60kg ? one door or both together ? I had them off, too and believe me, I won't lift 60kg myself ! They weigh probably around 25-30 kg. But still you need somebody who helps. If everything is marked and measured correctly BEFORE taking the doors off, they can be installed afterwards without any problems. The only thing I had to set afterwards were the lock pins (?) a little bit. Elvis > Hi Wilhelm. > > Yup, I think working on the car is fun too. I know how you feel > about the rusty screws and the rusty edge on the roof support. I'm > glad all my rusty fasteners are replaced, and that I repaired the > roof support. > > To remove the roof support, the headliner on the inside of the car > needs to be removed, as well as the doors. If you have a good > headliner, and don't want to replace it, that might be a factor in > deciding to remove the roof support. > > If you decide to remove the roof support, I can offer the following > experience. It takes a few days. > The doors are heavy. They weigh about 60kg. It takes two people to > install them, but if you are strong, you can remove them alone, > though two people is better. > > David Teitelbaum's warnings are all good ones. I won't repeat them, > but I feel they should be followed. I would add this warning: If a > badly supported door fell closed, and your arm was in the way, I > think it would break. If a finger was in the way in a bad place, I > think it would be cut off. I made a conscious effort to keep my body > parts out of the way. > > > To remove a door, assuming your t panel is off and the torsion bars > are removed: > > Remove the brackets attached to the roof support (the wiring > harnesses for the doors go through them) > Remove the cover of the hole in the roof support. > Disconnect the connectors. > With the door open, and supported safely, pull the unconnected door > wiring out of the roof support. > > Before unbolting the hinges, decide where you want to put the doors, > so you can move them immediately from the car to the storage > location, to minimize the risk of damage. > > Unbolt the hinges, saving the easiest to remove nut on each hinge for > last. Figure out which nut is easiest as you go. Before removing the > last nut on each hinge, lower the door as far as you can so it has > less far to fall if you lose control of it. It's helpful to have a > helper hold the door at this stage. If your helper is holding onto > the heavy part of the door while you remove the last hinge nuts, it > should go smoothly. If you lose control of the door, remember it's > only a car door. Don't do anything risky to catch it. You can buy a > new one. > > The hinges may have spacers under them, which set the height of the > doors when installed. Keep track of which ones were where. They > have to go back there later. Mine were rusty, and needed to be > cleaned. > > After the doors are removed and stored away, you can remove the roof > support. > > Inside the car are six 10mm bolts that go through the fiberglass > underbody into the bottom of the roof support. Remove them. There > may be some pther small screws holding the roof support onto the > fiberglass underbody, if I remember correctly. At this point, I > believe the only thing holding the roof support to the fiberglass > will be the any parts in the way, sealant, and the wiring. It should > be clear how to remove it at this point. > > After I removed my roof support, I took it and the hinges to a > friend, who sandblasted them to get rid of all the rust. Then I > carefully cleaned and repainted them to protect them. I intend to > never drive my car in the rain, having seen what it can do. I feel > very good about the job I did. It's a shame no one ever gets to see > it because it's hidden. > > > > Installation is the reverse of removal. While I installed each piece > of the roof support, I put a lot of sealer underneath, between, > everywhere I thought it might help keep out water. > > When you install the doors, don't tighten all of the nuts just yet. > Leave them loose enough to move the door around to adjust the fit. > Are the spacers under the hinges back where they came from? > > There is one subtle thing when installing and aligning the doors. > You may have noticed that the doors have a slightly different shape > with the torsion bars and struts removed. That's because the doors > are so heavy, their weight bends the door a little bit when they are > held up by the torsion bars. If you can't seem to get the doors > perfectly aligned without the torsion bars, this might be why. > > Try to align the door as well as you can before installing the > torsion bars, but remember that you might have to have the torsion > bars installed to align the doors the last little bit. I had to do > this. Be careful not to smack the torsion bars with tools if you do. > Aligning the doors took me several hours. > > > About the dents in your torsion bars. A very smart metallurgist > recommended to me that I sand down the the dents in my torsion bars. > The dents concentrate stress, and make it more likely the torsion bar > will break. I sanded my torsion bars down just enough to remove my > dents, which were about .1mm deep. I made sure to sand a wide area, > to spread the stress over a longer section of the torsion bar. Then > I polished the whole surface with 1600 grit wet sand paper. I > figured out that the surface stress on the torsion bars is 96000 psi, > which is a lot. It's remarkable to me they even work, let alone work > over and over again. > > > Have fun. > > Rick Gendreau. 11472 > > > > > > To address comments privately to the moderating team, please address: > moderators@xxxxxxxxxxx > > For more info on the list, tech articles, cars for sale see > www.dmcnews.com > > To search the archives or view files, log in at > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dmcnews > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > -- "Sie haben neue Mails!" - Die GMX Toolbar informiert Sie beim Surfen! Jetzt aktivieren unter http://www.gmx.net/info To address comments privately to the moderating team, please address: moderators@xxxxxxxxxxx For more info on the list, tech articles, cars for sale see www.dmcnews.com To search the archives or view files, log in at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dmcnews Yahoo! 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