Hi there!
Both my doors don’t close properly (see pictures). I don’t have enough tools / knowledge to fix this myself so i have to go to a garage. I wondered whether anyone could give me an indication how difficult this is and how long it should take. I’ve read that it can be extremely fiddly.
Thanks a lot!
Fabian
Fabian…it is true that it is fiddly…however with patience it can be done …… the thing to remember is 5hat it was done in the factory…therefore it can be done again…the biggest issue is the front edge of the door where it meets the scuttle
There are 3 sets of adjustments required…. “In and out” , “up and down” and “fore and aft”
To attain up and down and fore and aft you need to use the adjusting bolts on the door ….to adjust in and out use the adjusting bolts on the a pillar on the body.
I start with-the fore and aft and up and down.then the in and out.
A lot of this is a suck and see situation
Hard to see from the pics what the real problem(s) is/are. Can you share any information on how the doors got to be this way…been worked on or replaced??
Although the doors themselves might need adjustment as from my perspective, just looking at the pics, it looks like the latching adjustment is all wrong. Have you tried adjusting that? If you push the door firmly to close it, does it latch?
Just looking at those photos ….it’s the same on both sides……has it got new seals ?..… ….Les may well be correct about the latching adjustment too ….did you get the car like that?...how did it get to look like that ….from the photos that is a major misalignment …more photos from the side view and also from the front looking to the back would be helpful
My s2 2 plus 2 is like that, came like that from PO; my 68 OTS closes like it should with no slamming just closing slowly with hand n a nice click.
As mentioned- many xke’s, the front end of the door rubs on the cowl n rubs off the paint. And gaps should match.
Can anyone elaborate on the order of adjustments and if spacers are needed or tips? Thanks
I’ll take a shot at it, given I did it just a year or so ago……,
First, remove the latch receiver located on the B pillar. Just gets in the way of opening t by r door several times during the process.
Second, I’m not aware of the need for any kind of spacers etc.
Third, these fours are quite heavy so get a helper if you can and have them sit inside with the wrenches.
Fourth, close the door, fully if you can. Even if it’s misaligned it should still go into the opening.
If it won’t go into the opening, find out what’s stopping it and correct that problem. If it’s just poorly fitting door seals then either get better ones, learn to live with it, or remove them so you’re not fighting them when performing the alignment and dirt out said seals when the alignment is done.
Fifth, have your helper loosen the hinge bolts on the door, just enough to allow you yo move the door to the desired position, but MAKE SURE you are holding the door so it doesn’t drop. So now you have a door that you can slide around and get it spaced so the gaps front and back are equal, then perform the same actions to adjust the door to get the door trim aligned up and down and front to back.
The aforementioned is tricky and time consuming. Have your helper snug up at least two of the bolts while you stand back to eyeball each move you as you progress. When you have the front and back and up down aligned to your satisfaction, now it’s time to move on to the in and out position.
Sixth, the bolts on the A pillar should now be loosened just enough to allow you to move the door to position it in/out, then tighten them.
At this point the door should sit in the opening in pretty good position. Fine adjustments will be required but it should be at 95% right.
Now refit the door latch receiver/keeper and you’ll see how it can be moved around such that the door will engage with it with little force.
Hope this helps.
Les pretty much nailed it.
There are spacers between the striker and the body, BD19297 is a shakeproof shim. It has perforations like a cheese grater to lock the striker in position when the fasteners are tightened. BD19298 is/are 0.036" packing strikers. However many you need, if any will vary.
The door can be too high or too low, and it can be too far forward or too far aft. The front and rear edges of the door can be too far out from the body shell, what the Brits call “Proud”. And, since the hinges allow for alignment, or misalignment in multiple planes you can have the doors flush at the top and proud at the bottom or vice versa. And you can have the door cockeyed in the opening; the front too high and the rear too low or vice versa.
I’d start with a generous gap at the front of the door and make sure;
I’ve always adjusted 1 and 2 above by loosening and tightening the three bolts that hold the hinge to the door. I’d place a piece of blue painter’s tape on the door and butting up to the hinge. That allowed me to see how much I’d moved the door in relation to the hinge. Really small changes at the hinge are magnified at the rear of the door so go small. This is also where you make adjustments if the door is not square in the opening.
For # above I loosened and tightened the four bolts holding the hinge to the body to move the door in and out in relation to the body. Again, make small adjustments until you are satisfied.
Once the door fits properly in the opening it’s time for the latch and striker. If the Series I is like a Series II all the adjustment is at the striker, the latch parts on the door have no adjustments. The striker can be moved up down, in out and rotated a bit. I used painter’s tape around the striker to track changes as I adjusted the striker.
You want the rear edge of the door flush with the body. If the weatherstrip is not properly installed in its channel achieving that will be almost impossible. Ask me how I know this.
Finally, I did the doors on my old 2+2 and on the FHC I currently own by myself. I opened the door about 1/2 open and placed a bottlejack on a plastic milk crate under aft end of the door. By manipulating the jack and the three bolts the hold the hinge to the door I could make all the adjustments I needed to to move the door up and down, forward or back and square it in the opening.
Put something decent and relaxing on the garage stereo and plan on devoting an afternoon to your hobby.
Hi Fabian…befor you try to adjust the doors you need to establish what the issue is…as mentioned by others has the car had new rubber seals…some replacements are known to be too hard and dont squish enough to let the door shut…also have the door cards/caps been replaced…if so these could be trimmed wrong and aslo prevent doors closing…you dont sound experianced or confident to tackle the doors…if i were you i would find a workshop that has experiance with E types and get an assesment of the issues…Steve
Hi Fabian,
The door trim and mirror positioning look incredibly familiar, what is the chassis number?
I restored #1E76372BW in 1996-98 and drove it until October 2012.
It might be that the new door seals are not correct or correctly fit, or just the door catches need to be adjusted.
Cheers!
Hi Pekka,
mine is 1E76928. Funny enough also from NY and registered in Maryland. Is there any overview btw. to see the difference between US/UK cars? I remember the ratio was different?
Best
Fabian
I recently replaced the door bushings on my Vega by myself by using my engine hoist and a BIG plastic zip tie looped around the window frame to support the very heavy door from above. I have not played with the doors on my E but the Vega doors seem much heavier and unwieldy. Once hung the zip tie is thin and flexible enough to close the door while still bearing the weight to check some for fit. Once all done I cut off the zip tie. Just a thought in case you guys think this method might help in adjusting doors on an E for those that have a hoist.
David
68 E-type FHC
Just read through my posting, apologies for the various spelling errors, happens when you’re tipi g on a fone.
John, yep forgot the shims under the door latch, but in defense I was just thinking about the hinge assy.
One other thing worth mentioning…,if the car is on its wheels, get a nice thick blanket to kneel on, or some good knee pads, you’ll be spending most of your time on your knees.
No help on an OTS. …
Hi Fabian,
Cool. IIRC the final drive ratio for automatic S1 2+2’s was 3.31 for US and 3.07 ROW. Later European automatics were 2.88 or 2.97 or something like that. The manual cars were 3.54 for US and 3.07 ROW.
Cheers!
I really need to do this as well on my 2+2. The doors close and seal but just don’t look flush too to bottom.
Is the process essentially the same for an S2?
Thanks!
What I described was when I did my Series II
Pekka makes a very good point in asking whether the door seals are part of the problem.
I would start without the door cards or B-post trim and only with the A-post seal fitted. I’d then make sure the door panel gaps really are correct and that the door is not trying to sag on a worn hinge pin.
Once that all the physical location/orientation of the door checks out, I would worry about the catch and the mechanics of door closing.
To do that, I’d add the seals back in one at a time, starting from the front and working backwards.
Consider that to latch the door, it has close a tiny amount further into the cabin and bounce back latched. The seals are like springs and so they affect the ability of the door to overshoot and close. This is not only because they have friction, but because they affect how much the door can overshoot and bounce back - i.e. how the “spring” settles is a function of how strong the spring is.
The objective is to make the door seals offer almost zero resistance to movement .
The leverage that the door has over the rubber is greatest at the A-post and weakest at the B-post. Accordingly, if door can’t be made to latch with just the big A-post seal fitted, you will never get it closing correctly later anyway. You will need to work that seal with a Dremel to thin it out where it is pinching/folding and too strong until the door weight alone is sufficient to overcome the springiness of the seal.
Then you can work your way towards the B-post and repeat with each new piece of rubber.
Eventually, you can refit the door card and B-post trim and verify that the door isn’t bouncing off of those.
When you are done, the door can be made to close under its own weight (no need to slam!) if let go from a distance of one just handspan away.
Caveat - if you have a lightweight, further measures are needed as the door is aluminium and much lighter than a steel door.
Amongst the tricks with seals is that you should consider that can be as thin as they like, so long as they still contact the door and are deformable. For the seals which sit in a pop rivetted channel, the rear of the seal can be ground away with a Dremel to stop the rivets from interfering with the seal standing proud and obstructing the door fit.
Consider that a spring doesn’t just go straight to its rest position when it releases its tension - the door has to be allowed to overshoot by just enough click the latching mechanism - then it’ll bounce back locked. Unless you are dealing with a physical/mechanical problem (which needs sorting first), seals which are too strong will not allow proper door closure.
Finally, the super secret trick no one tells you is that it is possible to locate the striker plate up to 2mm higher/lower/inboard/outboard more by taking the three cross headed bolts and turning down their thickness in a lathe. The only part of the thread which is needed on those bolts is the end part which mates with the captive nuts. The middle part of the bolt, if turned/ground down, gives you the choice of moving that striker plate further than a stock bolt because the turned down section is where the bolt passes through the door B-post and striker plate. It’s sneaky and it works. Obviously if you take too much metal off, it’ll snap, so adjust to suit.
My doors close without slamming. Just let go of them if they are more than your hand’s width from the B-post and they shut under their own weight with a satisfying clunk. Every single owner I’ve demonstrated this to goes away swearing under their breath, but it’s not rocket science.
kind regards
Marek
Hi,
So did the driver’s door on #1E76372BW but the passenger door needed a slight push, no slamming. On the (unrestored) OTS #1S20183 both doors close effortlessly with their own weight, but are a bit easier than 2+2 doors having a bit less seals and no window frames. But they are also weatherproof which we really needed last week driving through central Sweden! YMMV.
Cheers!
thank you so much everyone, extremely helpful descriptions. It turned out, i did not have to adjust much as the doors were mostly fitted correctly. What i just did not know is that i have to slam the doors to shut them tight. Not a great experience unfortunately… i always fear i am braking something slamming that heavy door. I talked to a nearby garage owner and seems the culprits are the seals. They are not original and too thick so i think i will replace them to improve the experience here…
Thanks again everyone!
I finally got a shakeproof shim to hold my striker plate in place, and it solved my driver’s side door gap.
