Assembling the Doors

I knew the doors would give me a hard time, especially when these were disassembled at the paint shop and all parts placed in a box for me to worry about! So I kept postponing this work until I felt it was the right time.

The vent window assembly was out and remained out until after the regulator and window assemblies were installed. You'll need the extra room to maneuver for these. Also, I made sure the fresh paint along the belt line (where the felt strips go) is protected with "spongy" tape or something similar. 

The door glass, the frame, and glass run hinge were all assembled together as one assembly, but they were full of grime, caked grease and some rust, and so was the regulator, contributing to the sluggish feel of the crank mechanism. So I thoroughly cleaned and re-greased them:

Before installing any of the components below, we installed the brand-new door handles. This allows the most access and space for work.

Alanis' little hands and forearms came in handy. While I was cleaning and greasing the regulator components, she had those door handles and door locks installed in no time! 

After that, we began the rest of the installation:

1.   Inserted and attached the vertical track (door window guide) but did not tighten, and prepared to detach it in step 6. I did this to have a good idea of where the window frame rollers needed to be positioned.

2.  Slid the regulator assembly through the door side, gear first. Find the crank hole and guided the four (4) regulator attachment nuts to their respective holes in the door's inner skin. Loosely attach all 4 nuts.

1967-68 Regulator and vertical track assy.

3. Cranked the regulator to the point where I could slide the rear roller of the regulator into the front end (vent window side) of the door glass track.

4. Slid the window into the door channel at about at an angle, enough to get the rear wheel of the regulator into the glass track. Then slid the glass forward until I could slide the front roller (the one towards front end of car) of the regulator into the track.

5. Crank the window up or down until the lower roller can be inserted into the short track guide (this is attached with 2 bolts to the inner door skin).

6. Now I detached the vertical track assembly (door window guide, Step 2) and manually positioned the vertical track so as to be able to insert the rear window roller  into the vertical channel of the vertical track assembly.  Raised the vertical track assy. and bolted down, this time permanently.

7. Rolled the window down and and then tighten all bolts.

8. Inserted the vent window assembly:

1.2. 3.

 

• Lowered the window assy. down while aligning/inserting the window glass into the vertical channel (the door run channel with the felt strip) of the vent window frame. 
• Stop lowering until the rear channel (of the vent frame) threaded slot is in line with the door skin access hole. From that access hole, screw in the specialty bolt/washer (washer on the felt channel slot side, not against the door skin).
• I had to align the attachment of the upper stop slot (in the window frame), with an access hole in the inner door skin, to attach the upper stop bracket (in my case, it was not installed):

• Lowered the vent window frame all the way down and aligned all four bolt attachments. Then I attached all bolts loosely and adjusted for alignment.

9. Installed the door beltline weatherstrip (felt strips) at both sides of the door's window channel.

10. Installed the window glass lower bumper at the slot in the bottom-center of the door. You must do this step AFTER you install the felt weatherstrip (step 9), because you have to roll the window below the belt line, to have the room to install the weatherstrip:

11. Installed the rubber door bumpers and the screw-in window brackets (black rubber) on the door jamb areas.

Both driver and passenger sides are pretty much the same process, but for a few small variations I noticed rather quickly.

The windows have to be aligned for proper window movement, not only with the vent window frame, but also with the vertical track, and quarter window. I achieved this by adjusting three different bolts, two from the window assy. (4) and one from the vent window frame (5, 6):

4.         5.    6.

When finished, we had a tight and fully functional assembly, with new rubber weatherstrip, and all rollers and tracks cleaned and re-greased. Everything felt brand new!

A few caveats: Granted, some steps are interchangeable, and every situation is different, but the general procedure is as described. I need to cover the door latch-to-handle rod with something similar to the canvas fabric that originally covered it. As it is right now, it is touching the door skin metal, which might cause noise later. I decided not to apply any sound-deadening materials on the inner side of the outer skin. Maybe I'll regret this later, but right now, I just want to get the car finished. The door panel, wiring ($37.00 new e/a), speakers (4"x8") and door light, will be installed next.