I recently added a fairly nice XK-140FHC to the herd, and there is an issue with the left (driver) wood door cap trim that bothers me. There clearly is something amiss and before I start tearing it apart thought I would ask for help with recommendations on a fix. Having never had a FHC before (at least an assembled one) I am not entirely sure. I can see that behind the vertical wood panel there is a piece that acts as an attachment strip for the screws for the top piece, but am not sure how the whole system of door attachment works. These photos tell the tale.
The first photo shows the gap between wood and window. The second shows at least one of the screws from the tope either stripped or not catching. The third shows the gap visible from inside the car with door open.
Thanks in advance for any thoughts or recommendations. I did not see anything directly on point in the archives.
It appears to be the same basic construction as my 120 FHC. The side piece or vertical piece is held to the door inner panel by two clips that hook into slots in the panel. It appears that one clip is either missing or not hooked into it’s slot. Take the top piece off and you will see the clips.
The top piece is held down to the side piece by wood screws. The screw has pulled out of the wood below. You will need to either put in a longer screw, or clean out the screw hole, fill the hole with wood glue and put the screw in, clamping the top piece down until the glue hardens overnight.
That information is exactly what I was looking for and much appreciated. The door fitment itself is the one thing that was not done real well, or the hinges are tired, and the clips may have broken or popped out from hard door closures. But I will deal with that part later.
An alternative method for fixing a stripped out screw hole in wood is to ream it out to an available size of wood dowel cut to appropriate length with a mild interference fit and glue it in place. After the glue has set you can drill a pilot hole in the new dowel for the screw.
