Door Windows

[catswhiskers]

Hi Guys,
Could some of you with finished builds please post me pictures of the doors where the perspex windows slide through. Particularly close ups, front and rear, showing what kind of clearance I should have and protective guides to use.
Just that when I test fitted the door interior panels where they sort of hook over the top of the door inner skin, I have some doubt as to how much width I have left for the windows to come up through, let alone what method of scratch protection I need to include.
As usual, all contributions will be gratefully received.
Cheers,
Mick :confused:

[CorseChris]

Hi Mick,

I think I mentioned this briefly at your gathering....I cut the inner skin away at the front to make a bit more room. I also held the inner skin a long way away from the outer (using a length of wood clamped in place) and heated it up with a hot air gun to try and ease the situation.

As it happens, I'm about to reach this stage myself. I did mock it all up before paint, but now I come back to it, it all looks pretty darn tight, especially at the top/rear section. I can see some of the lip seal being removed there.....and by the time I've added a layer of Alcantara to the trim panel I reckon I'll need a window about 1mm thick.... As I mentioned in my e-mail, I using the Hawk-pattern aluminium door caps whcih tend to agravate the clearance problem. I'd like to know how much of a gap there is on a Hawk door between the inner and outer skins. Might tell me if I'm onto a looser or not.

[catswhiskers]

I'll take that to be a NO then shall I.

Mick :(

[rutthenut]

Well, I would try taking photos and posting them here, but my camera isn't getting on with my PC at the moment! And I'm not too inclined to do 'owt about that right now...

But if you get nothing in the next few days I'll see what I can do.

On my car, it uses the ally door cappings, with the inner door panel being flock sprayed. On both panels, I've fixed the metal-backed weatherstrip, using pop rivets.

[catswhiskers]

Dont you just love technology John. I'll hopefully just keep watching and waiting. I'm sure pictures will arrive soon.

Mick.

[rutthenut]

Technology. Love it? Well, it is supposed to be my job! So I should get on with it... Following picture shows the window channel area at the rear of the door, with the window partly open. Don't think it helps much though.

[rutthenut]

Here's a further shot, from above the front edge of the window.
Even less clear than the other one, I'm afraid.

[rutthenut]

If you do use this type of weatherstrip, you have to ensure that the pop rivet head is smooth and does not protrude in any way, or else it'll scratch the glass (ok, perspex).

Tricky task is getting the inner door panel hooked over the top edge of the door body itself, which is harder to do once the window has been installed.

The strip doesn't stop water getting into the door, where it runs down the outside of the window. That is normal enough and to be expected. The trick is to add a plastic sheet of some sort to the bottom edge of the window, attached with tank tape or similar, which allows the water to continue down to the bottom of the door inner.
And put in drain holes at front and rear at the base of the door 'body', so the water can get out again.

If you don't add the plastic sheeting of some sort, water will run off the bottom of the window and then travel down the back of the inner door panel. From there, it will either come in through the window slider mechanism, or some other location, and can soak anything in the door pockets before getting into the interior of the car.

My car isn't carpeted, so a bit of water ingress isn't so bad. It has drainholes in the floor too, which let water out easily enough from the floorpan area. If you've got carpet, it can take ages for that to dry out properly, and lead to steamed-up windows whilst they are holding on to the damp.

[catswhiskers]

Actually John, thats made things a lot clearer. I was puzzled how the front of the door area was sealed and its clear that it isnt. The weatherstrips, whichever design is used, only seal the inner and outer sides and nothing goes across the front.
The picture of the rear is not quite as conclusive but it is still a help.
Thanks for taking the time to help, and hope the foot is improving daily.
regards,

Mick

[Chris J]

Mick

Is this of any use?

'Door's a bit grubby, sorry.

[catswhiskers]

Thanks for that Chris. They are just the area I was looking for. They also confirm what I saw in Johns pictures. There is nothing sealing the front edge of the doors, just the inside and outside edges.
Thanks for that. ( I'll overlook the grubby door this time )

Cheers ,
Mick ;)

[CorseChris]

Mick,

Looking at those shots, I suspect you might have to do what I did and split the doors so you can make more room at the front.

The drivers door on my car had already been 'got at' and the mod performed had reduced the gap at the front between inner & outer to almost zero. Hopefully yours will be better. One thing I did that might be worth considering was to add a lump of filler to the inside of the door, at the top front, that helped hold the inner trim panel as far inward as possible (thereby helping maximise the available gap for the window). You can just make out a void beteeen the panel and the door skin on Chris' shot. Basically, I whacked a lump on, put a plastic sheet over it, then fitted the trim panel, holding it in the right place, until the filler set.

I'll be fitting the windows this coming weekend so wish me luck.....

[colin artus]

Use countersunk rivets to attach the weatherstrip.

Colin