1995 Boxer Harmony Sliding Door: Poor Fit

Guys,

For decades now we've made do with a poor fitting Mk1 Boxer sliding door on our Harmony. As purchased the fit was absolutely terrible and it needed a 'caravan site-awakening' slam in order to get it closed. However I carried out some adjustments to both the upper cylindrical sliding mount and the lower 'flat' mount on the leading edge. In both cases I returned them to what I always assumed to be the proper factory setting condition i.e. upper door mount aligned with a step in the inner portion and the nick aligned with a line on the lower door mount. Clearly neither the van builders at Sevel nor AS took it upon themselves to ensure that the sliding door was fitted to standard and operated correctly.

So that's how it's been since 1995, but having fixed the leading edge, the trailing edge, though flush with the van from single central rear sliding mount down to the lower rear corner, has always stood-off from the body and its seal at the top rear corner of the door. So as Mrs Bartfarst lies in bed and looks up she can see daylight and, more importantly, feels an occasional cold draught around her face: fine in Germany in summer, not so good in Scotland in November. I now have a clear instruction to identify a solution!

The way I see it is that if I adjust the leading edge to get the trailing edge to fit, then the leading edge will be out as I believe the fundamental problem is that the upper rear half of the door is twisted away from the van, whether as originally built or as a result of AS cutting a bloomin' great window hole in it. The only corrective action I can identify at the moment is to apply a good deal of brute force and a modicum of ignorance to twist the door to shape by pushing it in at the top rear corner. Question is: has anyone attempted this, and is it possible to execute with the door still on the van or does the door have to be removed?

Any views please? 

Bartfarst

Can it be the door his bent and just need a knee in the right place.

Chris, that's what I suspect. The issue is how to restrain the lower part of the door whilst applying the force 'cause the bottom half of the rear door is nice and parallel with the body when shut, and I don't want to affect that. If force needs to be applied then I need to bend the top rear edge of the door inwards towards the van (can't get my knee up there Chris!) and probably need to initially over-bend it so that it deforms to the right shape on spring back.

Bart

Can you get your foot up there from inside and pull top of door in.

I don't think the use of a foot is feasible in this case, other than to kick it out of frustration!

Watching with interest.

Frank

Frank, is your Symphony similarly afflicted?

The seal at the upper rear of the sliding door is never as compressed as i think it should be. If the door is not slammed shut, you can see a thin strip of daylight. Even when it is slammed shut, there have been times in severe weather when rain has found its way in.

Not often but...

Frank

Matt,

That's an interesting idea: thanks!

I feel the lock element of the door is fully engaging and suspect this may not be the problem with our Harmony. However removing the sliding door panel is on my task list as I fear the hardboard door panel is water damaged and getting a bit mouldy. I also want to compete the final element of the Mk2 central locking conversion on the sliding door too. So when I do that I'll certainly take a peek form the inside as well. That said, I think I probably need to remove the nearside rear seat in order to work on the sliding door from the inside unimpeded: never done that and it could be a pain. Anyone done that?

I'll let you know how I get on - a job for early September now.

Cheers,


Bartfarst