Fitting replacement doors

[JJSH]

I've just given my D8 a decent hand pressure wash / autogym, for the first time in 2 years, and the only rust I can find is on the front doors. The passenger one is just a bit at the front corner, but the drivers door is terrible. Its always had some at the bottom, but it's now getting silly. In addition to this, when I was pressure washing it, some of the paint started to flake off, from other areas of the door, so (yes you've guessed it), that door has been resprayed. Badly.

This is a bit of a surprise,as it came up HPI clear when I brought it, but if it was just a car park prang or something, perhaps it never went through the insurance. So, assuming I can get various other niggles sorted, I might look at replacing both front doors (or the drivers one and getting the other sorted), especially as they are a lot cheaper on EBay than I guessed they would be. So, my question is;

a) apart from the horrible plastic coated door pillars on my D8 (can I jut peel this off?), are the doors identical?
b) if I go bananas and also get some heated / powered mirrors, is the wiring there already?

[mjb]

Be careful to get them properly painted with stuff that'll resist rust!

a) Identical to what? I know D9 doors are different, but whether it's the physical dimensions or just the screwholes for the door cards I can't say

b) Pass. Hmm I wonder if the wiring for heating is there on mine... A heater pad could be a nice modification

[JJSH]

Yeah, I was thinking if the D8 / D9 doors are interchangeable. I figured that it would be easier to get a set of rust free D9 doors, just because they would be newer.

[steve_earwig]

Seeing as how many people have put door cards from a D9 go on a D8 I don't think there can be many issues, you'll just need to swap the brackets over. I don't know about the wiring though, my D8's a mass of unused plugs so you never know your luck.

One difference I have noticed with the doors, the weather strips at the bottom of the glass are held in with a Mickey Mouse clip on the D8 but are held on with a rivvit on the D9. Not sure of the hole's in the right place but they don't keep trying to fall off so best to bin the old ones anyway.

Removing the horrible plasic coating. viewtopic.php?f=20&t=6285&p=62977&hilit ... yer#p62977 (Took me bleedin' ages to find it, 'til I remembered the hairdryer...)

[JJSH]

Cheers for the replies, gents. I'll start looking for some doors on flea bay and at the breakers, then. Oh, and see if I can blag someone's hairdryer (being a slaphead myself).

[HimBigChief]

Yay, my car on the linky! You could always try a heat gun if you've got one of them?

[steve_earwig]

They can be a bit fierce, I have visions of bubbly/cooked paint if you're not careful[/Mr Panic]

[mjb]

Removing the horrible plasic coating. viewtopic.php?f=20&t=6285&p=62977&hilit ... yer#p62977 (Took me bleedin' ages to find it, 'til I remembered the hairdryer...)

Thing with that is you can see how the sun's faded the rest of the paintwork... Suppose you could give the doors a few hours in the sunbed...

[HimBigChief]

Yeah, I noticed that too when I removed the vinyl. Fortunately it's not all that noticeable to the eye, just shows up more on camera. I'll give it a few more time going over with the T-cut and hopefully it'll cut them together so there won't be the obvious line at the top.

[Doggy]

I've got a small area where the vinyl has split/peeled from my driver's door, so thought about the same treatment, but it doesn't look like it was ever painted underneath. Is it just D8's you can do this with?

[HimBigChief]

I didn't think D9's came with the vinyl strip on the doors...

[Doggy]

I didn't think D9's came with the vinyl strip on the doors...

Around the windows, like this

[DaiRees]

Yeah the estates do have them but the saloons don't IIRC. I reckon the estate would look odd without them though

[Doggy]

Yeah the estates do have them but the saloons don't IIRC. I reckon the estate would look odd without them though

Yes, your probably right. Just thinking of a way to deal with a small split in mine.
Black felt-tip pen?

[rob100]

Yeah the estates do have them but the saloons don't IIRC. I reckon the estate would look odd without them though

Yes, your probably right. Just thinking of a way to deal with a small split in mine.
Black felt-tip pen?

What about removing the plastic and a light spray with black stone chip?
still black, but no split,