Swapping Doors

[ThePrisoner]

I have a small but deep dent in my rear O/S door. It was there when I bought the car, but now it is annoying me.

I have found a guy who is breaking a 406 in the same colour and I have been offered a new rear door at a reasonable price.

How difficult will it be to swap the doors?

Obviously the door card, locks,and glass will all need to be moved over to the new door,but is it really that difficult? Difficulty will depend on whether I bother or not!

Pris.

[philg]

wouldnt be too hard, Removal of glass can sometimes be awkward, and there is limited space whilst working at the lock/handle.

Hardest part would be aligning the door with the hindges. on each of the 2 hindges the bolts wont just go through a perfect circle, they will go through an oval shaped hole. This means the height, and how far forward or backwards the door sits whilst on the car can be adjusted. Aligning the door is a bit of a trial and error thing until you get it right..... just dont fit the door in any old way and slam it to close it as you'll damage the door/rear quarter if it aint aligned properly.

As well as that. Just because your car is diablo red, and this door is diablo red that doesn't mean it will be a perfect colour match to your car. Due to the diablo red being a pearlescent paint, and the cars being painted in different factories or at different times there can be many different shades of diablo red....... as i found out whilst colour coding my old 306... and painting my 406 coupes bumper.
If i park my diablo red coupe beside my diablo red 306 the colours are very noticibly different.
Just a warning. But the door could be a perfect match if your lucky

[dizzy]

Normally when a car is exposed to UV in the sunlight it changes colour. A mostly garaged car will be a lot darker than one left in the street.

[steve_earwig]

I suppose the next question is have you compared how much the new door is (plus the agro) to the cost of having it fixed and sprayed?

[sollyboy]

Hi Puglovers
On the question of swapping doors I have the same problem , I was hit by a speeding surfer trying to get to the waves before they dropped off on a blind narrow bend back in the spring when we last had snow, VW T5 damaged from the front to the back on drivers side , went to breaker luckily picked up two doors same colour and wing mirror and front wing of Ebay for a total £170 , Changed rear door in summer , had to change electrics from old to new as manuel winders on new and cental locking unit , took me about six hour on my own to get the job done , but looking at the front , the access to the front door hinges looks tight , I'd like to change the door myself then take it down to the sprayers for them to spray the wing then refit . Has any one tried changing the the front door do I have to remove the wing to get assess to the hinges ? All the best Sollyboy

[zoomer]

Sorry to hijack this thread, but this may be of intrest if your planning on changing any doors- I recently changed the rear passenger door due to idiot deciding to turn right on a round about at the last minute, any way i was lucky to find same colour door from same year and mode( 97 Exec) etc,ive fitted the door which came with every thing intact. Now after fitting, i find the door is locked and wont open despite pulling interior or exterior handles. The lock on the inside doesnt move when the central locking is activated but i can here the solenid inside the door operating, ive tried doing a reset for the central-locking but that hasn't made any difference.... Any idears?

[teamster1975]

Sorry to hijack this thread, but this may be of intrest if your planning on changing any doors- I recently changed the rear passenger door due to idiot deciding to turn right on a round about at the last minute, any way i was lucky to find same colour door from same year and mode( 97 Exec) etc,ive fitted the door which came with every thing intact. Now after fitting, i find the door is locked and wont open despite pulling interior or exterior handles. The lock on the inside doesnt move when the central locking is activated but i can here the solenid inside the door operating, ive tried doing a reset for the central-locking but that hasn't made any difference.... Any idears?

The mechanism must be jammed if the lock on the inside won't release it.
You'll have to get the door card off and release it with a screwdriver

[mjb]

Take the door card off if you can, otherwise you'll have to find an auto locksmith

[DaiRees]

Used to get one sticky lock on the back door of my D8 if it had been deadlocked. Rapidly repeated locking / unlocking usually got it to reease in the end. I eventually just stopped using the deadlocks