Common problem-or is it only me ??

[reidalpine]

As I've noticed on several occasions the (front-doors) seems to develope a problem in the upper part (in-line with bottom of window-frame)
It seems to me that as time flies the upper-part of door is prone to develope an air-leak around door-frame.. Could be due to air being forced into the cabin by front-vent and as there is no Outlet the doors weak as they are ,will slowly be forced outwards...so air-leak and whistling-noise and draft rises..

having looked into this and checked a good few 4's
I've noticed a crack developing (seen by opening the door-
looking above lock and inline with lower end of window-frame) same goes for front-area of door above upper hinge....
All the cracks I've seen has been located in the exact same area...........
all seems due to door being forced outwards and so eventually breaking



Now- a plea to our Good Ambassador in Athens:

How about you have a look into this Angelos-and see if you can come up with a couple of nice formed "patches" for the affected ones of us to weld-in as a reinforcement and possible precaution on this weak-spot???

-as it's welded in on the "edge"of the door it can be nicely touched-up with some spray-box paint, so doesn't need resparaying of whole door if carefully
welded-in with wet-sponge etc. held in place while welding patch in.

-I,m sure there are more cracked members on here,and by keeping the work in-house so to speak,Agelos can keep busy in his work-shop, getting a fair profite ofcourse -plus keeping the rest of us happy campers

Other Most-Honourable R4Forum-members that have the need Please post here which will make it easier for Angel to see actual need and easier for us to twist his arm c",) -R.

 

[angel]

Here is one more cracked member :-)

I had the same crack developing on the '75 4L, but thought it was because of the very high mileage of the car. The door was replaced anyway.
The Jogging also has this crack, on the rear part of the door only, but it is enough to make the upper part of the door vibrate and create wind drafts at sppeds above 70 kim/h. Being very lazy when it comes to any form of welding or body panel work, I have not bothered to fix it yet :-)
The doors of our R4s are not of a strong design/construction, and their exact fit to the body cannot be adjusted exactly (as on other cars with bolted hinges). I think some bending and twisting of the door had to be accepted by the factory, as the hinges could be some millimeters out...

I had always been thinking to simply weld the crack but a patch seems a nice idea. But I don't think it is worth to have it made. As it has to follow the curvature of the upper door frame profile, it would need to be produced by stamping (and stamping die-expensive!) .
It does not need to be thick. 1 to 1,5 mm will be OK, so anyone with a good pair of tin snips can cut this at home, then form the exact shape on an anvil.