The day did not turn out as planned (I should be getting used to this by now). Chris was coming over at 8am and I was setting up my garage at 7am for working on the doors. Cleared out my Elan's so we had plenty of work space and brought out two folding tables to place the doors on.
I went down to the basement where I had the door stored and covered (didn't want them in the way getting scratched in the garage) and carefully brought the first door up (left door) and placed it on the table. As I was leaving the garage to go and get the second door I heard a crash. Uh Oh. Turned around to find the door laying on the concrete floor.....
Calmly walked over, picked up the door and put it back on the table. How did that happen? Realized I had placed the door just at the right angle for the curve of the door to cause a slight slip and the rest was up to gravity. After a careful review of the entire door it was evident it could have been much worse. Two areas on the top edge need repainting. The top corner will need some glass work. Contacted Dave who said bring it over on Monday morning and he will get right to it.
Chris arrived and I told him my story. He thought I was being rather calm about the whole thing. Stuff happens.
We got all the parts out for the assembling the doors. All the interior parts (electric motors, door receivers, rods for the door locks to receiver, etc etc all nicely bagged and marked right/left doors). Read the door pin/hinge instructions from RD and test fit the entire assembly. Looks easy, this will go quickly.......
I had purchased new locks, exterior door handles and interior door openers. The exterior door handles where in OEM bags marked left and right. I took out the right door handle and we started working on the right door. The handle didn't quite fir so I brought out a drill to open the one hole a bit more and then some sand paper to get some of the paint off the inside edge of the handle opening. I wont bore you with all the details but after an hour of fettling in was obvious this handle wasn't going to fit flush to the body. Strange I thought. Went to go look for the original door handles, found the right one and put it in place. Fit instantly. Huh? I went to the other new door handle bag and it clearly said left handle. Opened it anyway and tried it. Yup, fit like a glove. The bags where labeled incorrectly. Upon further inspection it was also oblivious that the new handle had changed a bit as the opening mechanism had a different fitting on it. Enough of this I thought. The OEM handles weren't that bad, I'm using them.
Chris and I both thought the way the handle was secured to the fiberglass via two bolts with small washers was way too delicate and decided to custom make new washers to enhance the area of the backplate to cover more glass. I made a template on a large washer and ground it down then filed it to fit the unusual shape. While I was fitting the exterior handle Chris made another custom washer for the left door.
We then set about installing the new interior door opener. Yup, that had changed too. Decided we could modify it enough to fit and started drilling holes and cutting off the ears that were not needed nor did they allow the new openers to fit inside the mounting bracket. Chris made all the changes after we talked about what needed to be done.
I bolted in the receiver on the right door and was assembling the control rods when I realized I needed two of the those special clips that hold the rod in place. I know I ordered those. Where did I put them. After 30 minutes of searching I gave up. Ill just order more from RD.
On to attaching the door. I had purchased RD's stainless steel hinge set for both doors. I know, Richard's brass hinge sets are noted for being so much easier to install and adjust. But they are doubt the price and how hard could it be........
I tried to test fit the large SS door pin. Just what I thought. The bobbin opening are just a bit too small. I used a micrometer to measure the pin and the holes. Got out a 1/2" bit and right angle electric drill to open the holes. That worked. Now we are ready for the right door install.
The RD instruction sheet says some people take four hours to install and adjust and they say they can do it in 10 minutes. Guess which time frame is more accurate?
It was a hot and humid afternoon in my garage. Typical August weather. And that door took every minute of two plus hours to install and adjust. I was dripping wet and the only thing that kept my sanity was two beers in the middle of the adjusting process. Thank god Chris was helping. He was outside the car holding the door and the special flat steel wrench to hold the nut in place while I was inside the "fiberglass oven" tightening the locking nuts. Several times over.
So here is the secret. When you tighten the nuts inside the door it moves the door location. We finally placed thick cardboard in the door gaps to make them even and then tightened the nuts.
It also became very evident I should have installed the rubber door molding to get the gaps exactly right. Well, now I am well prepared for the left door when it comes back from Dave's.
Chris left to take his girl friend to dinner (thanks for being patient while we finished the door install) and I installed the new rear deck lid hinges. Ah, something fit without modifying!
Feeling a little accomplished......but not really. Learned a lot today. I have decided the New Hope auto show is not reality, I'm focused on getting the Europa done for LOG39.
Tick Tock.
