355 Door Removal and Refurbishment

[Terry]

Over the last month or so I have removed both doors for a refurbishment - new paint and seals etc plus repainting the forward area of the door frame, an area not easy to access with the door on. This may be of interest to anyone else wishing to remove their doors.

A little masking tape along the rear edge of the wing may help avoid marks if any rub occurs during removal.

First remove the door hold open bolt on the hinge and fully retract the rod otherwise it will hang up on the hinge when removing the door.


The electrical plug is a quick release connector which hinges off at the bottom of the plug


Support the door (it is heavy with all the glas, mechanism and trim) and remove all six 8mm hinge bolts.


Lift the door clear and place in a safe place.


The door trim, glass and glass mechanism could be removed before removing the door to make handling easier.

 

[Gcalo]

BTW how does it drive w/o the doors?

 

[Terry]

The pictures will be between both doors for illustration.

Door removed. Hold open rod connects to the top hinge and interior light switch uses bottom hinge.


Door trim off via a few screws along the rear and bottom edge plus the armrest and pull handle.

 

[Terry]

Next the glass frame can be removed. You need to disconnect the internal door open handle and the window motor cable before moving away.



I removed the glass then removed the connector from the motor instead of breaking the connection at the bottom of the door.



The glass is secured with two 6mm bolts either end at the bottom of the glass.

 

[Terry]

Remove the forward glass guide.



The rear lock mechanism is easily removed via 3 6mm screws in the rear of the door.



A close up of the connection for the key operated lock



Lock mechanism removed.

 

[Terry]

Take an easy chair and clean then relube the lock mechanism.

The motor is for the central locking and easy to replace if faulty.

 

[Terry]

Door stripped and ready for off to the paint shop.

 

[Terry]

Other parts were then sent for powder coating.

All hinges



Interior mirror attachment covers and rear window support. Also sent the rear view mirror inner support bracket.



Outer support frames for mirrors and forward glass.

 

[Terry]

Door back from painting and masked ready for a coat of satin black to the interior.



Interior painted.



Exterior basic polishing prior to fitment of seals etc.



Hinges back from powder coating, now require new bushes.

 

[Terry]

I replaced the hinge bushes on the top hinges for both doors due to wear. I also used new hinge pins.



The old bushes can be tapped out with a drift (hopefully).

I installed the new bushes applying copper slip then pulling home with 8mm bolts. A drift used during installation could easily cause misalignment and/or fracture of the bush so care is needed at this stage.





Hinges assembled ready for refit to door. Be sure to fit the top hinge with the hinge pin facing upwards and the bottom hinge with the hinge pin facing down. This will allow the doors to be removed via the pin removal rather than the entire hinge.



Reassemble hinges to door with new hardware.

 

[Terry]

With the door removed, good access is available to clean up and repaint the hinge end of the door frame.

 

[Terry]

Key lock clean

The key locks were looking scuffed and a little tatty.



The locks can be easily disassembled by removing a spring clip and circlip





Whilst apart the locks can be painted.



The locks were cleaned, regreased, assembled then ready for refit into the door.

 

[Terry]

External Handle

The external handle can be disassembled by removing the lock pin at one end. A suitably sized drill works well as a punch.



The square shaft can be withdrawn to expose all parts



With the handle apart, a thorough good clean and lube prior to reassembly.



Ready to refit to door.

 

[Terry]

Handle and lock ready to fit.

 

[Terry]

Passenger side frame prepared and ready for door installation.

The stool and wood supports the door at around the correct height for hinge alignment.

 

[Terry]

The lock mechanism refitted together with key lock and external door opening handle. The plastic couplings between the key lock and lock mechanism can be seen in this picture. A few people have reported that these have failed causing no reaction from the door lock key to unlock the door.



The front hinge retaining plates and with wiring harness installed.

 

[Terry]

The new windows seals have an adhesive strip pre fitted. The seal is a one piece around the rear window support pillar to the front of the door glass.

View attachment 83017

Hook the seal under the lower edge of the door edge then sqeeze upwards to hook the upper lip over the top edge of the door removing the adhesive cover strip at the same time.

View attachment 83018

The seal will finish a little short of the door mirror support but this is covered after the wing mirror is fitted.

View attachment 83019

 

[Terry]

The rear glass support is a push fit into the seal which surround it on three sides.

View attachment 83020

The seal is fitted into the support and is held in place with two screws. One of the two screws can be seen in the picture below.

View attachment 83023

The post in place.

View attachment 83021

The post is secured in the door via the two allen head screws in the rear face of the door.

View attachment 83022

 

[Terry]

Whilst the door was stripped, I fitted some additional insulation to the inner skin of the door and along the bottom inner surface. I used the solid rubbery self adhesive type which is around 3mm thick. Be sure to leave the drain holes open on the bottom of the door.

It may be my imagination but with the insulation the doors have a more solid feel and the bass from the speakers is slightly better.

View attachment 83024

 

[Terry]

Door wing mirror

I had previously repaired the LH door rear mirror but the RH side also seemed a little loose at the hinge point so I decided to strip it down for investigation.

One attachment point for the inner support at the hinge point had broken away so I made up a new one from hollow carbon rod and bedded it into some epoxy resin impregnated with carbon fibres.

View attachment 83025

Did a trial fit before sending the mirror housing off to the paint shop with the support frame away for powder coating. Prior to painting I sanded the hinge area to ensure a good fit especially to avoid any chaffing at the hinge point which could later chip the paint.

View attachment 83026

Everything prepared ready for re-assembly.

View attachment 83027

It is necessary to remove the plug from the mirror motor connection in order to feed the wires through the hinge point. The RH mirror has the additional two wires for the sensor which I cut at the door connector then reconnected and covered with heat shrink. A bit of a fiddle getting the wires through in the right orientation.

View attachment 83028

View attachment 83029

The assembly ready to fit the glass. I found that the glass clip can be fully fitted and the glass will then "pop" into place. Be careful to only push in the centre where the glass is supported to avoid you know what.

View attachment 83030

I used a new mirror seal and new foam inside the mirror support.

View attachment 83031

View attachment 83032