door removal

[LanceM]

I've decided to remove the doors on my 240 for clean up and paint. Just thought I'd ask before I start if there is something I shouldn't do, such as don't remove the hinge from the door, or don't remove the hinge from the body.... any disaster prevention tips would be welcome, on door removal that is

Thanks in advance!

[beandip]

Yes there is . Take a scribe and scratch a line all around the hinge to door jamb and the same on the door . This will help greatly when you reassemble the car . This way you can remove the hinge completly and not have a problem later . Gary

[kenz240z]

When I repainted my Z I took the doors off the car, and left the hinges on the body. I cleaned the hinges with carb cleaner & a toothbrush to remove all of the old grease. I left them on the car when I repainted the body. The doors, hood & rear hatch were all painted off the car.

Be sure to support the door when you remove it. It can be done by one person, but get a helper or two to make sure you don't drop it. Same goes for putting them back on. If you do it by yourself, use an engine hoist to support the weight of the door for removal & installation. Or, put some heavy duty hooks in the garage ceiling and "hang" the doors with wire or rope.

You might consider adjusting the door alignment before taking the door off. Remove the kick panels and you'll have access to the bolts that hold the door hinges to the body. You'll definitely want a helper for this, it will save you a lot of time. This will allow you to set the gap between the door & the rear quarter & rocker panel, and also make sure the door has the proper height all around.

Once everything is painted, take care not to nick the paint when putting the door back on. I would recommend taping all the door edges, and perhaps around the door opening on the body.

[LanceM]

Thanks guys, I'm in process and am doing what you recommended, glad I did, found you know what under the lower door hinge... Rust!!! will it never end!!! Boy am I glad this was a Calif car

[LanceM]

One more question guys, the door hinge mounting points on the door appear welded in place, so all adjustment happens at the body mounting point??

[EScanlon]

It all depends on how deep you want to take the color change / repairs.

Here's my suggestions:

If you decide to leave the hinge on one or the other, make it the body that you leave the hinges on. The doors are heavy enough as it is without adding the weight of the hinges to make the door nose heavy and that much more difficult to locate on the freshly painted body without chipping something.

If you decide to remove the hinges completely then do yourself a HUGE favor if you're not used to / good at aligning doors, scribe the location of the hinges on the body (and door) to give you some reference lines to align to. When the door is back on and aligned, you'll barely notice the scribe marks, but they will have helped on re-assembly.

On re-assembly align the hinge to the scribe marks on the pillar and then mount the door. Use a floor jack with a 4x4 chunk of wood (1-2ft long) and balance the door / wood on the jack. Then you can maneuver the door right into position and hold it while you insert the first of the bolts to afix the hinge. Once you've gotten one started, you can then use the jack to hold the weight of the door until you're ready to test-close the door.

By the way, check your hinges while you have the door off. If you need to fix / replace because of some play at the pivot, then it's easier to scribe and re-mount now than after the paint job is done.

FWIW

Enrique