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Thread: Door alignment and striker questions

  1. #21
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    I misunderstood what you wanted to grind. Bending the bar slightly will have no ill effects but letting it get scratched against the hinge certainly will. As long as the bar is not actually touching the hinge it doesn't matter what you stick in there as long as it won't scratch the bar. Do something on the other door too.
    David Teitelbaum

  2. #22
    "Former Delorean owning Guru" Spittybug's Avatar
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    I got my buddy's help today and removed the door. Question; when the torsion bar goes back in, does it have to go back in its original orientation? I don't see why it should. So long as the loading is the same (which on mine was very close to being unloaded with the door perfectly vertical, YMMV), the rotation of the bar shouldn't matter - it's not indexed in any way I can tell. Why do I ask? It seems that it isn't quite straight, probably a result of years in the same twisted position, and rotating it alleviates the touch against the hinge previously mentioned. I ground away a little bit of the hinge to make sure of the clearance.

    It is apparent that someone before me has monkeyed with this door, as suspected. LOTS of RTV removed and I found that the rear hinge that I diagnosed as being too 'high' does indeed have shims underneath it. Surface rust too. I'm glad I've stripped off the RTV because I can now treat the box with POR-15 and neutralize the rust before it goes any deeper. It's not much more than surface rust now. I'll wire brush and then POR-15 it. The bolts into the door and the bolts holding the torsion bar were all galled/partially stripped. Quick trip to Ace..... The fiberglass flange that the T-panel screws to at the top rear of the doors has some extra screw holes in it telling me that someone needed some serious latitude in adjusting the T-panel too.

    I think, despite the risk, that I want to carefully mark the location of the hinges and then remove them. I want to make sure that I get to any rust underneath them and treat it. I can then remove some shim and see if it fixes the door closure. If not, I can always put them back.

    I bought a new rubber weatherstrip for the door and easily riveted it to the door once the door was removed. Easy. The key is the fact that the door is bowed and the T-panel cutout is bowed too. That means the rubber must be bowed to conform or you get too much sticking out at the leading and trailing edges. I found that crazy glue is WONDERFUL for sticking the rubber to the stainless in this application where you won't need to undo it. Rubber cement for other rubber to body panel....

    Lastly, as a 'while I'm in there' item, I cleaned all of the electrical connections using my Dremel tool and a narrow abrasive bit. They were oxidized!!!!
    Attached Images
    Owen
    I.Brew.Beer.

  3. #23
    "Former Delorean owning Guru" Spittybug's Avatar
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    Well crap. I marked the hinge locations with tape and a scratch in the fiberglass so that I can return them. I used penetrating oil since things looked old and rusty under the RTV. Sure enough, under the hinges is rusty. I need to examine more but I think they are structurally OK though. I may have caught this in time. One problem leads to another of course and the front hinge's hold down stud snapped on me. Didn't take much force at all, so I suspect he was already in bad shape.

    Options? Glue down bracket. Tack weld bracket to stud. New box. Others?

    The rear hinge in question had a big blob of RTV underneath it that must have been there before the hinge was screwed down on top of it. It was indeed raising it higher that the shims. I also have rust to clean up under there.
    Attached Images
    Owen
    I.Brew.Beer.

  4. #24
    EFI'd dn010's Avatar
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    Pull your headliner. Remove broken bolt. Replace broken bolt with a new one. Done.

    I'm not sure if all cars were the same, but this is what it took for me anyway and I still have issues with my driver's side door.

    Also, a little late now, but when I remove the T-bars I mark the end with line of nail polish or similar from the bar to the bracket, that way you know exactly where to put the bracket when you bolt with the bar, under tension, back to the car as it was when it was removed.

    Last thing I'd recommend is while you're there, take a cell phone on video or a bore scope and put it down in the access in the roof, take a look around in there to see the status of the inside of the box.
    Last edited by dn010; 12-05-2018 at 02:18 PM.
    -----Dan B.

  5. #25
    "Former Delorean owning Guru" Spittybug's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by dn010 View Post
    Pull your headliner. Remove broken bolt. Replace broken bolt with a new one. Done.
    This bolt goes through the roof? I thought it was a stud welded to the metal plate that is part of the roof box assembly...... Or are you saying that i should now MAKE it a bolt through the roof?
    Owen
    I.Brew.Beer.

  6. #26
    EFI'd dn010's Avatar
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    On my car this bolt went all the way through to the other side. Saying you thought it was welded makes me curious if it is 'factory' or a PO fix, might explain why I still can't get this particular door aligned right. I have photos, somewhere, of this area but it was back in 2003 or so, I'll have to dig them up.
    -----Dan B.

  7. #27
    "Former Delorean owning Guru" Spittybug's Avatar
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    Well crap..... looking forward from access hole in roof box. Certainly no indication of this from the exterior.
    Attached Images
    Owen
    I.Brew.Beer.

  8. #28
    EFI'd dn010's Avatar
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    The one side looks pretty typical but the other side looks like, in the mid right side of the picture, that you're starting to get some metal separation / rust chips. You might bang on it with a punch from the outside to see how weak it is and if it goes through. A roof box is on my list of things to do, but not until I absolutely need it because that is a huge job.
    -----Dan B.

  9. #29
    "Former Delorean owning Guru" Spittybug's Avatar
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    I spoke at length with my friend Ian who went through the roof box exercise with one of his cars. Like everyone else, he advocates taking every possible alternate route before replacing the box. I have checked the integrity of it with a screwdriver and hammer and it seems solid. The inside is kind of scary to look at though. I think I'm going to build myself a mop brush that will fit in the box and after removing loose rust, will slop the entire interior with POR-15. It doesn't want a rust free surface to cling to, it LOVES rust. I had great results with this stuff on my Spitfire and Beetle restorations. I may consider carefully cutting another hatch in the box for easier access and then welding it up.

    I removed my headliner and found the giant fender washer with stud glued to the underside like Dan mentioned. I wasn't able to unscrew or to push the stud out. I ground it flush on the top and have now drilled a hole through it. I don't know if the stud and the brass body washer are one integral piece or not. No amount of banging or twisting seems to separate the two. I have a call into Sarah at DMCH to ask if they have this piece since I can't find it on the site. If anyone knows offhand, please tell me. Worst case is I just drill the hole wider and pop in my own bolt. The 'head' of the existing one will probably want to be ground/drilled out to leave room under the headliner. The attached pic is what it looked like before I drilled down its center.

    When I put this all back together again I think I'm going to seal everything up with that stuff you see on TV, Flex-seal. A nice coating of that on screw heads, seams, everywhere in the top hinge area. I think that will seal things up nicely. The vertical bolt holes in the hinges have elongated holes for adjustment, so those will need filling with RTV first. One of mine wasn't well filled and I suspect that was a source of water intrusion.
    Attached Images
    Owen
    I.Brew.Beer.

  10. #30
    EFI'd dn010's Avatar
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    I heated up the whole thing and used a chisel/hammer from the side to separate it. It's set to the fiberglass with epoxy. Careful you don't chew into the fiberglass. Maybe it was the heat or maybe it was already separated but mine not very difficult to remove. I guess it just depends on what the workers felt like having the epoxy nozzle on that day, either min or max.
    -----Dan B.

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