Eric, let’s hope so!
Another day and I have got back to the door cards.
The pre f/l door cards (unlike the facelift ones?) are made of a fibre type of board which is moulded into shape. With age and water ingress on the back you often get areas where the fibre board is starting to or has disintegrated. Mine was not too bad, but where the board had gone soft I used some netting we had bought years ago for protecting plants from frost and applying a watered down PVA solution. This is a bit like fibreglassing without the mess and the result is pretty solid. The trimmer recovered them when he did the seats, so they match the rest of the interior. A couple of weeks or so ago I fitted the plastic/chrome kick plates, clips and the door lock surround. Today I had a go at fitting the drivers side one. It took a bit of time, but all went well, thankfully.
One thing I had decided to use on the base of the card is the stainless strip which holds it in place as well as the clips. The strip I used I think is from the later cars and curves up either side of the card, unlike the original which is just a simple strip which does not offer any protection to the lower edges. They fit, just need a bit of persuading. I managed to fit the door pull surround without breaking it, however the original ‘shiny’ original ones had missing lugs, so I used one from the later cars which is more of a satin finish, still looks the part, so happy with it. After that the window winder handle fitted.
The main L shaped door pull handle has three fixings, the lower two still had the captive nuts in the doors and take a self tapper type of screw. The upper one however, the captive nut was missing on both sides so I bought some cage nuts and Allan headed bolts to suit which fit well and give a solid fixing.
The final part fitted was the door lock knob. I am not sure, but I think the original may have been brown to match the interior, however I cannot find any other than the two black ones which I am fitting. As usual no idea when the others I know I had have gone.... The black ones however look fine, so all in all happy with the end result. I hope the passenger side goes in as well.
All that is left is the screw next to the door lock, I am leaving it and aim to do all 4 in both front and rear door cards at the same time, hoping I do not screw them up!
One issue which I have also known about is that the door seal is too big for to allow the door to shut correctly. Again another job I have been putting off as not 100% sure how to resolve it, but somewhere some of the rubber needs to go. I do however want to do it in a least obvious way given you look at it each time you get into the car.
Peter
