsion bar adjustment apparatus installed:
IMG_20160929_193201.jpg
By the way, the torsion on the bar is only about 30-40°
EDIT: I may have misinterpreted your post... I was talking about the hinges and I just realized that you were talking about the latches. Anyway, I'll leave this post as is.
Last edited by spikeygg; 10-01-2016 at 09:02 PM. Reason: Adding more detail
Location: Northern NJ
Posts: 8,582
My VIN: 10757 1st place Concourse 1998
Removing, cleaning and regreasing the latches is certainly a good thing to do. It is all just a matter of careful disassembly being very careful not to get cut up by all of he sharp edges of the S/S. In fact, cover them with some masking tape BEFORE you start. Take pictures and notes. The rods may have to be bent to better adjust things after you get everything back together and lined up. You should either have good, fresh door seals or you should replace them before adjusting the striker pins. The torsion bars should be adjusted and the struts should be fresh. Follow the procedure in the Workshop Manual or the Service Bulletins and do it EXACTLY as written. You may have to do it more than once till you get good enough to get it right.
David Teitelbaum
Posts: 4,808
My VIN: 3937
On the subject of door alignment (which I picked this thread to put my question in as there are many different alignment threads and I figured we don't need another quite yet)...
Has anyone else found that if you have the car parked on uneven ground, it can make it difficult to properly align your doors?
The place I am in now (for about 2.5 years) has a garage with a floor that is sloped down towards the opening so that the front of the car is higher than the rear. I measured the difference as about 3" of height change from front wheel to rear wheel. From the centre of the front wheels to the rear wheels I got pretty close to 8 feet. So 3 inches over 96 inches works out to be a percent grade of like 3.125%.
This isn't an amount that would make you tired if it was a hill you're trying to climb. But with our cars and the fairly tight tolerances and balance with everything in the doors, hinges, striker pins, fiberglass, roof box, adhesive and anything else that comes to mind, I wondered if it could be contributing?
And contributing in my case is where the rear side of each door comes into contact with the fiberglass portion right around the striker pin location just as you get it almost all the way closed. If you look at those three screws that secure the latch in position, the heads of those screws have scrapped on my car enough that you can see the scratches on the fiberglass just above the striker pin spot.
I feel like it's almost as if the rear end of the door (both driver and passenger sides do this same thing) is dipping down slightly so that if you looked at the car from the side, the bottom edge of the door is no longer exactly parallel to the door frame and instead, this cock-eyed angle is just enough to scrape into the door frame.
I thought with the garage floor as it is, and how I have done striker pin adjustments on that same uneven floor, it might all be contributing? About a week ago I put the rear wheels on ramps and then the front wheels on a couple pieces of wood and was able to eliminate the 3" difference for the most part. I let it sit that way for a while and have done a striker pin adjustment on the doors and it seems like it helped. Not sure if that is my imagination or not, but with how much weight is in the door and the careful balance for the torsion bars and hinges and whatnot, it seems to have impacted things.
Was just wondering if anyone else has seen a similar impact on door alignment from an uneven surface their car has been parked on?
Sept. 81, auto, black interior
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