swapping door guts. advice needed

[HISSIN50]

hey folks. gonna finally swap the driver door for its donor counterpart. im cutting the door pins off and gonna unplug the electrical connectors inside my existing door, yank the door off and then swap all my stuff (knowing it works decently) and ditching the garbage in the donor door. what all is in there? window motor, actuator (locks), the big cam with teeth (window)and ?????????? its an 88 gt vert, BTW.
is swapping glass hard? how about the tracks, etc?

i took a decent look at the inner door panel and there are a million rivets. also i dont really know how the windows work (other cars had cables or plastic flex track dealies). so im a little cautious about doing this (cant see into the guts of the door). any help or advice? i was gonna drill all the rivets off the metal panel that covers the front half of the door too see in there, but im sure that some of the million of them have a purpose.

oh yeah, i cut the old door pins out on the donor door. they have mushroom ends on both ends, and one end has splines. the ones i got (texas mustang, per Jrichker's recommendation), dont have splines and one open end. the package only had the pin, and two bushings. the other (open) end has a hole for a cotter pin (i assume). do i need the splines (seemed important to me)? whats the best way to orient the pins (cotter pin end down or up, etc. i assume down, but i dont assume anything anymore. LOL). i would prefer to have both ends mushroom like the originals did. am i supposed to shove a washer in there and then the cotter pin behind it?
any and all advice is greatly appreciated. i really need some help on this one. thank you all.

 

[goldbomb79]

well, I can't help ya out much other than one precaution from when i swapped my drivers side door. one of the electrical connection on my old door and new door fit together but the wires we different colors. well, after my battery being drained twice I switched the wires around and it was fixed. my 89 gt and the 90 lx i got the door off of had different color wires for some reason. oh well just a thought for ya

 

[Mustang Mikey]

I wouldn't drill the rivets out, some of them hold the door regulator ( the big cam with teeth ) as well as other things in place. I doubt that you would be able to see much. You might want to get a factory shop manual, it explains all the door and window hardware and adjustments in great detail. I got mine off ebay. If you cut the skin off your old door before you unhooked everything you might be able to figure out how everything works and see it clearly.

Swapping glass would involve a big 1/4 inch rivet gun, that is how it is attached to its hardware. The tracks adjust in several directions and can be confusing without a shop manual to guide you. I would try to use the glass in the donor door if possible. You can change the window motor easily ( 3 small bolts ) and the lock actuator and use your old wiring.

The door pins you have will work OK. The originals are mushroomed and splined but all the replacements that I have seen aren't splined and use a cotter pin or e clip. You will probably have to put the bottom one in cotter pin down and the top one in cotter pin up because of the curvature of the door. I don't think you will have room for a washer under the cotter pin going by the ones I used anyway.I greased my bushings and pins before assembly. The door is heavy as you probably know by now so a helper and a floor jack to lift it would be good. It is real easy to chip the paint on the door and the jamb.

Good luck.

 

[trbkrb]

I agree....I would try to use the hard parts (window, regulator and guides)from the donor door if they are operable. It is a pain to remove them and they very rarely go out. Just the window motor and lock go out. You can remove the glass without drilling the rivets by removing the window edge trim inside the door (where it slides against when going down) and the center track which bolts to the bottom and the side, along with the window regulator. But beware the power regulator has a spring on it so if you remove the rivets and the motor, it can snap back and hurt you....I know from experience. You may have to bend the inner part of the door panel to get the bottom metal part of the window out, but it will come out. At least you are working on a vert.... on the others you have to turn the window sideways in the door and work with it to get it out.

Good luck!

 

[HISSIN50]

Mustang Mikey, GB, TRB, thanks so much for the info. that is just what i needed. i see what you mean about getting the new pins in pretty much any way they will fit.

it sounds like a real PITA to try to swap all the stuff (donor door was sitting exposed in the arizona sun for ?????? at the J/Y.
but it sounds like there is stuff to mess up. and it is all probably about as bad to do in the car vs on the bench, and if so, then ill just wait and see how it does. i should get off my butt and try to check the operation of stuff before installing it. the lock actuator is all that i have really swapped in a door (did the cheapie retrofit), so i really appreciate all the advice.
i think i will swap the window motor and actuator and just clean everything up real well and grease it all.
MM, i knew the tracks were adjustable, and im not good with things that allow me to adjust them. LOL.

whatcha do if the new bushings are still loose (allow slop). any way to rig it or just need to buy new body to door bracket (the donor one was like this- i played with the new bushings and the donor bracket im not gonna use. if the body to door bracket on the car is in the same shape, im in trouble)?

thanks again so much. i really appreciate it.