Finished my doors this weekend. Here are some tips for those that go down
this path again.
First, those windwings are more "adjustable" than I first realized. When I
first put them in, one side fit fine. The other one hit at the top of the
windshield. First I suspected the rake of the windshield. But, after I
had about 1/4" of wedging shoved in the bottom and still no help, I
realized there must be something else. First, I found that if you loosen
the bottom of the front window track and slide it forward, it will rotate
the top back (if all the other screws are loosened). This almost got me
there, but not quite. I pulled the windwing out and tried another one I
had laying around. It fit perfectly. So I put them side by side. Sure
enough the channel on the bad one was not straight. The top bent forward
just enough to really mess it all up. I put it in the vice, straightened
it, and perfect fit.
In case you don't also know, the windwings are also supposed to be straight
from side to side too. Most are already bent at the center from people
pulling on the windwing to close the door and also from the momentum of the
windwing continuing inwards once the door itself has stopped.
For what it's worth, I also found that the door stops come in different
lengths. Don't ask me why. But, the SIII were different than the SV ones.
The SIII ones were shorter.
I also found that the door thresholds - the silver parts that are also
remanufactured, are slightly longer in the back than the SIII has room for.
These fit fine on my SV, but had to be trimmed for the SIII.
For those that have that eternally lifting up rubber edging piece - the one
that goes along the outside of the windwing, I came up with a solution. I
simply installed the rubber edging, used a small vice grips to hold the
edging down at the front, and drilled a small hole through the rubber (with
metal inside) through the metal tab where the clip hold the edging. I then
just screwed in a small screw. It's holding perfectly.
That's it for now.
Jay
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