Having already replaced the passenger door, it is now time to tackle the drivers side. Both doors had succumbed to rust along the bottom edge:
The donor door comes from an import so has some differences that make the replacement more complicated than simply swapping them over.
The owner of the donor door decided to chop the loom between the car and the door for easy removal which unfortunately means I have to remove and it replace it. I have sourced replacement JDM looms:
The bump strips on the new door are a different colour of red than on my car, but they are also thinner which means I can’t just swap them over. The bump strips on the new door will have to be painted body colour.
The donor door also comes with electric retractable mirrors which my previous door did not. The JDM wiring loom accounts for this but an additional relay is also required for inside the vehicle which I have sourced but will have to be wired in. The new door also originally had a rather nice, unscratched window with it – which I was really looking forward to using! But unfortunately I accidentally smashed it when my weights bench fell over and tapped the window (which was up), shattering it completely. Most of that shattered glass of course ended up inside the door adding an extra challenge to the rebuild.
Disassembly List:
- Remove door card
- Remove mirror / tweeter
- Remove weather strip and clips
- Remove broken glass
- Remove window regulator and mechanism (inspection and regrease)
- Remove rubber edge seal
- Remove Speaker
- Remove exterior door handle (swap locks)
- Remove latch mechanism (inspection and clean)
Donor Drivers Door
Some minor rust at the base which will need to be fixed.
Doorcard Removed
waterproof membrane to be carefully removed
Drivers Door Mirror Removed
You can see the chopped wiring in the side of the door.
Mirrors are a must
Many of the clips can only be released from the underside so mirrors are very useful for helping guide your tools to the right place.
Speaker Magnet
The window felts had fallen down to be caught by the speaker magnet (handy feature!)
Chopped Loom Removed
If only they hadn’t been chopped!
Weather Strip Removed
For repainting later
Window slider removed
No grease left at all.
Broken Glass
Left over glass from the smashed window - this was a nightmare to remove! Lodged itself everywhere it could.
Window slider removed
Lack of grease here too
Window Slider and Bracket
Cleaned up and degreased along with restoring the bracket that connects to the window (bottom) - it came out looking like the one at the top so again, nice to have this restored.
Grease or Treacle?
The small amount of grease that remained in the sliders was really thick and sticky like treacle. No wonder the windows on MR2s of this age are so slow and noisy to operate if they are all like this.
Donor Window Regulator
Removed and ready for inspection.
Original Window Regulator
Well Well! My original regulator appears to have been experiencing enough torque that it has completely sheared two of its mount points! My Window was incredibly slow and you could hear it straining to operate as it pushed through the treacle grease.
Snapped Regulator
Even the two remaining mount points (right) are cracked.
Window Regulator with Fresh Grease
All ready to go back in and moving much more freely. I also cleaned up the metal parts.
Latch Mechanism Before
Very dirty, rusty and in need of some attention. Very glad I decided to fully strip the door when I see things like this.
Latching Mechanism Restored
It cleaned up rather nice with a bit of WD and some intricate cleaning. Fresh grease applied to the mechanical parts.
Double Doors
Replacement Donor Door (top) - all striped and ready for reassembly / parts transfer.
Original door (bottom) - stripping in progress.
Door Handle Hole
With the handle removed on the donor door it's an excellent opportunity to cleanup grime like this that doesn't normally see the light of day.
Clean Door Handle Hole
Much better
Drivers Handles
Donor handle (Left), Original (Right).
Handles and Barrels
Lock barrels removed for cleaning
Drivers Handles
Donor handle (Left), Original (Right).
Handle Restored
Rear of the handle all cleaned up and lock refitted.
Door Handle Refreshed
Lock Barrel polished, Outer Trim restored to black and a good clean and polish.
Hidden Rust under the seal
I noticed a small bit of rust around the interior seam of the donor car (aaaarrgghh!), so decided to investigate.
Rust Revealed
Removing the seam was quite tricky as it's a rather solid foam type material, but I'm glad I have removed it as there's a lot of rust underneath.
Rust Revealed
Rust.
Door Rust
Very glad I decided to remove the seal to reveal all of this rust otherwise I'd be right back where I started in a few years
Rusted
More Rust
Lifted the seam for better access
Even more rust
Door Rust
Rust Rust Rust
Treated with Karust (Rust Converter)
I ground back what I could and then lathered on the rust converter.
Treated with Karust (Rust Converter)
Rust converter.
Treated with Karust (Rust Converter)
Treated with Karust (Rust Converter)
Treated with Hammerite
Direct to rust after the converter finished.
Treated with Hammerite
not the correct colour, but this will all be hidden anyway. I will have to figure out what I use to recreate the removed seam.
Donor Window Glass Removed
That's a dirty window! This is the window from my original door (as mentioned above the donor window smashed). Although this dirt is never seen, it MUST be cleaned.
Drivers Window Naked
All fixings removed - some were in pretty bad shape and rusty so difficult to remove. Some are cleaned up, others I'll use spares parts for.
Drivers Window Ready for Cleanup
Good chance to hose both sides of the window
Scratches
I have tried polishing the scratches out and they have improved slightly, but no where near enough. So I may try again later or replace.
Major scratches
This is why I was gutted that the donor window smashed (it was in far better condition). These scratches are quite deep due to the condition of the window felts and other components (which will now be refreshed).
Scratches
This is where the window runs inside the wing mirror rubber - quite a deep groove.
Window Cleaner
Cleaned and polished but still scratched.
Window Ready for Fitting
All fittings cleaned up and back on. Before I can fit it I'll need to refurb and fit the weather strip
Glueing
Rubber glue deployed and I've used a battery and a ruler to give the clamp something to press against.
Drivers Door Skipped
Fully stripped (lots of spares kept) and ready to be skipped.
Weather Strip
The rear side has torn away a bit so I'll try some rubber glue.
Weather Strip Inside
As weather the passenger side, the window felts were in a bad way (hence the scratches). The metal holding them to the weather strip was rusted away.
Weather Strip
Faded
Weather Strip
It's not in the best condition - faded and with overspray on the edges - salvageable though.
Glued
The rubber glue appears to have held. Sanded back a bit to remove the raised surface.
Reloomed
Window regulator support brackets installed and the replacement JDM wiring loom - hooked up to the regulator and the locking mechanism. Many of the plastic retaining clips (all) were missing on this loom so cable ties were successfully deployed.
Painted Trim
Repainted in gloss black. But...I was impatient, didn't use primer, and used an old paint can which was spraying huge blobs. The end result is nasty, so I suspect I'll be sanding this back and starting again.
Primed Weather Strip
The previous paint was horrible, so I sanded it back down and put on some decent primer, before having another go with new paint.
Plasti-Dipped
The weather strip looks much better plast-dipped. I'm really impressed with this stuff, it gives a rubbery factory feel.
Felt Attachment
2 cable ties fed through each other. I'll keep an eye on these as the plastic lock parts could rub on the window in time.
Felt Tied
Felts from the other side
Mirror Mirror
Original (left), Replacement (Right).
For the passenger side my mirror housing was in far better condition than the replacement so I had to swap all of the internals over (to keep the power folding functionality). For the drivers side I am very happy that the condition of both are just the same so I won't have any soldering this time. Phew!
Mirror Mirror
Original (left), Replacement (Right).
The replacement mirror is a little wobbly where the mirror housing connects to the mirror bracket and the screws appear to be stuck in place. WD40 soak has begun and the next step will be to get some heat on there as I suspect I'm dealing with dried out thread lock.
Spiders Man!
The mirror glass pops off relatively easily so I can get a better look at the mechanism. We've had quite a few spider visitors it seams. This will give me better access to polish up the housing and the glass/surround.
Mirror Screws
These screws were a bit of hassle! They're thread locked so would not budge and the heads were really starting to self destruct. I want to remove these as the mirror had a bit of a wabble. Also a good chance to get in about the mirror, regrease the interiors and give it a clean.
Heat
Applying a soldering iron to the screw for 5 minutes did the job perfectly - before the heat it wouldn't budge, after the heat it came out much more easily. I'll remember this trick sooner next time!
Replacements
The far right screw is reuseable but the one to its left is a goner, so some replacements found (left)
Thread Cleanse
With the original screws removed, I cleared out the threads with a bolt.
Mirror Repair
Some areas of rubber looking worse for wear
Reseal
with the mirrors off it's a great chance to replace the now very compressed and leaky seals. I was going to buy speacialist seal but had this lying around so thought I'd give it a go.
Old Mirror Seals
Really worn and a common cause of wind noise while driving.
Mirror Resealed
This seal strips fit perfect and look like they'll do a great job
Mirror Sealed
Much Better.
Sealed
With the mirror fitted back to the door, you can see the good seal acheived between the red door metal and the new sealant strips (just under the bolts)
Window Felt Restored
Read for fitting
Window Stops
These were showing a bit of rust so restored them.
Felt Refreshed
Felts cleaned and new lower felt glued in place.
Window Accessories
Drying ready for fitting
Window Felts Before
Quite worn / flattened and missing the lower part.
Window Connected
So nice to be putting the glass back in
Power without Power
With the MR2 away being welded, I didn't have a spare battery, but need to lower the window regulator into the correct spot for inserting and attaching the window at the inspection panels. My jump leads were also in the MR2! So I got the motor as close as I could to the battery terminals in the mini, and hooked the motor up with some multimeter wires. Jobs a goodun, and I was very releaved to see the motor working, nice and smoothly too.
Door Seal
I picked up a tube of polyurathane sealant to replace the sealant strip I removed around the doors edge, this should protect that seam from further water ingress. It can aparently be painted over when dry.
Sealant
Nicely Sealed.
Almost done!
The Window is in, the internals are all in and the inspection panel is back in place. The seam is sealed and the mirror is fitted. All that's left is the restore the rubber door surround, and refit the internal panels then I can finally class this door as rebuilt!
Rubber Strip New Foam
The old foam / insulation was compressed and not up to much so replaced with fresh.
Almost Finished Door
Rubber edging washed (dishwasher), refreshed foam, fitted, internal door card refreshed and restored (removed, refreshed and refitted the window trim), tweater cover refreshed and fitted. It’s almost a complete door! Just the window switch panel to be looked at and the door cup then we’re (finally) done here!
Replacement Clip
The plastic clips on these control panels are notorious for being snapped, and the clip is missing entirely here. Queue my patent pending clip fix!
Switch & Clip
The clip is a picture frame spring clip for frameless hanging
Dirty Switches
To gain better access for fitting I removed the switches from the cover which is another nice chance for a deep clean!
Dirty Siwtches
Lots of dirt dating back to 1993
Clean Switch
Thats better.
Bracket Position
Position at the back of the snapped clip
Drill
A hole for the bolt
Bolted
Pass a small bolt through with a washer and a nut on the inside to keep things tight. The design of the clip works great because you don’t even have to drill the metal.
ReClipped
Bend the metal to about 60/70 degrees (more than in this pic) and it’s good to go.
Reassembled switches
The new clip looks right at home
Better than new
Ready for insertion
Door Cup Cracked
These are notorious also for being cracked. The small screw which holds them in place is very easy to over tighten. I could have sworn I had a spare in better condition but I can’t find it, so in the meantime I will attempt a repair.
Caked
Caked it in Plastic/Rubber glue and used a vice by separating it’s jaws to apply pressure to the cracked parts keeping them in place. Once dry I’ll sand it down and I’m going to try primer and paint on this to see how it looks. Maybe gloss black, maybe plasti-dip.
Fitted
Fitted back in and sitting nice and snug
Sanded Back
Sanded Back the Glue
Painted
Painted with Plastic-Dip - Not happy with it, but it will do for now.
All Finished!
All parts refitted and the door is done!
I started this post in May 2018 and it’s taken me until June 2019 to finish!
One thought on “Drivers Door Rebuild”
Comments are closed.