The Lotus Grand Tourers

This is the bottom edge of the doorbeam now removed from door.

I had to remove the window frame as rear edge of beam wouldn't pass the front frame, not enough space.



That's one hell of a drainage channel.

Total strip down time, 4 hours.

After removing all the inspection panels on door.

1. Disconnected all electrics in door.
2. Removed central locking actuator
3. Removed door from car feeding wiring through door as it was removed (this part a two man job).
4. Removed interior and exterior handles
5. Removed window lift motor, used battery charger to move lift mechanism to get to 4th bolt.
6. Removed window frame. Had to drill three rusted screws that go into each frame upright from the outside. Under window seals.
7. Withdraw the beam

If you see a piece of duck tape, there's generally a bolt behind it. Several holding the door to the beam in quite unobtrusive places. If something does move freely look for another bolt or two.

That picture should come with a health warning or something. Not nice at all.

Glad you've got it dismantled....the fun bit comes next (NOT!)

Assembly.

Part 1

1. Attach locking mechanism to bare doorbeam
2. Align door beam (adjustment on bottom hinge 17mm spanners)
Then remove locking mechanism again.
3. Attach stop plate on inner front doorbeam
4. Slide door body onto beam.
5. Two bolts front and two rear fasten door to beam (all 10mm). Firmly but not tightly screwed up bolts. Then alligned door with car body ensuring top edge level and side curvature matched. Then nipped up all four bolts.






That's it for tonight I've a grand prix to fall asleep to.

Don't forget to add a grease nipple into the hinge tube on the end of the beam.

Other tip is to assemble the window frames motors etc. before you refit the door skin as this way you get all the packing pieces sorted out before it gets tricky. Once you have the frame aligned and the window winding up and down without incident, mark all the packing pieces and positions.

Disassemble and re-assemble, this involves a lot less swearing!!!!

Locks & handles installed and working.

Don't fast the door skin on until the locking mechanism is in.
Also make sure all the rods are in the correct place before retightening the door skin to the beam.


Yes, 3 goes.

Managed to get an hour in the garage tonight.

Window now in place.







Just the lift motor and trims left.

So far total time about 8 hours.

One point to note.

There are four bolts in the door lock.
They are not all equal length.

This is because the shorter bolts needs to be in the upper right slot.
The longer bolts interfere with the rear seating of the window frame lower bolt.

Top right, short bolt

DONE

Window lift motor in, door closee, windows work, central locking functonal.

One happy bunny.

About 11 hours total

Dave,

Well done

Just have one concern........what is the ironing board doing in YOUR garage

Skeggy wrote: Just have one concern........what is the ironing board doing in YOUR garage

It's only fair.

I do take doors apart in the bedroom

Just in the process of doing a similar job, replacing door beam, but I've also had to fabricate a new window frame.

Just thought it worth while to mention that if you replace the quarter light window only do it when bolted to the beam, if like me you don't you could find that the frame won't align with the holes in the beam...and you'll have to spend several hours cutting it out again, repaint the frame and then fix it back again.

Decided to fix the rattle in the door on Suday expecting to fing a rusted door beam. To my surprise it was just on of the access panels loose & hanging on by just one little screww. Checked all the innards & they seem fine & no visible rust on the beams. What a relief that was.

A bit of spare time therefore so looked at the front fogs which didn't work. It looks like the switch doesn't work as designed & had to rewire the connector. Bingo light all round !!

I too started to replace my door beams. But I also removed the hinge brackets from the body for plating/painting. Trouble is now I cant remember where all the washers go - can anyone enlighten me please?

The bolts go through the hinge bracket, then through the body, then through a steel plate inside the cockpit. I seem to remember some washers dropping onto the floor from between the body and the steel plate when I pulled the bolts out. doh!