I am planning to remove my Mk2‘s doors to improve paintwork and replace the rubber seals. I have read the warnings that it’s a 2 man job and that the doors are heavy. Can anyone help with an approximate weight for a front or rear door? This should help me to select the right helper…

The workshop manual and Haynes both recommend to remove a door from its hinge, that means leaving the hinge on the car. Can anyone with experience comment on this approach?

Thanks in advance,
Dave

 

I don't have a number for the weight, but it's a lot less without all the ancillaries: glass, window frame, etc. I've carried a couple of door shells around on a Jaguar Spares Day and I'm a 70 kg weakling. It will help with reassembly if you take note of where all the spacers were originally. Canonically, it requires two assistants, one taking the weight and one guiding the door, and one spanner/screwdriver person. However, that's getting very crowded. Personally, I'd hang the door from the roof and side wall of my workshop with a set of ropes and a winch and work alone or with one trusted assistant and a wooden lever for fine adjustment more than supporting weight. Either way, I'd position a lot of foam and cardboard for 'crash protection.'

Ropes and winches behave consistently and don't suffer from cramps or sneezing ... or answer back when you swear at them.

 

I took one of the front ones off my mk2 fully built up and it was heavy but I got it on and off ok. I would suggest a trolley jack with a block of wood on it and possibly a helper to stabilise it might be the best option.

One tip is to mark the positions of the hinges before you remove the door to help get it back on it something like the right place.

Depending on the car colour and condition you could use a marker pen and trace the hinges or use some masking top top, bottom and to the side.

Depending on what the seals are made of i've used this https://www.toolstation.com/gp-super-glue/p16435 which worked well on the seals I bought from David Manners. I think mine were EPDM which I found most glues wouldn't stick to.

 

Either way works and remember you need an impact screwdriver if you remove hinge from shell ~ We followed the Jaguar route. Throw the Haynes Manual in the bin.

 

From memory when I have done it in the past the hinges were left attached to the car shell. The front hinges are held in place with three 1/2 bolts each top and bottom. The rear door is similar but to get the top hinge off you do have to strip the door cards out and there are three screw cross head bolts on the top hinge under the door card.
You can remove the hinge but I would not say getting the cross head screws out is in any way easy unless they have been removed before in the last couple of years. Those cross head screws will rip up even with an impact driver. I removed the doors and left the hinges in place.
As Glyn said you require an impact driver to remove the screw cross headed bolts and I found the door did not open wide enough to get the impact driver onto the cross headed heads on the hinges and hit it with a hammer.
The doors also have doors stays and my only advice with these is make sure they are in place or you wrap the door edge or the doors will open wider than you expected and the edge will come in contact with the front wing or the B pillar and damage the paint. I know this because.......

I removed and refitted my doors myself with the use of a trolley jack and a long leg to push it around but I had stripped the door down to a bare shell so there was hardly any weight.

 

Remember the top hinge takes one thin headed screw on the rear doors or you can't fit the door card flush ~ ask me how I know ~ LOL


WRONG!

 

Refresh page for pic.

 

These are the correct counter sunk cross headed bolts that hold the rear upper hinge in place behind the door card. You need either a large cross head screw driver and a bit of luck to remove them or as Glyn has stated an impact driver with the correct cross head bit. Very easy to slip or not have the head of the screw driver correctly in the cross and you will ruin the head and not be able to get the bolt out without drilling it out. I have used a large cross head screw driver with a pair of mole grips on the shaft of the screw driver to give me leverage to turn the screw but mine have been removed and you need to have a lot of force going into the screw driver (By putting all your weight in to it) to hold the bit in the cross head of the bolt.

 

Been there - done that many times.
Fixed forms of door support are absolutely necessary. Floor jacks, boxes. slings off roof or engine stand. Don't rely on humans because these doors are heavy!
Lots of pre removal preparation with penetrating oil for a few days will make things easier.
A bit of a pain to get at via relatively small cutouts in the internal door skins but spray heaps around and what doesn't hit the hinge screws will help as anti-rust anyway.
I emphasise getting at the area of the screws ends which are exposed inside the door.
If you don't have the correct Phillips head size driver then don't even contemplate taking on the job.
Cheers

 

All 3 of my cars had 3 machine bolts and one cross head screw on the rear doors so as not to foul the door card. Either an earlier car thing or a CKD thing. Your car is late production. Mine were all earlier. The hinge sits in a depression in the inner door skin.

And remember how many shims were where for easier re-fit.

 

Possibly a CKD thing then as I re hung a friends doors last year for him on his 1964 S Type and that had the four cross head countersunk bolts as mine on the rear doors.

 

My 1959 MK2 had bolts like Glyn's whereas my 1967 MK2 has cross head screws as did my 1966 S-Type that I had years back so it might be age related and and/or a CKD thing depending on how old the cars are that have them.

 

I think it boils down to there was more than one way Jaguar did things. Whatever, they need to be damn tight to prevent door sag. The shims have a grip finish on them.

 

Could have been down to a change in the design of the door card which necessitated a flatter headed bolt to fit behind it. As Glyn said his hex headed bolt would not fit and required at least one countersunk cross head to make the door card to fit.

 

This shows the arrangement on my car, built at the end of 1962, registered 1963. The screws are not tight as I'm working on that corner of the car.

 

Thanks, I appreciate all your inputs very much!