Door frame adjustment problem

[porschenut]

Hi gang. Today I installed the door glass and recently restored window frames into the doors, and I'm having trouble getting the right side adjusted. As you can see in the pic, the the upper part of the frame in the front is too close to the door opening and the door won't close. I've played with all the mounting bolts but I'm not sure how to get this side adjusted. The left door is much better. The other end of the frame fits the opening pretty well, but I can't seem to figure out how to get it adjusted so the gap in front is even and correct. I'd appreciate any ideas from you door frame gurus!

[LM3929]

Can you adjust the front frame two bolts and main frame mount lower?

Lorne m.

[porschenut]

Lorne, I've tried loosening the bolts, but the adjustment range is limited. Is the "main frame mount" the one down at the bottom center bracket?

[steely]

Is the window down some? If it's all the way up, it may be preventing the frame from going down. try half or lower.

There are 7 bolts total that should all be loosened. I found that the front was the toughest to get down because there was some putty/caulk in there that had to be pressed into a little.
Once I did that, I tightened the front pair to hold it so it wouldn't creep up on me before I tightened the rest. If the frame holes look to be high in the body holes, you know you have some room to play with. (the top front 2, the one under the vent, the top rear pair.

Another thing might be the entire frame angle - looking from the rear of the door toward the front, if the frame is angled toward the car body, you may want to adjust this before you fix in place. Lorne may be referring to the L-bracket at the bottom front of the frame. hth

[Evans, Marv]

That's pretty strange. The cap screws for mounting the frame should let you adjust the frame correctly. Maybe you could try some shims, but if those are the frames that came out of the door, they should fit back in. Did you try shining your light inside the door to see if you can see a problem?

[porschenut]

Originally Posted by Evans, Marv

That's pretty strange. The cap screws for mounting the frame should let you adjust the frame correctly. Maybe you could try some shims, but if those are the frames that came out of the door, they should fit back in. Did you try shining your light inside the door to see if you can see a problem?

Actually, these aren't the original frames. These are from a '71-'73 car, going into an '86. They are supposed to be the same shape though. All the mounting holes are in the same place with the same size fasteners. In fact, I'm using the original 1986 fasteners to mount these. The triangle window glass is from the '86 and it's a perfect fit so I know the frame shape is the same. The left side frame fits fine, it's just the right one that's giving me a headache.

There's gotta be a way to make this work. I just need to figure out which of the 7 bolts are responsible for which direction of adjustments. The Bentley manual isn't very clear and the factory workshop manual doesn't even mention how to adjust them.

[porschenut]

Originally Posted by steely

Is the window down some? If it's all the way up, it may be preventing the frame from going down. try half or lower.

There are 7 bolts total that should all be loosened. I found that the front was the toughest to get down because there was some putty/caulk in there that had to be pressed into a little.
Once I did that, I tightened the front pair to hold it so it wouldn't creep up on me before I tightened the rest. If the frame holes look to be high in the body holes, you know you have some room to play with. (the top front 2, the one under the vent, the top rear pair.

Another thing might be the entire frame angle - looking from the rear of the door toward the front, if the frame is angled toward the car body, you may want to adjust this before you fix in place. Lorne may be referring to the L-bracket at the bottom front of the frame. hth

Thanks Dan. The window was halfway up when I first slid the frames into the door. In the picture, the window is all the way down. At first, the whole frame was too far down. I had no problem getting it there - it slid right down all the way. I had to raise it up a little to get the back end close to the right height.

[steely]

Ah, I thought it was the top of the frame - sounds like it's fwd vertical portion of the frame that is too close to the door opening if I understand. (I'm thick)

I just did my door regs and seals - it took some jockeying, but my second one was a lot easier in my situation with a targa where the frame is essentially sectioned.

I got the impression that the upper bolts were like pivot points and the angle could be adjusted by the L bracket below (within reason).

[Bobboloo]

The L bracket at the bottom of the middle frame rail is the one that makes the adjustment you're looking for. It moves fore and aft as well as up and down and side to side. You need to move it forward to move the top of the rail back. The rail will pivot on the center small allen screw. (which has to be inserted)

After you get the fore and aft set on the middle rail you can also get a bit more clearance by adjusting the side to side tilt of the frame. This is adjusted by the same L bracket and the lower bolt of the back frame rail. You can lean the whole frame inward on the car.

[porschenut]

Success! Well, not 100%, but good as it's going to get I think. The key seemed to be moving the entire frame rearward as Bobboloo suggested, and also raising the front a little to improve the uneven gap along the front edge of the frame. Very little movement was allowed due to the hole alignment, but it was enough so that the door would close without hitting anything but the seals. Note that there is a pretty large gap between the rear edge of the frame and the quarter window trim. Is this normal? The seals are all new (weatherstripping as well as the felt seal along the top and front of the door opening). The window frame impacts these pretty hard, and the door requires quite a bit of force to close. Same on the driver's side. Here are some "after" pics:





Thank you Lorne, Marv, Steely (Steely Dan?), and Bobboloo! If it weren't for the help of this board, I'd never be able to do half the things I do on this car.

[Bobboloo]

Looks great!

You can take some of the tilt out to make the door easier to shut but a little tight is better than too loose for a good seal.

P.S. Be sure to check your windows for ease of raising and lowering. Sometimes binding can result from the process and good window operation is usually preferable to the best appearance.

[porschenut]

The in/out tilt seems to be just right, so I don't think I'll fool with that anymore or I might end up making things worse. I checked the window alignment on both sides of the car and they're hitting the top of the frames squarely and they ride smoothly up and down in the tracks, so I think I'm good to go! Thx again.

[Stan Gillis]

I have the same issue on the driver side. The top front is hitting the A pillar and the top rear is low. Can you tell me where all 7 bolts are located?

[steely]

lessee - open the door and there'll be 2 plastic removable caps covering 1 screw ea on the end of the door that faces the pillar near the top - then one more on the same door edge near the door bottom.

On the other (fwd) door edge near the hinge, there are 2 more near the top.
With the interior door cover removed, there's one with a large washer under the vent window, and the last is well below it near the door bottom left of the speaker hole.

There is actually another associated with this one, as the former holds a 90 degree bracket to the door, and the bracket holds the bottom fwd frame in place inside the door (with an 8th socket head cap screw). You can reach/see it with the speaker removed. This bracket has been known to snap - costs ~$12.

hth

[Stan Gillis]

Thank you, Dan. By loosening them, I think I'll be able to understand how to adust and correct the window frame on my 73.5 911T.