Passenger door 'blowing in' at the back at extended motorway speed

[NeilCSR]

 

Composite pic attached showing turnbuckle as sited on the rear wing and as it is with the door closed.

Keeps the shape of the door and it does seem to work OK.

Neil

[revilla]

Thank you Neil.

[SM25T]

Andrew .... wonder if you have the wrong doors. My SV doors sit tight to the wing at the rear arc. Never blown in at huge speeds ..... derestricted overseas roads naturally.

[Ian B]

As mentioned before my pax door does that. Cured with a strap on the outside to the top half door popper stud 

[Mucus72]

Interesting post, only just noticed. My old SV (2003) doors were pretty much touching the front of the rear arch, perfectly aligned. Plus I had arm rests, so don't know if this helps. There must be multiple sizes of doors, as the difference between Andrew's fitting and mine is massive. And the windscreen adjustment is a bit of a red herring, because you couldn't gain an inch this way. 

[revilla]

Hmmm ...

My car was first registered in 2003 but I believe built from a very early SV starter kit from 2000. I've found several things that were not quite how they normally should be where mine has been a mix of bits that didn't quite belong. I wonder if there were any last minute changes to the SV measurements?

When I got an SBFS half hood made up it didn't fit and I had to go down there to get them to make one to measure. Specifically the distance from the top of my windscreen to the top of the roll bar was a few cm longer than normal for that kind of roll bar. I wonder if my chassis could be slightly longer than the usual SV? It would be interesting to discover I had some kind of prototype!

I've taken some measurements. If anyone (Ian, Neil?) with an SV whose doors appear to fit nicely (or otherwise, we may find a pattern here) would be so kind as to check them against their car I would be most grateful. The picture below show exactly how I measured them.

From where the chassis sill rail meets the hoop around the wheel arch to the centre of rear windscreen stanchion bolt (passenger side) = 65.5cm.

From the frontmost corner of the passenger door to the rearmost corner of the passenger door when laid out flat = 92.5cm

Thanks, Andrew

[Mucus72]

I have a brand new pair sat in my house awaiting eventual fitting to the new build. I can do measurements, but wouldn't there then be a metric vs imperial dimension difference?

[revilla]

Marcus, I guess there may be but I don't think so. I think the basic dimensions were the same. I'd certainly be interested to hear how yours compares. If my doors turn out to be short then knowing that later doors fit might offer a solution. Thanks.

I guess if there are differences, given that it is only four minutes between our houses we could even confirm by slotting my doors on yours or your doors on mine?

[Mucus72]

Just measured mine Andrew.

I get 65.5cm for the chassis measurement, but 94.5cm for the door measurement. The door is still in its bag and marked as a 2011 variant for SV LHS.

[Mucus72]

I'd love to see you round, happy for you to compare doors. It would be the excuse I need to ask you your advice on some PITA engine electrical queries where the assembly guide is awful.

If you have the time and inclination I have the tea and biscuit.... 

[Jonathan Kay]

... it is only four minutes between our houses...

That's nearly... next door.

;-)

Jonathan

[revilla]

@Jonathan ... we have regularly graced (or disgraced!) each others' garages.

Hmmm well that is odd. So my very early imperial SV chassis gives pretty much the same measurement as your up-to-date, not-even-built-yet metric SV chassis, suggesting that not much actually changed over the years (as I thought) ... yet my doors are 2cm shorter than yours when they are designed to fit the same sized holes? Well it would explain why mine misbehave, 2cm would look a much neater fit and also place some of the stiffer structural elements of the door against the chassis where they would be doing some good. I'm sure it would cure the issue completely in my case.

I think my roll bar measurement looks like a bit of a red herring at this point, Nick did say that he'd seen a few funnies where the roll bar angle was slightly different. Given the agreement of the chassis measurement I think the problem looks to be entirely door length.

I'd still be interested to hear anyone else's measurements to see if there's any kind of pattern here. And I would love to hear anybody's thoughts on what is going on here.

@Marcus ... Got a parents' meeting at the Junior School tonight but should be around tomorrow evening. Will text you.

[SM25T]

I'll measure mine later.

[revilla]

Thanks Ian

[ChrisC]

Have you got S3 doors on your SV?  Maybe build problem that was never picked up.

[revilla]

I did wonder about that, but from memory I thought the S3 was 80mm shorter than the S3 and nearly all of that was in the rail along the door, so I doubt at 20mm short they would be S3. If anyone wouldn't mind measuring their S3 doors though that would be very helpful in understanding this.

 

PS: @Jonathan ... My mind must have been on other things earlier, I only just got it!

[Jonathan Kay]

You had me worried for 4h 48m!

:-)

Jonathan

[ScottR400D]

Not sure that this will help but when my SV kit arrived it had two LH doors. I reported this and was immediately sent a RH door with the agreement to send the spare LH back at PBC time. 

When it came o door fitting time I fitted the RH first. When I tried the LH  couldn't get it in the same position as the RH. I tried the 'spare' LH but that as different to the right too. 

I then measured key dimensions of each door and was surprised to find them all different by quite a lot, 20/30mm in some cases. This was measured eg along the main seam under the window, along the front angled edge,  from the top front corner, diagonally to the rearmost point at the back.

I left the LH door to be fitted at the PBC. It came back with a door that fits fine but whether it's one of the two that came with the kit I don't know. 

I've had no issues with the doors blowing in but in my experience they vary in size, though I can't see why, and that may play a part. 

[revilla]

Scott,

Thanks for that.

So mine could be just an example of manufacturing variation you think?

That's pretty poor quality control isn't it, varying in size by 20-30mm.

Andrew.

[SM25T]

Sorry ..... busy/late night last night. Out to the garage now ....

[ScottR400D]

Well it doesn't look good and certainly surprised me. 

Why don't a few of us post up certain dimensions, let's say the one at full width right across below the window panel? I'm on holiday right now but could do next week. We'd see then if there are many variations. 

[SM25T]

880mm from the bend in rear of stanchion to end of pointy bit at back of door. 695mm from centreline of rear stanchion bolt to front face of rear wing in line with sill.

[revilla]

Ian,

I'm not quite sure how you measured your door and how to compare it with mine. I measured mine flat from front corner to rear corner. Are you sure about that chassis measurement? 695mm? I and Mucus72 both get 655mm and that would mean a difference of 4cm in basic chassis dimensions.

Andrew

[sjmmarsh]

My door used to work well until I had a replacement skin and wheel arch. The arch isn't quite in the same place so the door now blows in. Shortening the fixing strap so it is tighter worked for me. 

Steve

[SM25T]

Ah ....I measured to face of wing. And from stanchion (rear angle bit) to rear point of door.