hey guys,

I have been looking forward to doing this for a while. I am thinking I will tackle it soon. I have acquired coupe doors and panels that I want to swap onto my convertible.

I am a novice mechanic, so I need to be careful to prepare ahead of time for projects like this. My fear is doing something that I can't undo, and ruining parts and costing extra money..

So, can you guys help me get set for this please?!

This shouldn't be real complex.. just unbolting one door and bolting on the new one... But there are two areas that I need to prep for.

1.) Wiring for pwr windows, locks.. The vert has power and so do the new doors that i picked up. I would really like to keep the power feature as it's expected with convertibles. Is there a way that I can unwire the 'vert door and rewire the new doors without having to cut and solder the wiring. Is the harness able to be pulled out and removed from the door, or does it have to be cut. I don't have a lot of experience soldering, so i am really hoping that i won't have to do that.

2.) Seat belts. What's the conscensus on the best way to redo seat belts? Greg- obviously I have read through your write-up a couple hundred times, so I am pretty familiar with how you did that. After having done it, do you recommend it the same way? Is there something you would change? You are pretty tall... how do the belt fit over and across your shoulder? Do they feel comfortable?

Is there anything that I am missing? I mean this seams relatively simple, but it's still a big project, so I want to make sure I don't screw it up.

Thanks a ton guys!!!

Eikon

I can head you in the right direction for the wiring at least. The wiring from the coupe and vert doors differs in one way: the vert has no provisions for power mirrors. You have two options, either go back to manual mirrors, or you can create a subharness like i did and run it to the door.I don't know if the connectors for the door -> chassis are the same, but if they aren't, you should be able to easily pull the vert harness out of the door and swap it to the coupe door with no cutting or splicing.One more thing is the door pins. You'll need a punch of some kind to drive them out (the door pin is the bar and pin that is in between the two hinges)

hope that helps

thanks for the heads up.

I think I will ditch the power mirrors then.. That's not such a big deal to me.

I thought of another issue.. Key cylanders. Any idea how I get those out and replace them? the cylanders in my new door are crap, and I don't have the matching keys anyhow. So I would want to swap in my old cylanders into the new door.

Do I have to take the fenders off to get at the bolts for the hinges? That would suck.


Modified by Eikon at 10:40 AM 9/24/2005

with the fenders in place, you can't get at the hinges very easily. If you wanted to leave them on, you would have to removed the pins and e-clips that hold the hinges together.

The key cylinders are part of the handle assy. You can remove the ones from your vert doors and put them in the new door. You'll have to remove the glass to get at them I believe. The other option is to take the new doors to a locksmith and have them rekey them to your current key, but swapping the whole assy from the very door to the coupe door is easier and cheaper.

You don't have to remove the glass to swap the door lock assembly but the glass does have to be in the full up position. Takes about 30 minutes to swap the lock assembly once you figure out how the connecting rods snap in plance.

and you don't have to swap the whole door panel assembly, the tumblers come in and out so you should be able to swap your stock ones in there.

tenkawa akito- can you tell me more about the power mirror subharness or direct me to where that information is? its needed pretty badly. Thanks!

edit, found it:zerothread?id=77995

thanks
Modified by slownslurious at 12:00 PM 10/12/2005

just curious, what do plan on doing with the old interior door panels when your done, cause if they are black and in good shape i'd be willing to help find a home for them

The panels may very well be available. email me please... [email protected]

We will keep in touch, and when i get this project moving, I will let you know.

Catch you later.

mine are in rough shape, you can have them for cheap if you want them (they are black). The inserts have been taken out and the window trim was broken on the driver's side but you could repair them pretty easily. Only problem is shipping from houston to ohio....