Another Land Rover doors post

Hi all, I am looking for peoples experiences with fitting doors to their defenders,
I am putting my 90 back together after a re paint, so to fitting the doors, after lot of messing about I got the doors to fit, just, (the doors are new and galvanised) so next job was to fit the card, now the door card hits the bolts holding the sill and through seatbox . It would seem that the sill is too high and catching the and catching the bottom of the door. Can you adjust the sill height? by the way the door cannot be lifted up anymore as its at the top of its adjustment and lines up with the bulkhead.

Are you sure the door card isn't mounted too low?

Put some coach bolts in, flat mushroom type heads.

crofter65 said:

Hi all, I am looking for peoples experiences with fitting doors to their defenders,
I am putting my 90 back together after a re paint, so to fitting the doors, after lot of messing about I got the doors to fit, just, (the doors are new and galvanised) so next job was to fit the card, now the door card hits the bolts holding the sill and through seatbox . It would seem that the sill is too high and catching the and catching the bottom of the door. Can you adjust the sill height? by the way the door cannot be lifted up anymore as its at the top of its adjustment and lines up with the bulkhead.

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Have you put the seal on the bottom of the door yet? IIRC this can be put on upside down and causes issues with the sill.

No seal fitted yet, I did think of coach bolts but in the end I managed to get the door to shut, still not happy as the door still sticks out at the rear about 10mm, I have already had to grind the striker holes to get it to shut this far.

crofter65 said:

No seal fitted yet, I did think of coach bolts but in the end I managed to get the door to shut, still not happy as the door still sticks out at the rear about 10mm, I have already had to grind the striker holes to get it to shut this far.

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Pictures required. Sounds like something is fairly misaligned!

Al2O3 said:

Pictures required. Sounds like something is fairly misaligned!

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+1 .... pictures are essential

Disco1BFG said:

+1 .... pictures are essential

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here’s some pics, I know it’s a bit low a the back but I don’t think that’s the biggest problem, it’s the fact it doesn’t close flush that annoys me.

Looks like the inner striker plate needs adjusting, if that door's locked.

Paul D said:

Looks like the inner striker plate needs adjusting, if that door's locked.

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He's already been grinding out the striker bolt hols, Paul.
So, @crofter65 are you saying the bottom, inner of the door is hitting the sills?
How does the front edge of the door line up with the wing shut line? You might be able to add a spacer to each of the hinges on the A post, this would move the front of the door out, perpendicular to the side of the A post, enabling the latch end to move in. Unless something is stopping it from moving in!
Have you any seals on at all yet? It should shut very easily, and flush, without the seals on.

I gave up in the end, the door alignment is a bastard.

Door not lined up? Looks low on the photo.

Looks like it's about to fall oft...

I think you've got more than one problem here - or more accurately more than one thing out of alignment. I noticed this post:-

crofter65 said:

Watching this with interest as I am about to reassemble my own 90 using a diferent rear tub, and I was wondering what people use for the pads that go between the tub and chassis, I have seen them on eBay but they look a bit thicker than the ones that were previously fitted to mine and I fear this will lead to the same problem as the Harrytooth is having.

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In which you said you're going to use a different rear tub - did you? How level is the tub if you strike a line like so:-


And what about the hanging side of the door - how does that look ? Viz:-


Pictures square on would be good, if possible.

flat, I am with you on that. As I said earlier the doors seem to come into with the sill / seatbox bolts, when I put it together I made sure the bulkhead to tub gaps were even, I still doesn't shut right without the seals, I know it looks out of line, it is down about 5 mm but theirs no more adjustment on the bulkhead and I don't want to start grinding the bulkhead as the A post to door gap is fine.

Without the striker does this close flush?
As they are new doors are you using the same strikers & latches?

All new strikers and locks, if its the bulkhead or tub that's out I am just going to leave it as its major work to adjust the bulkhead and I think the tub has no adjustment, anyway its way better than before I did the tub change, the drivers door was so tight it rubbed the B post near the top so I had space the bulkhead to the out rigger then I measured the door gap between the tub and bulkhead at the top and bottom and when right I tightened the chassis support.

crofter65 said:

All new strikers and locks, if its the bulkhead or tub that's out I am just going to leave it as its major work to adjust the bulkhead and I think the tub has no adjustment, anyway its way better than before I did the tub change, the drivers door was so tight it rubbed the B post near the top so I had space the bulkhead to the out rigger then I measured the door gap between the tub and bulkhead at the top and bottom and when right I tightened the chassis support.

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@Disco1BFG is obviously on to something here. Has the bulkhead been off? You can't set the bulkhead without getting the door gap correct and parallel, bulkhead vertical etc. There are two brackets that go between the back of the bulkhead, behind the footwells, and each chassis rail. These should not be tightened until everything thing else is gradually set and nipped up in to place. If your bulkhead is leaning in towards the seats by a degree or so then the latch end of the door, which is hanging off it, will be low by several mm. You need to run a line, as shown by Disc1BFG, to get every panel lined up, before you gradually tighten everything, checking as you go along that nothing moves. Even if you have to loosen the wings too, I reckon it would be worth it to get things lined up. Water leaks will be bad enough without the doors being so badly aligned. Some pain now will save years of torment later. IMO

Another thought. Is it a new chassis? Have you had the outriggers replaced?

+1 on the little black brackets.