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As I continue to go over my newly acquired XK8 (Pictures soon to follow), I find the passenger door panel is separated from the door at the rear corner. I saw this during pre-purchase inspection, but thought it could be just pushed back in(naive me). Closer inspection shows that the plastic holding clips on the panel that the little "Christmas trees" grab are broken out.
Does anyone know a simple way to replace these mounts short of pulling the panel and replacing the mounts? I am looking at possibly pulling the panel and replacing these mounts as a last resort. Hopefully there is a better way??
Sam, is the Christmas tree broken or is its mount on the door card broken?
I hope it's the fir tree. As I think about it, you're probably going to have to remove the door card. Good news easy job (very easy). After your 1st time it'll take about 5 minutes.
Technically one um, might be able to weasel a fir tree in there, but you'll be stressing the door card too much IMO. Just not worth it given the ease of removing the door card.
Recently I’ve done that job, putting in new fir tree fixings as my loose door cars tended to squeak. Extremes sun and heat, plus age, had embrittled all mine. When I pulled the door card to change my speakers, some fir tree fixings had broken or were missing.
I had spare direct replacement fir tree fixings but would imagine any suitably sized short screw could do the job.
Follow Sam's video to remove the door card in order to do the job properly. I found a pack of 15 appropriate fir-tree clips at NAPA for about $5. They are probably also available at Advance Auto Parts, Pep Boys, Autozone, etc.
I was afraid that the full panel might be needed, but more importantly, it is not the "fir tree" that is broken, but the mount that they attach to. In my case, the 2 yellow ones in the top right of the picture. They are glued to the panel. The attachment points have broken off and could be rebuilt by wielding, or gluing, but I doubt these are available at the locale NAPA store.
In these situations, as the mounts and fixings are all hidden, I would cut and bend a patch/bracket from some thin aluminium and/or plastic you have to hand and J/B Weld/glue it on. Not unusual for me to attack some thick plastic food packing, using a soldering iron to allow it to easily bend, for these types of repair.
Just give the 2 part epoxy time to cure and it should hold a suitable fixing, especially as it's not load bearing but will take some vibration.
Good luck. I wouldn't worry about how it looks hidden within the door. It's more about just getting the door card secured.
Found these Ford clips, that work pretty well if you remove the mating "receiver" from the door ( just slice them off with a razor knife). Ford 387182-S.
For the broken parts on the door card, I flattened the broken part and glued a large fender washer to the tab with epoxy. For the door, I removed the "receiver" part by slicing it off, and installed a 10-24 jack nut ( just happened to have an extra laying around). A longer screw, with a nut on the back side of the door, would work too- just not as easy to adjust. I then installed a short screw with a magnet at the head ( mag daddy panel magnet). The screw allowed me to fine tune the fit. A little dab of lock tite on the threads should keep it in position. Jack Nut 10-24 Large washer epoxied to broken plastic Mag daddy panel magnet
Those all look like great solutions. I will pull the panel next week and see what I can pull together. Get some JB weld some plastic, washers, tine and a little ingenuity, Should work out something.
Sam, just noticed your avatar, and it reminded me of a fellow from the El Camino Central forum from a a few years ago. Did we both make the jump to Jaguar land??
I believe so. I had a '84 El Camino with a Turbo V-6 Buick Grand National engine. Decided to move away after having total of 4 El Caminos('68,'69,72. '84). Now I am starting to work on the XK. The knowledge on this forum is outstanding.
The door panels on my recently acquired 1998 XK8 were hanging loose at the upper corners. Removing the panels, I discovered several of the plastic brackets of various heights that hold the "fir trees" were broken or cracked. A little research showed this to be a fairly common problem, and also that finding replacement parts would probably be impossible. I decided that repairs could likely be managed using sheet metal, and bonding using polyurethane adhesive. Polyurethane is preferable to epoxy compounds because it has extremely good adhesion to many materials and remains flexible... perfect where vibration and stress are normal conditions. I'm including a few images showing condition before and the fix... 3 of the plastic fir tree holders were broken on this door panel... 2 missing pieces and 1 cracked to the point of getting ready to break. All 3 will be reinforced with sheet metal.
Before bonding the sheet metal pieces, all surfaces were roughed up with coarse grit sandpaper and wiped clean with acetone.
After making sure metal pieces fit as needed and surfaces were prepared and clean, the polyurethane was applied and metal pieces placed...
Once the polyurethane has cured (at least 3 days), the fir trees were put in place and the panels fitted to the doors, taking care to make sure to align trees with holes. Below, simple tools and materials to complete the job. Based on past experience with polyurethane, I expect the repairs to last indefinitely. I used a product called Masterseal NP-1, nearly identical in performance to marine grade 3M 5200, but much less expensive. I used both aluminum and SS sheet metal scraps I had around.
Door panel not attached completely
