The Lotus Grand Tourers

Hi all,

Thinking about replacing my door beams with a pair of Lotusbits galvanised ones. Haven't actually looked at them but I imagine they will be corroded like everyone elses are.

Question is can these be replaced without removing the window frame or are they all bolted together?

Nick

Nick,

Frames are bolted to the door beam, so you will need to remove. You will probably find some rust and corrosion to the frames where they attach to the beam that will need attention.

Gavin.

The whole door has to come apart to get to the beam as everything is attached to the beam, somewhere.

Work slowly and methodically recording things like how many shim washers have been used at each fixing point (the window frame) and you'll be fine.

A bit of a pain in the proverbial of a job but the second door will be a lot quicker. I found that the new door beams were slightly different, so some time will be need to be spent adjusting hinge brackets and the door lock connecting rods. Whilst you are there, check the condition of the wires etc. My door check strap (bit of metal) had broken and needed welding together which in turn meant that half of the wires had started to fail needing a bit of soldering etc.

It is far easier to just remove the bottom hinge bracket and loosen the top for adjustment once you have the new beam on and it may be worth getting new hinge pins and bushes - lotus bits can ream the bushes for you.

Ted

Plan on one longish day for the first door, and maybe 6 hours for the second. The problem is getting the window frame (adjusted by penny wwashers) and door to give a good seal.

I have just stripped and built the drivers door . The hinge pin had seized and the window channel was in bits . Here are some observations.
I removed the door by taking off the hinge brackets attached to the A post . Be careful when removing the top bolts ,there are spacer washers behind the steel inner panel , they drop out then you don't know how many go where .
My Top bracket had been worn oval , I reamed it with a slightly bigger drill and sleeved the pin with some thin metal, when bolted back it was rock solid .I also fitted a grease nipple to the hinge tube and hack sawed 2 slots down the pin , maybe 0.5 mm deep , to let the grease through .
I had a second hand Eclat frame .I was told it was different , but I could not see any difference . I had to change the quarter light , as the Eclat has no hole for the mirror . The frames are very floppy .I bolted it to the bare door beam to get it to get the dimensions and fixed the glass with several blobs of silicone . I slid some coins as temporary spacers , to centralize the glass .
For reassembly I first fitted the beam to the car , then the door , then the frame .

I also removed the passenger door to check it .The pin was free ,but you cannot get it out while the beam is in the door , so no grease nipple that side .

The mounting brackets on the frame evolved, over several iterations, into a slotted version which is a universal fit. Mounting vary between various models of Elite, Eclat and Excel, but the dimensions and shape never really changed.

Bloody hell Jim, you aren't hanging about with this car are you?

Go Grease Lightning.....

Good effort on your first Saturday. I know where to bring my door now . But no pinching spares whilst my back is turned

My passenger door refused to close the other day, exerting a bit of force and I could see it was fouling on the rear of the front wing. Closer inspection I noticed when I tried to close the door a crack opening up on the hinge. As I could not put it back in the garage with a door stuck open and I was getting pushed for time having spent the day removing, cleaning and replacing the fan heater, working in the recent bad weather under a garden umbrella, I removed the door.

After speaking to Lotusbits and poking my camera phone into the door hinge and taking pics I confirmed it is the door beam that needs replacing.







I have found some useful info on this thread but I have a few questions and thought I would ask here rather than starting a similarly titled thread -

Since I have taken the door off, do I need to strip the glass out of the slider, breaking the solbite seal and re-sticking it. I realise in order to rebuild the door on the door beam it would be a lot safer to take it all apart, but is it possible not to disturb this.

Why is it not possible with the door on a bench to slide out the door beam after loosening the window lift, window frame and door latch and connecting rods. Leaving the frame and glass in place?

I understand if the door is still on the car it is probably easier and best to remove the parts as the manual states but if the door is lying down and I support the window and frame, will the beam slide out and back in allowing me to disturb as little as possible? Moving the window frame as needed. I can see that the door might need more adjustment to line it up properly once bolted back to the car. I don't have much garage space and I don't want to wait around too long for good weather to work with the car on the drive. As long as its back on I can move the car in and out to fettle and adjust the door later.

Also, washer spacers behind the inner steel panel. Unfortunately, in my haste I did not pay much attention to the washer I took off. so I'm not sure where the extra washer goes back. I have 3 washers from the top two bolts, I think, it is the inner most bolt on the top two, the easiest one to get to from the footwell perspective. Its definitely one of the top two. Is it the same bolt on all the SE cars with an extra washer?

I am uncertain if the hinge seized or if the door check seized, which then transfered the force into bending the beam and exposing the crack but the thread mentions you cannot get the door check out while the beam is in. Is the door check is bolted to the beam the door or both?


Anyone got any tips to make the door beam replacement process as painless as possible?

It's been a while since I did mine , so it's hard to remember . Everything is bolted to the beam . The frame has 2 extra fixings , a bolt by the door latch and a screw under the external rubber seal . You will not have to take out the quarter light glass from the frame . When you have undone every thing I don't think there will be anything fouling , if it is pull it out . You will have to unclip the rods from the door latch and lock .

Thanks Big Jim!

I was hoping not to disturb the external seal, but I guess I have to. Reading the manual I realized I don't need to take the quarter glass off. Got me wondering if I had to disturb the window at all now that the door is off.

Yes I was also hoping not to disturb the lock and latch much, as I had to work on both of mine on the previous car. But your right they will all have to be disconnected really to have any hope of not bending anything.

I don't want to disturb the glass to the window lifter if possible, thought I maybe able to not disturb the frames much to, I know the advice is to put the beam on and hang everything back. But its going to be impossible for me to work on it like that in my garage.

Got the new beam. Here's a few notes about the experience. Its not possible to slide the beam out without removing the window frame! The front frame leg, at the angled end with the quarter glass, will foul the very end of the door beam when you've almost got it out! The flat end of the beam sticks up to much and there is not enough play in the window frame to slide the beam under it, it has to be moved out of the way by sliding the window frame up. Also, with the frame in the door you cannot get any access to one of the L shaped bracket bolts attached to the door and the beam, without removing that, it is impossible to slide the beam out. Luckily, I undid the other bolt and then swivelled the bracket to 90 degrees and that allowed me to wiggle the old beam out and the new one in.



The most trouble I had was the small screw on the centre window frame under the weather strip, had to drill it out. The front screw released fine. With those undone the frame pulled up enough, without removing it completley, to slide the beam out. I'm glad I didn't try to remove the window frame completely, it doesn't seem like an easy fit to get it out of the door. Luckily my frames are not looking to bad so don't need to come out for repair. I may dab a bit of rust treatment on them. Also I haven't distubed the bonding for the window glass and the lift channel.

Refitting the beam I slid it into place with window frames pulled high and proceeded to put the first bolt in, the upper door bolt and it was a tight fit. I figured it was the paint in the thread, and I loosened and tightened as I went but the bolt snapped. I removed beam and tried removing bolt but I made a mess of it and didn't remove the bolt completely. I figured I cross threaded it and decided to bite the bullet and buy another beam. I admit I had an ebay moment, it was a dark day. Head held low, I returned to Lotusbits the next day and admitted my ineptitude. Bought another beam.

Before starting the job again with the new beam I decided to run all the bolts through the threads and make sure it all fits ok and the threads behave accurately. The original door bolts would not fit. I took one of the door latch Allen key screws and I tested it on all the holes on my original beam. It went through every one of the holes perfectly, all 6 by hand, perfectly straight. When I tried to put the same bolt through all the holes on the new beam it would not fit the door bolt holes nor would the 1 remaining original door bolt. The door bolt holes visibly looked smaller than the door latch holes on the new beam but were exactly the same size on my old beam. I tried an M6 it fitted the new beam door bolts ok. Perplexed, I phoned Lotusbits. Mike confirmed the door bolts should be M6 and the 4 latch bolts are different. The original door bolts needed an 11mm spanner to remove, they were not M6. My original door had larger door bolts at the latch end, the door to bracket L bar at the hinge end are all 10mm spanner M6 size. So I tightened an M8 bolt into an M6 hole. It nearly went through!

I should have known better, if it can go wrong it will go wrong, should've checked the thread sizes, but I was expecting the original bolts to be the correct size. It doesn't hurt as badly when you understand why.

I bought some 12mm and 16mm M6 bolts and some M6 threaded rods. Reassembled the door with the second new beam. It fitted back together very easily, no leftover bolts or spacers. I used the M6 threaded rod, screwed into the upper door bolt on the beam with inside door to beam spacer in place. It proved useful when fitting the door latch, being able to thread the rods through and move the beam back and forth, up and down to accommodate the latch and fit the latch spacers and also to get the other door beam bolts in place. It was very easy putting the door together flat with the stud locating one corner of the beam. When it was all correct and tightened I removed the rod, the spacer stayed tightly gripped and I replaced with a bolt.

My spacer experience.

For the record so to speak.

There were no spacers between the window frame and door beam at the latch end, the window frame fixings and leg lay flat against the beam. There were 2 small spacers between the upper middle window frame fixing and the beam and 1 small spacer between the upper front window frame fixing and the beam, below the quarter glass. The window frame fixings were sitting on the spacers. There was an internal spacer between the upper door bolt fixing and the beam face, but no internal spacer on the lower door fixing. I've got photographic evidence of the spacer arrangement on the window frames to beam, I took pictures them before dismantling.

So the beam is in, the door is back together, window isn't sliding as freely as I would like but just needs a bit of adjustment, it was freely moving until I tightened the window frame bolts. But I imagine the door may need some adjustment when re-hung anyway.

In hindsight I should have tightened the door latch bolts to the beam first with the door beam in place, making sure I had made the central locking connection while sliding the latch into place and with the window frames pulled out of the way, then moved the beam and latch to line up with the door fixings. Then refixed the window frames and spacers.

The doors back on. Took advantage of the weather on Saturday. The car battery was flat and needed a jump, which kicked off the alarm and my only key fob would not work. So I ripped the alarm out, spent the next hour sorting the wiring and reconnecting the ignition coil leads. Finally got the car out of the gararge to put door on.

First attempt was to low, second too high and my third attempt was ok but the door to far back towards the boot of the car, big gap between the wing and door, unfortunately I run out of time so had to leave it. Sunday was a wash out so didn't have a chance to do anything. It will have to wait until next days off to finish it properly. However the doors open from inside and out, made sure I checked that before driving it back into the garage.

For my own piece of mind I stripped the door back down before refitting and removed the window frames completly allowing me to get on the upper door bracket bolt by the hinge to loosen and the adjust the beam to make the upper door bolt hole by the latch line up better. The only way to get on that topdoor beam bolt by the hinge is with the window frame completely removed. The window removes with the slider in place, I thought this had to be removed to get the window out, hence my hesitancy in removing window frames and glass.