Fixing that little rust spot...

[eriknetherlands]

Some metal repairs; top window edge:

Door frame bottom edge needed a new corner, with a stepped lip:

flipped the door upside down, and the vertical edge overlaps the above piece at the small step:
Now nicely welded in, with the welds ground down and the 2 spotwelds placed on top for the authentic look

 

[rsporsche]

Love the top pic with all the parts in the correct position. Thanks!! This will be invaluable to me since the painter took the door apart

 

[eriknetherlands]

Love the top pic with all the parts in the correct position. Thanks!! This will be invaluable to me since the painter took the door apart

well, just for fun I'll see if I can make a picture with all mechanisms installed, but without the doorskin on !

 

[eriknetherlands]

the funny things you find:
a key barrel with a plate missing that keeps the pins and springs inside....The 3 springs are gone forever.

the long black rail that guides the glass was missing an M6 bolt at the bottom of the door. Never noticed it when I still drove it; the window always behaved normally.

Door handle missing the lead counterweight - probably removed from the bottom of the door by the PO already long time ago.

 

[boonies]

It is interesting as you deconstruct a car to see different things missing or mismatched hardware that shows someone was in there before you.

 

[autokunst]

Door handle missing the lead counterweight

I found the lead counterweight laying in the bottom of my driver side door. It took me a while to figure out what it was. Thankfully I didn't toss it.

 

[Breiti]

On the outside, you lay a thick copper block on the flat skin.
I have a 100 x 100 x 8 mm big block for stuff like this.

Breiti

 

[tdgray]

Really great pictures. I am going to be reskinning at least one door... this is very informative!

 

[eriknetherlands]

On the outside, you lay a thick copper block on the flat skin.
I have a 100 x 100 x 8 mm big block for stuff like this.

Breiti

@Breiti : You mean for spotwelding the edge of the doorskin, were there is a single spot on the inside and no mark on the outside?

 

[Breiti]

Yes,b talking about the welding spots from there dir skin.
But there should be 2 spots?

Breiti

 

[eriknetherlands]

I just bagged everything 2 weeks ago, but @rsporsche triggered me to pull it all out again for a picture of a "See-through-Door" below.



(I wanted to know anyway how the lock mechanism functioned, and I think these pics will be helpfull to others as well. Note that not all parts are mounted: the glass is not in, and so is the mechanism that turns the triangle window )

This picture shows show 2 black parts low down in the door; the center is screwed to the middle of the glass. the left is the slding bearing block the runs through the black channel. Here the window would be in the low position.

Here the black parts are high up, so so is the window:

The window isn't mounted in these pics, but it is positioned all the way on the outside, following the door skin.

and here is the door lock mechanism installed:

 

[tdgray]

Fascinating… love stuff like this.

 

[eriknetherlands]

Adjustments of the small triangle window frame are done from the interior side with the slotted m8 threads; it pulls or pushes the window out/in.
(I'll Add the interior pic tomorrow)

But here you can see how that affects the inward/outward position of the bottom point looking at it from inside the door:

Also the black rail has a corresponding inward/outward adjustment at the bottom on the bracket. The 2 m6 bolts hold the angled bracket to the door frame, which in turn has slotted holes: the rail thus can slide in/outward.
The 3rd bolt in the pic screws horizontally into a captive nut on the rail, which has an up/down adjustment. Not that the rail itself does not have an up/down adjustment as it is rigidly attached in vertical direction at the top of the door. (would be senseless also, as the window does that already)

 

[eriknetherlands]

And here is the lock function:

Note also on which points the rods are connected: there are 4 holes to choose from; 2 stay empty.
When installing it back in, be carefull to choose the right 'feeding' direction for the rods into the holes. You cannot de-couple the rods when the lock is in the door, there is no room in the door for the rods to make the 90 degree turn to pull them out. Thus you have to install the 2 rods to the lock, before bringing it up to the car!

Moving the plastic pin on top of the inner door up/down locks the car from the inside; it pulls/pushes this lever:

Rod pulled up (lock allows opening from outside) ........ Pin down (lock is blocked for opening from outside):
and

 

[eriknetherlands]

This is the open and close latch that keeps the door shut
Open door has the catch in this 'receiving' position:

Then, when closing the door, the catch (Latch?)rotates; counterclockwise in the below pics.
Left image shows an open door, right image has the door in it's closed (latched) position: The element at my finger tip is the internal part that rotates; you can see the long spring being more extended.

 

[eriknetherlands]

And this is the inner door pull handle mechanism; it (logically) pulls on the horizontal rod, that acts on the lowest eye:
Rest position on the left. Right image shows condition when internal lever is operated; it pulls the rod to the right in the image.

End of the evening now; my feet are frozen....

 

[Marc-M]

Dont froget the plastic bit on the lock - it makes the car go faster! - on mine it added 32 mph to the top speed!

 

[Blinkling]

What a fantastic view from an impossible vantage. Thanks for doing this Erik!

 

[rsporsche]

this is EXTREMELY helpful + beneficial to me ... and i know to many others. its not often you get to see this without the door skin on. Many THANKS!

 

[eriknetherlands]

Question to the gruppe: I'm looking for knowledge on the parts inside the door. It seems I'm missing parts in my car.

The exploded views from BMW show it #12, at the bottom in the drawing, that seems to be missing in my car on both sides:

the associated parts number(s) are

51326746102​

51326746103​

which usually indicate that they are 'handed'; a left and right version possibly exist.
From a purpose perspective, I think they are designed so that the window does not go too high up.

I do have a piece of similar shape, but it is located at the top & inside of the door. It also seems to be different in number of holes, and it clearly not screwed to the window track -bearing block but to the door.

Can anyone confirm if the #12 indeed exists?
Would anybody have a picture of it?
Anyone have 2 for sale?