I have an opportunity to pick up a flawless door for my 1987 trans am. My current door is power everything and the door I am looking at is a manual door off a 1991 RS camaro. First I would like to know if I can simply change out the power goodies from my old door into the camaro door? Window motor, locks etc...? Last question is the ground effect. (here's a photo of the door for sale on ebay)
Will my trans am door ground effect bolt right into place of the RS camaro's, and will it all line up with the rocker ground effect? If not could I drill new holes to mount it??? What do you think.

 

I got a camaro door on my firebird. But i don't have GFXs on it... So not sure about them.. If anything u might have to drill a hole or 2.. But they are the same doors... All the guts will work but they are rivited in. So have to get them or use really short bolts.

 

Me and my friend (transam84 is his username here) swapped our power doors ( windows, locks and mirrors) to manual.. so yes you can just swap everything over, for the window you would have to change the regulators, the locks you would have to bolt in the actuators and run the rods the mirrors just run the wires to the plug on your current car.

 

I just want to be clear I will be taking a manual door and putting my power parts in it. Is this a major hassle and too time consuming to bother, or is just a little patience neccesary? Should I wait for a power door to come along or go for it? Does anyone have any specific memory of doing this that can tell me what to look out for. I don't want to have to drill rivets and replace them will bolts if that is the case I would like it done correctly if possible. I've waited 2 years now to locate a door for this car and it just happens to be the same color as my car so it would be a great relief for some help on this, the auction ends in about 5 days. Thanks...

 

around here its hard to find good doors.. So I would not pass them up.. If u don't wanna use bolts were the rivits go.. U will have to buy the bigger rivit gun and the rivits.

a major hassle and too time consuming. If u have done one before its not. First time yep u are going to get P'ed off.... Very slim that the color will match

 

Well for me having a door that similar is better than having one on there that is black or white or blue. And these rivets; I'm just going to guess are the kind that have like a hole all the way through them? I'm not sure what you call them but I'm assuming they are not the standard pop rivets. I would think that those kind would bind too much. Where might I find one of those rivet guns? I have just about every tool in the free world now, one more tool sure could'nt hurt. I'm going to check out mcmastercarr.com in the mean time....

 

yeah it will be close. Harbor fright has the rivit gun.. Theres really no reasson to buy a better 1 for more money from like snap on or them guys... Cuz i have bought good ones and cheap one and they all break... The air ones are the best .. The rivits look allmost like a reg rivit just 5 times as big.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=41291

 

just make suire you use rivits and not bolts. i heard that the bolts do come loose.

 

I dont see why a bolt would come loose? If you used a lock nut with some locktight even I think that would stay for a long time. I would like to find some kind of real short clevis pin that I can use with an e-clip and just put it together with those. How many rivets need replacing anyway?

 

There's four rivets in the door holding the window regulator in place. However, if you have the GTA style door panels, you will also need to change over the armrest bracket, which has about four or five rivets in it. You might also need a couple of rivets for the lock solenoid.

You will want to roll the window in both doors down about halfway so you can reach the bolts holding it to the main run channel. After you get the glass out, then you want to remove the lower and rear guide tracks, followed by the up-stop in the front so you have room to tilt the window run channel so it can be removed. The rear end of the run channel has to go out the large hole in the back of the door, since it has the rear guide wheel on it and won't fit any other way. To do this, with all of the other channels out of the door, you need to lift the front up and out of the door and then slide it down the last two remaining guide wheels while tilting it to get it out of the access hole. With the large run channel out, you drill out the four rivets holding the regulator to the door, unplug the motor, align the two arms so they are parallel, and slide the whole thing out the same hole the main run channel was just removed from.

With the regulator and window removed, it is easier to get at the lock mechanism to unclip the inner lock rod so it can be removed with the solenoid. The lock rod is a real pain to separate from the solenoid since it has a right-angle bend in it so it can be held in the solenoid lever (it's so damn complicated). Once you have the lock rod out of the door latch, then you can drill out the rivets holding the solenoid in and remove it from the door.

 

Thanks for the detailed instructions. Now I have a better understanding of how to go about it.

 

Anytime. I might end up doing this myself soon..