Gutting front doors for paint

As I had stated before, I had procured a couple of doors from a 90 Multivan to prep and rebuild for the Thingamajigger so that I could get them done without exposing the van to the elements.  I have a new hatch that I will do the same thing, but this post is about gutting the doors.

There are as many ways to gut the doors as there are in cooking a cat; here is how I did it.

First, find a secure place to support the door in order for you to work on it.  A folding table would have worked well, but I put mine on a large Rubbermaid trash can as my table is being used for stripping some bathroom mouldings.

With the first door supported, I carefully took off the inner plastic that acts as a draft eliminator.  I then carefully worked my way around the door separating the door seal from the door shell.  There are 4 small push clips in the seal that need to be taken out very carefully.  There are four of them in total.  Three of them exist at the front of the door.

One more exists at the rear of the door.

I then unscrewed the inner door handle.  Removing it allows for the subsequent removal of the door latch assembly.  When disassembling things like this, its nice to find all the screws come apart easily.  Signs that it was well cared for during its time with a PO.

The door latch is next.  The smaller screw shown on the right is for the outer door handle.  Be sure to support it as it will fall out and ding up the powder coat if you do not.

Remove the other two screws and you will be able to slide out the latch mechanism.  There is a plastic clip that slides into the mechanism that goes to the lock door pull.  Ensure you are not yanking on that too harshly.  You will need that again.

Remove the mechanism, the door lock pull and the ferrule the door pull slides within.  To get the ferrule, you pinch it from inside and slide up.

Next I removed the window crank assembly.  My doors have mechanical cranks and are not power windows.  I like them that way.  I have seen too many problems with the power windows (much like the rear windows on the S420).  I am happy with human cranked windows.

Have a cup or small vessel to hold your parts as you take them off handy.   I find the magnetic bowls you can get at tool vendors are great for this sort of work. 

First I removed the two 10mm screws at the bottom of the window itself.  Depending on where your window is positioned, you may require both a 10mm wrench and/or 10mm socket.

Once those are removed your window will move with a little assistance.  Pull it up all the way.

The next task was to remove the two 10 mm screws that hold the crank assembly on the door shell.  The crank assy will fall into the door shell once both of these bolts are removed.

Finally, you remove the bolt at the bottom of the door.  Its a 10 mm and it holds the bottom of the door guide in the door.  Once this final bolt is removed, you should be able to maneuver the crank/guide assembly out the largest access hole in the door shell.  It may require some gentle twisting and do not forget to unclip the protective sleeve that is affixed to the speaker hole in the door shell.

My next task was to lower the glass into the door shell and start removing the seals that surround the window opening.  The first is the one at the top of the door.  Be careful with this, the inner part of the seal is made from aluminum and will bend into crazy shapes.  Additionally, the end of seals where they mate with other seals around the window are glued together at the factory.  My seals on the Thingamajigger have lost this 'glue', but the new doors still had a good seal from the glue.  It can be worked apart, but be gentle.

You can see the overlap of seals on the left.

The lower seals on the door are two pieces.  They clip into the door and can be gently pulled out starting at the open end from the seal you just removed and working your way forward to the vent window.

From this picture, you can see the overlap of the lower two piece seals and window 'scrapers' to the vent window seal.

Next part for me to remove was the 18 inch rubber seal in the track next to the vent window.  The upper portion is easy, but you will need to tug on the seal a bit to get it out between the track and the glass itself.

With the seals removed, the glass will come out.  A bit of twisting is necessary, but it slides out fairly easily.

Final task was to remove the vent window.  This 10mm bolt and a philips head screw at the top of the door is all that holds it in.

I also used a bit of spray silicone on the rubber seals to make movement easier.

A side note on the use of silicone - BODY SHOPS HATE SILICONE!  Make sure any spray silicone residue is removed with some good cleaner before bringing to a shop.  They have no idea what is on the door and may not clean it before sanding the panel and forcing the silicone deeper.

They do clean prior to paint, but what if it all does not get off?  The paint 'fisheyes' and looks like crap.  Do yourself a favor and clean it up immediately after use.

So to get the vent window assy out, you will need to slide it out a bit and begin twisting the assy as the bottom of the guide has a bracket on it that will not come pulling straight out.

Now you have a gutted door ready to be prepared for paint.

My doors will require a bit of sandblasting and will be totally stripped to metal.

This is the worst of the rust. Only a spot of it, but we will blast
the whole bottom of the doors for giggles.

Final note:  I am a big fan of inserting the bolts back into their respective places on the removed pieces.  It saves the aggravation of figuring out where they go from a cup of bolts when the reassembly may not be for a couple months.

EDIT - It is now a month plus later and the doors are now blasted and ready for primer.

The exterior was stripped with a chemical stripper.  The inside - a bit more difficult with all the crevices and funny shapes required a blasting with a light grit media.  These doors have not looked this good since they were stamped in the factory.

I am excited - these doors really looked great.