Hiya ... well, the generally reliable (disgustingly I'm told) 'Sorbet', decided it was time summat broke the other day, and tried to eat me in the process :-). While closing the drivers door there was a very loud crack and the door collapsed onto me :( Immediate thoughts was torsion bar failure, but fortunately it was less serious. What had happened was the lower pivot for the door gas strut had sheared off!! I was very lucky that the strut dropped into the door channel and not onto the stainless or some serious damage could have resulted - it was close judging by the scrape up the rubber seal right to the edge of the stainless. Main problem in the repair was the bolt had sheared off in the mount attached to the car body, this is fixed to the inner skin of the fibreglass tub. It was obvious the broken stud wasn't going to be removed in situ, so, the mount had to be removed. To get the mount out you need to dremel out the shape of the bracket from the outer skin (its hidden under the door seal so can't be seen after anyway) and take the mount off the car. This done the broken stud was still unremoveable and I opted to grind off the welded on fixing nut and fit a new one - this involved turning a shoulder on a 10mm nut and brazing it into the plate. The mounting plate is no longer available at Houston (though shown as available at just over $3 ). The actual pivots are available at about £5.00 a pair! so, perhaps it would be worth investing in a pair to save you having the same problem - they are 25yrs old now and take a lot of sideways stress. I've taken a few pics of the repair - 3 are linked here, note the long temporary bolts - these are used to stop the backplate that the two fixing bolts go into from dissappearing in between the skins, never to be seen again! Pic of the sheared off pivot ... http://www.fab1.net/sorbet/strutfail/broken-stud.jpg Pic of repaired mount plate ... http://www.fab1.net/sorbet/strutfail/repaired-plate.jpg Pic of the door frame with the dremelled out shape and plate removed - note the long retaining bolts to allow the plate to be slid out the hole while keeping the backplate in place! .. http://www.fab1.net/sorbet/strutfail/removed.jpg PhillW DOC233 VIN 6772 (de-cat'ed and sounding lovely) AVI and SERA ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Home is just a click away.? Make Yahoo! your home page now. http://us.click.yahoo.com/DHchtC/3FxNAA/yQLSAA/HliolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> DOC UK Website: www.deloreans.co.uk Unsubscribe: doc-uk-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ** Unless otherwise stated, all messages posted to the group are assumed public and may be printed in the club magazine ** Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/doc-uk/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: doc-uk-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/