Doors

[rbbailey]

Series IIa

So, I'm finally getting around to continuing the running restoration of this thing, and it looks like I will actually have it on the road by late Spring.

One of the things I want to tackle next is the doors. I'm frustrated with a few things: They don't really close correctly, not all the way, and take a good swing to properly latch. They don't seal well at all, want to get new seals. Even when they are as tightly shut as possible, nothing quite lines up right. The front of one is off line while the back of OK; but the back end of the other is off line while the front seems to line up right; but the bottoms of both look off....

Anyway, this leads to two questions:

1. I've heard that "normal" modern door seals will work well if you take the 1/8 inch lip off the edge of the door openings, then install all new seals. Yes?
2. What have you done to fix door alignment, latching, and closing problems?

Right now my plan is to pull all the seals off and observe how the doors open and close, adjust, put new seals in, adjust.

[SafeAirOne]

What have you done to fix door alignment, latching, and closing problems?

Closing problems: Use anti-burst latches and striker plates. Best investment you'll ever make as far as doors are concerned.

Alignment: Loosen door hinges and align. If this doesn't work the next thing to do is loosen body mountings and set shim spacing as required to move the body as necessary. Also make sure the tub crossmember buffers are not deteriorated, allowing the tub to sit lower than it should. If the front doors still do not align, you may have to loosen all the bulkhead fixings (including the 2 chassis stanchions, one of which holds the steering gearbox) then wrestle the bulkhead into the proper position to align the doors, shim as required, then tighten it back down.

[TeriAnn]

Series IIa

Anyway, this leads to two questions:

1. I've heard that "normal" modern door seals will work well if you take the 1/8 inch lip off the edge of the door openings, then install all new seals. Yes?

That is what I did to fit Defender seals on my SII regular. It seems to be the standard way to get it them to fit. HOWEVER, some folks have managed to fit Defender seals without cutting off the lip.

If you remove the lips with a grinder, mask the interior glass & upholstery from the hot sparks of metal. (or mask the glass and remove the seats).

The Defender door seals are a LOT more effective than the Series seals.

1. What have you done to fix door alignment, latching, and closing problems?

Right now my plan is to pull all the seals off and observe how the doors open and close, adjust, put new seals in, adjust.

A lot of the time sagging doors on a SII & SIIA can be traced to lose or worn out hinges. Your hinges are 2 steel parts held together with a bolt, spring, bronze spherical bushing, lock washer and nut. The bushing can be badly worn, the spring broken and/or the fragile lock washer broken and the nut backed off. A loose hinge equals a sagging door.

Open your doors one at a time and try to lift the outside end (end with the latch). If there is any vertical movement of the door then the hinges are loose and likely worn. There are hinge rebuilding kits that replace everything inside the hinge. Series II & IIA hinges are a wear item that sometimes need rebuilding and if the fragile lock washer breaks sometimes just need the nut tightened. Or better yet a new lock washer and nut tightened.

Sagging doors is what caused Land Rover to switch to a stronger hinge for the Series III. The SIII hinge has less slop than a good condition IIA hinge and they do not go out of alignment. SIII hinges give the door a more solid feel when you close them. The design was carried over to the Defender.

If there is no vertical movement felt and/or seen then your doors are likely just out of adjustment.

I switched my SII over to SIII/Defender hinges last year. It is a bolt on swap. I got tired of adjusting hinges off and on over the previous 33 years.

Depending upon the age of your SIIA it may or may not have anti burst latches. Anti burst latches have less slop than the early latches.

There is an early anti burst latch that is NLA and a later anti burst latch shared by the SIII and Defender.

I got tired of doors on my 109 occasionally popping open whilst off roading so I switched to the SIII/Defender style door latch about 16, 17 years ago.

This is almost a bolt on swap. The difference being that all the anti burst latches have a lock that requires a hole in the door skin. I put grease on the door latch and made a trial fit of the latch. Upon removal the circle of grease on the inside of the door skin told me where to make the hole. I made the hole slightly undersize and filed for final fit of the plastic lip that goes around the key hole.

Anyway, most likely you just have loose hinges that need to be tightened or rebuilt with a hinge kit.

[rbbailey]

Thanks for the replies. I'm thinking of pulling the seals off and seeing how much changes. Then I'll go from there. Good info.