Removing the Door

[inovermyhead]

I need to remove my drivers door to deal with some rust, is it better to leave the hinges on the body and unbolt the door or take the door and hinge?
Any other tips in undertaking this project? Anything I need to mark? The door is stripped right down only electric motor and opening mech/ lock left on, window and 1/4 light frame out.

Cheers
John

 

[Gransin]

Depends on if the hinges are oversprayed with paint if the car is re-painted sometime in the history? If that's the case I would leave the hinges on the car, otherwise the paint will crack when you unbolt the hinges from the car.

Try to put somekind of marks where the door is attached to the hinge before you unbolt it, surely you will have to make some small adjustments later even if you put marks, but it will be easier.

 

[Peter Coomaraswamy]

Best also to leave the other door intact so you'll have a model when reassembling since you will want to remove the guts of everything to properly treat the door. Pay attention to which bolts go where as if you get them in backwards they can interfere with the window operation, and now's a great time to clean and lube everything up. I'm so glad my car has two sides

 

[vraned]

I hope this post is not too late, and this is just my opinion. When given the option, always leave the hinges on the car. This greatly simplifies the alignment when you reinstall the door for the following reasons:

1. the tilt adjustment (top to bottom rotation) of the door remains fixed when you leave the hinges attached to the body. This greatly improves the odds that your top and bottom door seals will still be close to air tight when you reinstall the door.

2. the gap can be set with the door closed because you can still access some the door-side bolts. This allows the door latch to "help" you adjust the gaps if you haven't altered it.

If you unbolt from the body side of the hinge, you need to adjust both the tilt and the door gap with the door open. This is an iterative PITA.