Can the doors 'drop', and can they be raised?

[chris watton]

I drove home from Redditch this afternoon, and it was absolutely chucking it down.

Inside my Tam, for the most part, was nice and dry and quite cosy. Apart from a draft I felt on my right lower leg. I looked down, and sure enough, water was getting through via the front edge of the door, and quite a draft to boot!

When I got home, I discovered that there is more of a gap at the top side edge of the drivers door (near the lower windscreen rubber seal) thank the passenger - I can only conclude that the drivers door has dropped slightly, meaning the door seal not being able to do its job.

Is there a known way of rectifying this?

Cheers

[shep1001]

chris watton said:

I drove home from Redditch this afternoon, and it was absolutely chucking it down.

Inside my Tam, for the most part, was nice and dry and quite cosy. Apart from a draft I felt on my right lower leg. I looked down, and sure enough, water was getting through via the front edge of the door, and quite a draft to boot!

When I got home, I discovered that there is more of a gap at the top side edge of the drivers door (near the lower windscreen rubber seal) thank the passenger - I can only conclude that the drivers door has dropped slightly, meaning the door seal not being able to do its job.

Is there a known way of rectifying this?

Cheers

They can but its a pain in the arse to shim them. Get a length of foam saussage from the place you got your door seals from and feed it through the bulb of the door seal then re-fit it. Door will sit tighter against the seal - sorted

[samnorthy]

Chris,

Yes you can adjust the doors, the hinges bolt to the rollcage. You can find the bolts near the emergancy door pull handle.

Beware that moving the door hinges opens a real can of worms with the door alignment!

[chris watton]

samnorthy said:

Chris,

Yes you can adjust the doors, the hinges bolt to the rollcage. You can find the bolts near the emergancy door pull handle.

Beware that moving the door hinges opens a real can of worms with the door alignment!

shep1001 said:

They can but its a pain in the arse to shim them. Get a length of foam saussage from the place you got your door seals from and feed it through the bulb of the door seal then re-fit it. Door will sit tighter against the seal - sorted

Cheers guys

I think I'll leave it until the Tam has more work done - I can just imagine the carnage I could potentially cause by messing with the bolts...

I may try the foam 'sausage' - but I am concerned that the door is so out of alignment that the rubber seal is missing the door altogether..

[chris watton]

Just took a couple of pics of both sides - this is the passenger side:



And the drivers side:



And to top it off, I noticed condensation on the inside of the windscreen - this car is no good for anything but dry weather driving right now!

[slimtater]

What's the gap like at the catch side of the doors when closed? It looks like the drivers door needs to move forwards by about an inch but that can't be right!

[SergSC]

I also have an issue with door alignment on my tam. Passenger door is too far back and is rubbing the paint off the b pillar, i.e. zero gap (ok window sealing at the front, which is odd). One garage told me to leave it alone, another that I might not be successful. An interesting bit of info I received was that every door on these cars is fits only a particular body shell.

I'm thinking this probably is a two man job... doing anything in the foot well is backbreaking awkward work, more so in the drivers side, so having someone outside to hold/manipulate the door while you or a hired midget loosens bolts just enough for it to move seems like a good idea, because its the crawling in and out that is likely to cause some back injury.

[chris watton]

slimtater said:

What's the gap like at the catch side of the doors when closed? It looks like the drivers door needs to move forwards by about an inch but that can't be right!

The gaps are pretty close on both sides when the doors are closed. I went through my pictures of the car when I first had it, and doors look the same as now, but yesterday was the first time I drove it in torrential rain conditions. Strangely though, yesterday was the first time I had felt a daft come through. I did change the rubber seals, but they're in exactly the same place as before.

SergSC said:

I also have an issue with door alignment on my tam. Passenger door is too far back and is rubbing the paint off the b pillar, i.e. zero gap (ok window sealing at the front, which is odd). One garage told me to leave it alone, another that I might not be successful. An interesting bit of info I received was that every door on these cars is fits only a particular body shell.

I'm thinking this probably is a two man job... doing anything in the foot well is backbreaking awkward work, more so in the drivers side, so having someone outside to hold/manipulate the door while you or a hired midget loosens bolts just enough for it to move seems like a good idea, because its the crawling in and out that is likely to cause some back injury.

It is a nightmare getting under the dash area - was bad enough just feeding wires and cable-tying under the passenger dash!

I think the best thing to do (given my history of messing things up..) is to take it somewhere that has experience in this sort of thing. In the meantime, what if I added an extra seal to the position indicated?

[shep1001]

chris watton said:

Just took a couple of pics of both sides - this is the passenger side:



And the drivers side:



And to top it off, I noticed condensation on the inside of the windscreen - this car is no good for anything but dry weather driving right now!

Bottom pic: screen leak is a PITA. Its where the hump is over the instrument binnacle. Took a second go to get mine right when I had a new screen fitted.

[shep1001]

chris watton said:

It is a nightmare getting under the dash area - was bad enough just feeding wires and cable-tying under the passenger dash!

I think the best thing to do (given my history of messing things up..) is to take it somewhere that has experience in this sort of thing. In the meantime, what if I added an extra seal to the position indicated?

Why is there a hole in the door seal bulb halfway down??

[shep1001]

[quote=shep1001]


Why is there a hole in the door seal bulb halfway down?? and yes you could add a draft excluder type seal to that edge of the door to add to the door seal OR put the foam plug in there to stop the seal compressing when the door is shut

[chris watton]

shep1001 said:

chris watton said:

It is a nightmare getting under the dash area - was bad enough just feeding wires and cable-tying under the passenger dash!

I think the best thing to do (given my history of messing things up..) is to take it somewhere that has experience in this sort of thing. In the meantime, what if I added an extra seal to the position indicated?

Why is there a hole in the door seal bulb halfway down??

That's not a hole (although it does look like one!) It is the brand new seal I just fitted, and that patch is where the water got in, which is why it's a different shade - and the optical illusion...

ETA:




ETA, I ordered a few different types of rubber seal, just to cover all the bases:

2 x SRS1708 SRS132 D seal 13mm wide x 10mm high Self adhesive £4.50
1 x AEN3 A/B Expanded Neoprene 12x6mm £6.15
2 x ENC84 Expanded Neoprene Cord 6mm dia £1.92

Edited by chris watton on Saturday 28th June 16:16

[chris watton]

The seals come today, so I added the round Solid Neoprene Cord inside both the new seal and door/inner windscreen seal:



Let's see if this works - doors certainly spring open now....

[SteveSPG]

chris watton said:

Just took a couple of pics of both sides - this is the passenger side:



And the drivers side:



And to top it off, I noticed condensation on the inside of the windscreen - this car is no good for anything but dry weather driving right now!

I wouldnt pay much attention to panel gaps..... i once put my door cards back to back, the shape is completely different side to side....just like the rest of the car its all a bit "random"

[chris watton]

SteveSPG said:

I wouldnt pay much attention to panel gaps..... i once put my door cards back to back, the shape is completely different side to side....just like the rest of the car its all a bit "random"

I know - I am the same, but this gap is/was letting in water and quite a breeze, so I had to pay attention to this particular gap - especially as I plan to drive it to Italy at some point...