if I could just get a permanent fix on the door card Christmas tree.

Every year or two either the pin breaks at the door rear top corner, or the Christmas tree breaks, or it just comes off where I have it “glued” to the door card.

. My car is a daily driver with multiple door opening / closing cycles every day. So the attachments get a heavy workout. Reinforcing the pin area of the Christmas tree with J-B weld has made it less susceptible to the typical break in that area. But the breakage just moves on to a different part. And no, I don’t slam the doors, and do try to brace the problem corner when shutting the door while inside. But that doesn’t work when shutting the door from the outside

A forum member 3-D printed some of the Christmas trees and I purchased a set from him a few years ago. They are made of a better plastic than the original part. And did last for good long while before cracking at the door pin location.

I’m very tempted to emulate the fix I saw on some u-tube video where someone had used a screw on the rear outside edge of the door card and screwed it into the metal bracket that hold the door lock mechanism. The screw washer and head are unsightly. For now, I don’t want to be seeing that every time I open and close the door.

Z

 

I'm confused as to why opening and closing the door would place any stress on the outer door card fitting if the opening handle is properly secured to the door structure itself. It's many years since I last removed my door cards but presumably the pull handle is not pulling directly on the door card? If, by design, it is, then I would rectify that poor design with a DIY mod.

Richard

 

Never had this issue with my wife's 2006 XK8. Perhaps the 4.2 cars have better plastics in their door card studs (although "better plastics" in any Jaguar is indeed a contradiction in terms)....

 

I’m in the same boat. Both of my door cards are loose in the same spot. That spot where you rest your outside elbow.

Digging deeper into the problem soon, but saw this “fix”. I’m willing to sacrifice the unsightly screw heads for door cards with no wobble.

The question is, does anyone have detail on the attached pic? Location from the corners, how long of a screw to use, etc.

 

You can always paint that screw head to better match the surrounding trim....

 

On my driver's side, one of the plastic pins (is that what's called the Christmas tree...?) was missing, and the yellow plastic pin holder was cracked. I picked up a set of very similar pins from NAPA and ordered a cheap plastic welder that I was able to repair the cracked holder with, using lots of steel wires for reinforcement. So far so good!

Side note: plastic welding is an incredibly satisfying activity.

 

Sometimes easy fixes make the most sense. You could put a chrome interior screw that looks like it belongs and just don't tell anyone lol. Other than that I guess keep a back up supply on clips?

 

on the 2002 model, don’t know about others, shutting the door whilst you are inside of the car absolutely puts a strain on the plastic trees and pins. You are pulling on the door card when you use the hand “cut out”

Opening the door from the outside doesn’t strain anything of course.

Z

 

this is the fix that I mentioned seeing on u-tube. I don’t know length of screw needed, etc. But when my latest “tree and pin” fix fails, I’m going to go for this ugly screw fix and try to camouflage it as suggested by @Jon89 and @Shoreguy
Z

 

Reinforce the fastener.

Let me explain.

Naturally, when I removed my door cards to do some maintenance, some of the fasteners broke because of course they did. Rather than faff about waiting for new ones and not be able to put the car back together, I fixed them by drilling a very narrow hole right down the body of the fastener, and then using a teeny tiny screw through the head of the plastic fastener to join the head to the body and then finally grind down the head of the screw so the fastener is flush. voila - a steel (or aluminum, its a cheap screw) cored plastic fastener. doesnt actually take long when you pull the drill bit and screws out, and every fastener Ive fixed this way has been rock solid. About half of them so far, due to general breakage.

Didnt take photos at the time, might have a door card off this weekend so will try to grab a photo then if I can.

Also, if opening/closing the door is damaging the cards somehow, your door may be squint, so consider straightening them out. I had one like that, just needed me and a buddy to loosen then re-tighten the door mounting bracket while he held the door in place.

 

I figure I’m opening the door 10-15 times a day for 365 days a year and going a couple of years between Christmas tree / pin malfunctions is pretty good.

roughly that’s about 7,000 to 11,000 door openings between failures. I can live with that. Having any 20 year old car for a daily driver is an exercise in reckless adventure. Which pretty well explains my
life.

Z

PS almost forgot to mention I fixed the door sag which was my main chore today. Three 1/16” fender shims under the lower door hinge bolts did wonders.

 

I did the same

 

According to this video there is a lower screw which bolts the door handle part of the door card directly to the door structure. Is this screw present and tight? If it is, but is not up to the job, I would beef up that with a beefier screw/bolt as it is not visible anyway.

The video also gives some details about the additional longer screw in the side, but I don't think that would be necessary if the handle fixing is modified.

Richard

 

Screw in place and tight . That attachment has nothing to do with stress that comes from the door closing, it only comes into play with the door opening. And then you are pushing on the door card, not pulling on it.

its the door closing from the inside of the car that puts the stress on the door card attachment points when one pulls on the door hand “cut out” adjacent to the door pocket.

there is also a screw at the bottom of the door pocket under the rubber inlay. But that doesn’t do much to mitigate the force on the door card when the door is pulled shut.

the card attachments are well designed for the expected lifespan of the car, say 8 to 10 years. We are now double those years, and what worked fine for one decade no longer does.

But this is just another one of the many issues we are dealing with in trying to keep these cars functioning well past their engineered lifespan.

good fun.


Z

 

The best I can do is to give you my "best fix for the breakage of the Christmas tree area". I've done that but it's obviously down to you to compare what I would do with the alternative "long screw in the side" fix. 👍

Richard

 

Thank you for your observations.

Z

 

@scottatl Do you remember what size screw you used? Any other detail you could share?

 

The primary thing is you need to pre-drill into the metal door for the screw. What I did was used a hot piece of metal to pierce the vinyl so I would not hurt the door around the screw. Then I drilled into the metal. The screw size will become pretty obvious once you do that.

 

A small diameter screw with a much larger washer is what I envision using. So the drill (hole) can be pretty small . I’ll be using the posted photo as a general guide.

once you remove the door card it should be easy to see where the hole needs to be in order to match up with the metal bracket that the screw will be attached to

Z

 

You should use a stainless oval head screw & upholstery washer.