Hanging the doors

[Hans Efde]

One of the most annoying things on kit cars are bad hung doors. And to make matters worse, hanging the doors seems to be a sort of black art. On my Convertible I had to renovate the doors, so I have started from scratch and will work my way to completed and perfectly hung doors step by step. With this post I intend to bore the sh#t out of you with dozens of pics of doors.

1. Hinges
I renovated the door hinges and painted them.

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2. Hinges and front edge
Step 2, install the hinges (with normal nuts to ease disassembly, locking nuts in the end) and align front edge of door with body. I had to use washers underneath the upper hinge. First I used thick ones, but did it again with thinner ones.

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Result:

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3. Adjust rear edge
My left door is warped, the lower edge sticks out when the door is correctly aligned on top:

door rear edge out.jpg (29.3 KiB) Viewed 10275 times

With bending by using my knee the door aligns with the body. But this raises the top line, so I had to loosen the hinges and drop the door a bit. Tighten the nuts again and now when the door is twisted it aligns properly:

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4. Straining the door
To see how it looks, I used a steel wire to twist the door.As you can see the door is completely stripped. I'll rebuild it step by step, checking its position every time.:

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Now it is perfect from the outside:

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The top edge is aligned and the door follows the curve of the body. Next step is to use the inner door card to replace the strain of the steel wire. I'll have to fill the holes and redrill them for the proper tension.
TBC.

[Hans Efde]

Today did a bit of work.

1. New holes.
I removed the old anchor nuts and filled the holes except the one in the upper front corner. After drying I installed the door card with the bolt in the upper front corner, warped the door and drilled a new pilot hole in the lower aft corner. I would like to have used the original hole in the doorcard, but the new position would interfere with the electric locking motor. I installed a parker to see how the door looked like:

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The door now warps inwards:

door warp inwards.jpg (27.81 KiB) Viewed 10255 times

According the GTM build manual you have to double the warp, so hopefully this is okay. We'll see.

I drilled the other pilot holes, removed the door card and drilled the vertical aligned holes to 8mm for installation of new anchor nuts.

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I was able to install 2 anchor nuts without tooling (just a bolt, nut and washer), but also twisted 2 anchor nuts. So the next ones will be with proper tooling. The holes on the lower edge will be drilled when I have installed the door frame.

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I installed the door handle painted in matching color:

door handle.jpg (29.07 KiB) Viewed 10255 times

I also painted the window frame and installed it with just the upper bolts and screws.:

frame in place.jpg (42.22 KiB) Viewed 10255 times

Next is drilling the pilot holes in the lower edge, installing the remaining anchor nuts and the window weather sealing. TBC

[manifold]

Looks great Hans.

We should have more of these.

It would be good to have a series of 'hows to's'

....would be a bit like having a Haynes Manual for the Midas then! .

[Hans Efde]

Here's a small update. I had a few small setbacks that have slowed things down.
I have installed and secured the window frame. This has an effect on the curving of the door, so it's important to have the door prestretched when the frame is secured. I measured the diagonal holes in the doorcard and in the door. The distance on the doorcard was one cm less. I used again a diagonal steel wire in the door to get it bent so the diagonal size was similar to the doorcard.Then I drilled the holes in the lower edge and popriveted the frame to the door.

Previously I had removed the old anchor nuts and filled the holes with 2 component glue.

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I reinstalled the doorcard and used it to drill new pilot holes with a 4mm drill. I removed the doorcard, used tape to stick a 8mm washer over the hole and drilled a 8mm hole through the door and doorframe.

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This was the second attempt. My first try was with a big one speed drill and without a washer guiding the drill. The result was a huge hole, still visible by the filler. Luckily the second attempt was successful.

For installing riv- and anchornuts I bought a special tool from Memfast with a load of anchornuts and rivnuts. Alas the anchor nuts did not fit on this tool, but by removing the nose piece and installing a friction washer it now works.

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The paint I got previously was the wrong color. I got a new tin with blue paint and was able during a calm day in between autumn storms to paint new mirrors (from a Seicento, not sure if they will fit) and repainted the door handle.

paint job.jpg (27.44 KiB) Viewed 10217 times

Next is to install the repainted door handle, weather strip and door card (final time). Then the striker pin and rubbers and it will be time to do the RH door. TBC.

[Hans Efde]

I finally have finished my doors, but made a few errors, so after the MOT I will remove them once again.
I adjusted the right door so the waist line of the car is smooth, but now the window frame hits the A-pillar. Easily sorted, but it requires removing all nuts and bolts again, drilling new holes etc. To make matters worse I used a locally bought window U-seal that is the wrong type. The window binds and when I wind it up, the U-seal moves with it. Apparently the trim from Woolies is the one I need and it's probably best to glue it in the sliding rail.
Also the matt black paint I used on the window frames won't stick. I already have a few flakes missing. Now I found out that for aluminium you MUST use a special alu etching primer. The normal filler primer won't stick as well. Great, on all these spraying cans it says you can use it directly on metal. Apparently aluminium is not a metal.

Another bit of advise is if you use a central locking system (rare on a Midas, but mine has it with an integrated alarm), check it before closing up everything. I had everything finished, hooked up the battery, resetted the alarm by switching it on and off and then my doors wouldn't open anymore. So I had to remove the seats again, opened up the doorcards and had just enough room to unhook the rods.

[manifold]

Another tip. Dont lock your only set of keys in the boot.... I did that once.

[Hans Efde]

Another tip. Dont lock your only set of keys in the boot.... I did that once.

Don't you have a secret hole so you can still open the boot without the keys? I have one behind my numberplate.

[Geoff Butcher]

Another tip. Dont lock your only set of keys in the boot.... I did that once.

Don't you have a secret hole so you can still open the boot without the keys? I have one behind my numberplate.

Not any more you don't!

[DavidL]

I modified the tailgate release on mine to open via a door lock beside the "Midas" badge above the right taillight - I seem to remember I made up a fixed striker loop attached to the glass, and a locking mechanism sited at the point where originally there was just a slot for the latch. I connected this to the door lock with a Bowden cable. I was never very happy about having a key slot with its opening pointing upwards; I thought it was bound to trap water, eventually.

The hardest part was cutting the hole in the body for the door lock. Psychologically hard, not physically.

And I'm fairly certain that Mike Perkins was involved in designing the locking mechanism.

Oh, and the reason I've posted this, is that this provided me with a secondary means of opening the tailgate, although it wouldn't have helped me if I'd ever managed to lock myself out - something which I managed to avoid in almost all the cars I've owned...

However, I DO know how to get into a Noble without the keys...

[Geoff Butcher]

However, I DO know how to get into a Noble without the keys...

But can you drive it away?