Hi, I am told (by the seller!) that all older XKs suffer from door drop due to weak hinges.
Is he right, do you think? Is it an expensive job to have done?

 

Hi.

I have a -97, and no door drop here. If it is more than you can fix by adjusting the hinges, I would suspect collision damage or rust in the A-pillar.

 

I would say exactly the opposite! It is unusual to find door drop on even the earliest XK8/XKR's.

The exception to this (other than damage as described by oyster) is where owners lever themselves out of the car by leaning heavily on the rear of an open door.

Graham

 

Funny you should say its unusual as my Inde showed me a split in the metal behind/side the hinge on my door and two other XK`s in his yard.
If you can take a photo of the area door side of bottom hinge, you can see it for yourself. Its not the hinge but a crack in the metal, lifting the door just causes more damage to this area

 

I'll have to agree with Oyster & Graham, My 2001 with a build date of August 2000 has no sign of any cracks my friends 2003 show no signs either. I haven't heard of any door sagging being a problem on the forum except from being damaged or from hinge wear

 

As you wish,I thought the same until shown the crack /hole, its not large but noticeable when shown where it is, or in your opinion, not.

 

Perhaps you can take a picture for us?

 

file

 

.

 

Bob,

It looks like you are having problems posting a photo. If you email it to me, I'll add it to your post.

Right click on forum name GGG in any of my posts and select Send email to GGG (arrowed in red):



Attach the photo to your eMail in the usual way.

Graham

 

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-lc5tPOTa2is/UywqciLPGrI/AAAAAAAAACY/-lvsTnka5Lg/s108-p/350.JPG


Done it! As you can see there`s a hole under the hinge with distortion on the door ,I saw this on two other xk`s When lifting the door, all you do is distort the metal supporting the door hinge.
£50 repair that`s nothing to do with the hinge itself

 

Bt bob
I would say you have a problem, It looks worst than just a crack. I would have it repaired, weld the crack and have a stiffener tacked in the inside. My car was a first owner Texas car has never been exposed to salt, Along with my friends, his has never been exposed to road salt. I see you live on the Isle do you think that corrosion could have weakened the inner door frame? we have seen a lot of the older XK's in England deteriorating. from salt. Tony XK Racer has posted many repairs he has made. He could probably shed some light on the subject.

 

.My independent said it is a common thing to find on XK`s doors. It`s quite difficult to see just looking ,you need to get a small camera/phone in the gap to see it properly

 

Just to add my halfpenny's worth, my 2001 does not have any door drop and my local specialist (20 years with main dealer) explained to me that door drop is caused by people using the door as a prop to extract themselves from the car.

The reason it came up was that he was showing me a 2003 XK8 that was for sale and it had terrible door drop on the drivers side. Apparently the owner was a big guy. No problems on the passenger side.

Andy