The Lotus Grand Tourers

I now realise that fitting and aligning new window frames is actually a form of torture and most definitely the work of the devil.
Spent a whole day on it today and I suspect another day tomorrow........
Close to torching it, but I must persist........

Oh dear, I've got this to look forward to.

I'm sure once you've done it, you'll have some great fitting advice to share.

Best of luck .

What's proving difficult?

You have to think about where the window frame pivots on the beam, and a little spacer here goes along way there.
The top bolts are the fulcrum, the lower bolts with the spacers provide a lot of movement at the top of the frame.
Probably doesn't make a great deal of sense, but sort of rings true.
Hope you get it sorted.

To get the frame (with glass) into the door skin I cut down the inside fibreglass 3cm. for the most forward vertical frame and inserted spacer blocks close to the two other vertical runners to enable the frame to be placed inside the door skins.
For vertical alignement I used as reference the short bolt just above the door closer (latch end of door beam) and a small screw hole located between the frame and outer body skin located close to the very corner of the fixed window.
Now with the lift motor installed I am tuning the runner lateral position on the centre post to get the most free up and down movement of the window.
Another (probably obvious) tip when fitting the lift motor. with the lifting arm in its runner and one bolt in place use the up/down switch to rotate the base plate to line up the other three holes.
Yesterdays rain at Monza for qualifying delayed my intended finishing the job.

Dave the cog.

The drivers one went in with few problems other than adjustment to let the window run properly. The passenger one has proved very different.

Initially, it all went in fine but when I tried to close the door, the frame sat so high that it didn't fit the aperture.
Managed to lower it, but the only way to get it low enough was to remove the bottom bolt from the middle leg completely-it will be impossible to put a bolt in there as
it is nowhere near the mounting "box". Also the rear top corner of the frame is about an inch away from the door seal.

I must confess I'm at a bit of a loss as to how to proceed......

How urgent is it to get it done? I do have some other frames here that we could compare with (and swap if necessary), just in case yours is somehow out of spec. Problem is going to be getting one to you.

amarshall wrote:How urgent is it to get it done? I do have some other frames here that we could compare with (and swap if necessary), just in case yours is somehow out of spec. Problem is going to be getting one to you.

It's pretty urgent unfortunately-the car stands out in all weathers so I need to try to sort it. Going to have another go today. One thing I am pretty sure of is that the mounting block at the bottom of the middle leg is welded on in the wrong place. I'll try to get photos. Going to have to find a way to bodge that fixing.

I can't even put the old frame back because it fell apart.......

If any forum members nearer to John have a new frame sitting in their stores (I know a few do), and are willing to swap, I'll provide a replacement for them if it turns out the frame John has is incorrect.

amarshall wrote:If any forum members nearer to John have a new frame sitting in their stores (I know a few do), and are willing to swap, I'll provide a replacement for them if it turns out the frame John has is incorrect.

Thanks Angus, I've had another go today and managed to get all the bolts in but some of the spacing I've had to do to achieve this is extreme, and I cannot get the back top corner to touch the door seal whatever I try.

Doesn't sound quite right. If you're sure that shimming won't do anything, then there are two options.

1) Hang on and we'll check against another frame first chance we get, replacing if necessary.
2) Adopt a "factory adjustment" procedure (knee in the door card, both hands on the top of the frame and pull hard). Not recommended as it distorts the channel.

I'm not going to bend it because it will only crack the powder coating. Unless anyone else has any ideas, I can't see how I'm going to pull that top corner in and I've had to shim the centre leg so extremely that the weather seal doesn't touch the glass any more.
Where are you Angus? If you have another frame, I think it's best we try that too as I have a feeling this one is distorted.

A short term 'hack' might be to stick some D profile rubber to the window frame. At least that might close the gap and stop water ingress until another frame can be obtained.

Jason.goad wrote:You have to think about where the window frame pivots on the beam, and a little spacer here goes along way there.
The top bolts are the fulcrum, the lower bolts with the spacers provide a lot of movement at the top of the frame.
Probably doesn't make a great deal of sense, but sort of rings true.
Hope you get it sorted.

Not entirely - a spacer on the bottom mount moves the top of the frame away from the seal, a spacer on the upper mount moves it closer.

I need a replacement door window frame for my 87 SA. Where are they available?