Re: [doc] Door strut pivot failure (a bit long, but worthchecking yours!! )

[Daniel Shane <dan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Phil,

That was bloody lucky mate. Normally the plate that is bolted to the
fibreglass moves over time and causes the fibreglass to break off.  We've
seen that and it's a nightmare to fix.

Glad you got it sorted

Dan


On 16/5/06 23:55, "Phill Wright" <psw@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

> 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
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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