Series 2a door tops

Hi all. Good to be back, after moving house, and getting back to tweaking the green dragon, before the dreaded MOT.. But a few things have been bugging me for a while.. The door tops are leaning outwards.. Making it a windy soggy journey, unless some ingenious cable tying mechanism is used I get wet right leg.. I dismantled door, got rid of rust, and repaired some holes, and cleaned the door top seals, but when I replaced, the tops are leaning further out than before.. Giving a great view of the sky.. And a lively draft.. Would new door top seals solve this issue? Or would I have to somehow bend the bolts holding the door top to the rest of the door?
By the way, it was a nice sunny day when I took the door tops off, and really fancied leaving them like that.. Until the next day came along...:-/
Cheers

Are the bolts loose ?

Haha...




No!

Although the door tops will sit in place better with the bolts loose... They just flap about tho!! ;-)

Probably not. The issue is usually the top rail of the door bottom (with the bolt tubes going through) weakens and deforms. Might be possible to force the bolt tubes back into position and re-enforce but not without cutting the top rail and then re-fabbing.

New door bottom is the best answer......you might get lucky with 2nd hand but they tend to all have the same issue.

Being skint I've welded my drivers door top and bottoms together with plate on the inside.....not ideal but at least I stay dry (ish)

Hmmm, are the tops themselves bent ? or the bolts loose on the top end/moved about ?

The bolts seem to look fine and straight, but the issue could lie in the door bottoms, thanks. I'll try and make a wedge, perhaps, or rework the bottom door tops.. And save myself a tenner on the seals... Cheers.

The tops themselves look straight too.. Quite good condition really..

You could extend the bolts downwards and make a tube coming up from the bottom of the door frame to secure to which may solve the problem rather than buying new bottoms

Yeah thanks, if I can avoid buying anything at the moment, it would be best...

Gem said:

The bolts seem to look fine and straight, but the issue could lie in the door bottoms, thanks. I'll try and make a wedge, perhaps, or rework the bottom door tops.. And save myself a tenner on the seals... Cheers.

Click to expand...

Put them together and bolt up. Hold the bottom and wobble the top.....

10 to 1 you'll see the top rail moving

Hmm, ok will try that when it stops ****ing down... And it's light, of course..

man up and get a head torch on

My head torch almost lives on my head from autumn onwards... Just need a fookin waterproof onezee and I'd sort the whole beast out by summer..


But I think I'll go to sleep instead...

I've new door tops and bottoms and my passenger side door top isn't quite leaning in enough. I plan to create an extra camber by using some extra rubber seal together with the usual one. My capping could be marginally twisted as they are regalvanised ones.

I thought about that sort if thing too.. Extra rubber to make a better camber.. Just Couldnt think of the right words..
That seems like the easiest method.. Cheers

I'd check the rubber seal between the two halves is on straight and that the galv trim strip hasn't shifted. I've had to fanny about with all of these to get mine to shut nicely. I've found you need the door tops to lean in slightly when open a bit of light hand pressure while nipping up can make the difference

Thanks. The rubber is in straight, not much of a camber on it, ill have to check the Ali for straightness, and make sure it leans in before I shut it. Looking forward to less drafts.

Just bend the door tops in by hand, mines were the same and this sorted the problem. Whilst they're bolted in obviously just grab the top of the frame and gently pull it inwards while supporting the bottom half of the door with your other hand

Ok, I presume this bends the bolts a little?