Door Window frames
 

General

The door window frames are made up from a bespoke aluminium surround, which houses the quarter light and the drop glass. A pair of steel angle bars at the base join the front & back aluminium glass slides together which have slots in them to allow adjustment of the whole frame & glass. This is a necessary feature as I have found the frames although cleverly made are easily damaged with time, neglect, and I suspect that each one was slightly different in shape from the factory. One side seems to fit perfectly, the other caused major headaches when trying to line up with the roof (and trying to avoid the bodywork).

I have found the whole frame to shake more than is desirable when shutting the doors, and also when driving over bumps, so a firm fixing is always important - make sure every nut & bolt is tight, and don't omit any screws on the door top. You may also find the two little self tapping screws under the quarter light glass on the front drop glass slide can either work loose or be shaken out stripping the thread. These have to be present otherwise you may experience a crack appearing at the top of the door (see bodywork section for fibreglass crack repair - it was caused by just this problem).

Eventually I would like to produce a new set of door glass frames, as I find them poor at staying pressed against the door seal - water leaks are the result.

The photos included so far are really to show how I modified the frames to accept rubber "squeegee" type weather seals, so as to prevent a recurrence of the rotten adjuster angle bars. There will follow a section on making the new parts and repairing a snapped aluminium upright, but I will have to dig out the photo album (before I got the Digital Camera!)

 

Door frame stripped down to straigten and fit new seals

Old seals are steel and felt - swelling caused by rust started to scratch window and make operation difficult

New seal available from Woolies Trim - much better seal against rain!

Seal needed gluing into place using impact adhesive. Leave for a day to cure as glass really presses against this

Not all my photo's are on here yet, but this pair of angled steel are the method of fixing the window frame to the door

Adjustment is with the two base bolts (a hole exists in the bottom of the door so you can insert a long extension socket to hold the other side)

Once frame is adjusted top fixing screws hold frame down securely

These are just a few of the photos that will appear on this page, inclusing how to manufacture new adjuster bars (which is more than likely if your window seals have been rotten for a while). The existing pieces were barely recognisable when I stripped the door down.