Finishing Up the Door and Getting Things to Fit!

As I started to re-assemble things I quickly found out that using a slightly thicker back board and 1/4" pleating foam adds just enough thickness to really make it a challenge getting some things to fit. Every single panel piece required some patience and creativity to get the fit right.

Let's start with those @#&@ door clips! Because the back board is slightly thicker, the clips fit much tighter and are harder to position. Then add some leather that is almost 1/16" thick and it gets even more difficult.

Here's my panel in place and showing how the clips fall on my door. The red arrow points to a spot where the clip will not reach. I pulled this panel off and compared it to my original panel and the clip holes are a perfect match. I guess there wasn't a clip at that hole  but I ended up drilling an extra hole to take a clip.

Here you can see how I had to cut away the leather so the clips would fit.

And another view of the panel back

It took some work but eventually everything fit together as it should. One of the things that I've never liked is the door pull that's located in the center of the door panel. I've always liked the look of a door pull. A post to 6-Pack asking about door pulls revealed that the TR4 door pull will fit into existing holes in the TR6 door.

The handles are probably available from a few vendors but the Moss part numbers at the time I ordered were: Handle #803-440 and screws #314-220. If you want to fit the metal spire nut to the door it's #317-025 I ordered the spire nuts but ended up re-using the existing plastic nuts that hold the center door pull in place.

The green arrows point to the existing plastic nuts for the stock door pull while the red arrows show the mounting holes for the TR4 door pull. I did order 4 spire nuts along with the door pulls but found that the plastic nuts are a better fit and work just fine.

I did sand the head of the plastic nut down a little. I was afraid that they push the door panel out if left to their original thickness.

Once I had them in place I rubbed chalk all over them and..............

I put the door panel in place on the door and pushed against the nut to transfer the chalk and the nut location to the panel. You can see the chalk inside the orange circle. That gave me an accurate spot to drill a hole for the screws.

Screwed on place.........

I think it's a very classic look that Triumph should have just stayed with.

Getting the Door and Window Cranks to Fit!

Now that the door pulls are done, the next challenge was getting the door & window handles back on. It was immediately apparent that they weren't going to fit as I couldn't compress the foam enough to fully expose the hole in the handle shaft that the little pin has to fit in to. The ridge on the round plastic piece had the hole partially covered.

Both the door and window crank have this trim piece behind it and both have a ridge similar to this that partially blocks the hole in the crank shaft.

I clamped it to my work bench and cut two slots with my Dremel.

Make sure you cut the slot through both sides or you'll never be able to drive the pin out again.

Then I lined up the slots with the hole in the shaft and taped it in place.

Hemostats or locking forceps are very handy when installing this little pin back into the crank handle.

This is an old picture but the technique is the same: Put the pin in the crank handle and then push the handle on to the shaft while pushing the pin inward. When the hole in the shaft passes the slot you cut in the plastic trim piece the pin will catch the hole.

Then you need to take a small punch and push the pin the rest of the way in

And here's the finished door. I need to put that trim screw in the door pocket to get out the pocket wrinkle.

New window waist seals and Bristleflex finish off the doors........