Restore-a-Door...

[Airjockie]

OK, I'm at my wits end and my back is killing me... Is there a proper way to do a rebuild on a drivers door?

I backed into a clump of sand nest to a big tree with my door open a while ago...and the door snapped off, crunched in, tore up a the drivers fender, and broke the hinges. No damage to the A-piller. So I spent the gas money, and found a door about 2 hours away, go get it, stripped it completely, sandblasted a few bad rusty spots, hammered out a few dings, hit it with some airtools to remove some paint, treated it with that spray on rust-to-primer stuff, then bondo'es with feather-light to just smooth it out to try to get it decent again. Then more spray primer, wetsand, more primer, wet sand...and then a few coats of red spray paint, wetsand, and more paint, wetsand...had a bug land in an area and mared the paint, so more paint, and wetsanding...finally get it looking decent, and almost ready to hang on the car.

Sandblasted the hinges, painted them, attached them to the car, and finally test fitted the shell of the door...nothing in it, no window, no crank, no nothing....and for some reason the bottom of the door sticks out about an inch in the back...on the bottom only. So I took the door of another Z I have here, and it fits perfect. but I put that door on the other Z, and same thing...it's sticking out at the rear of the door on the bottom. Before I lose my mind or get a hernia...whats the problem?

Does the window bracket thats not installed give the door a twist to fit the bottom flush? Since it's not installed, without it,does that make the door relax too much, or did I get a crappy door? the bottom of the door looks straight as an arrow, but is tweeked when installed on the car.

from this point on, putting it back together and adjusting everything to fit it like it should...is there a pattern or a tighening sequence to follow to adjust the door properly?

funny thing...I don't know what Z this door came from, but it doesn't have any holes for the mirror, but everyone told me the doors are the same for the 240Z, the 260Z, and early 280Z's....and it's going on a 260Z (12/74)

I'm going nuts over this door....:stupid:

[Jackhammer]

Sounds from what you described it could be any number of things. Check to be sure you didn't bend the front door jam where the hinges mount. Check and be sure your hinges aren't bent or you may just have to mess with it and play with adjustment before tightening the bolts down. Some of them can be a challenge. You may even have to grab on to it and twist it into alignment.

Good Luck

[jmortensen]

240 and 280 doors are different. I think the change happened mid way through the 260 production. They're pretty easy to tell apart. Look at the latch. The 240 has a round latch mechanism, the 280 has a wedge shaped slot in the back end. Also, the 240 door is about 20 lbs lighter than the 280 door. They are not interchangable without a pretty extensive rework on the latch at the very least. If you got the wrong thing I'd suggest you get the right thing rather than trying to make what you have work.

I know my brother-in-law Mat_M has a bunch of 240 and 280 doors, but he's in CA, so you'd be looking at some pretty good shipping charges in any event. You might PM him if you can't find anything locally.

[Airjockie]

when I slapped the other door from the 76 280Z, it fit nearly perfect, but it had the window, cranks, and window bracket on it. So I know that the car's frame is good. I'll try to mess with it tommorrow and see what I can get done.