maunal to power doors, How hard would it be?

[darkred87T]

I am finally having my Buick painted and I have a good set of doors on it, however, I also have a set of power doors off of a limited, (one is dented) but they have power windows and locks. I would like to have these options on my car. Would it be a huge task to swap the motors amd mechanisms from the power doors to the manual doors? Should I just put the damaged power doors on the car and have them repaired? Has anyone ever done this?

 

[RICHIE HIGH PSI]

It is an eazy task, I did one last summer, took about 1 hour per door.
aligning the window took a little more time.
Very straight foward job.
Richie

 

[84GNwith87eng]

not to hijack the thread, but is there a guide on installing doors? (ie: removing two rusty doors and installing new ones?

 

[SHADOWII]

The big problem w/the p/w's that came w/ these cars is, they are so slow! most of our cars can cover the 1/8 before the window reaches the closed position. But FWIW, I did notice, while glancing thru the jc whittney cat. last nite, they were offering a new kit for older cars. that might be a consideration if it is cost effective. I didn't see the price and I don't have a cat. to look it up for you. It's a thought.

 

[darkred87T]

Thanks, I have a whole donor car. It's a 25k mile 86 Limited Regal that's been hit and totaled. It's loaded with options as where mine is stripped so I'm going to swap the interiors over. I have two good manual doors on mine now it now so I'll just make the switch after the car is painted.

 

[darkred87T]

not to hijack the thread, but is there a guide on installing doors? (ie: removing two rusty doors and installing new ones?

I'm not sure, but I think Kirban sells a book on windows which might include doors. I think adjusting the windows is the tricky part. I tried to adjust one of my windows and now I have a puddle of water on the drivers side floor of the car. LOL. Doors are tricky, but with enough playing around, you can get them where you want them.

 

[turbofish38]

You are going to need to do a lot of work if your car doesn't have the power windows too. Make sure you have the wire harness that goes in the door and that the body end of the harness doesn't have the connectors cut off. Some cars have the big 2.5" hole cut into the hinge pillar that the harness runs through and some dont. Sometimes there is a plastic plug covering the hole. If not you have to drill the hole. Try to use the factory parts to make it weathertight and pretty. All you need to do is plug the harness into the body side of the harness and you are ready to go if you have complete doors and are not hooking up just the actuators.

I have found that a marginal alternator or one that is on its last legs could be the problem for slow power windows. The more voltage that goes into the big pink wire at the C100 connector the faster your windows will work.

 

[strikeeagle]

The original owner of my T ordered it with manual locks. He damn near ordered it with manual windows too, but he saw a TR with manual windows on the lot way back when and hated them, so he checked PW.

Of the 4 TRs I've owned my T is the only one with manual locks. And I don't miss the PL at all. At all. Ever notice how manual stuff works? Always works?

strike

I like my manual seats too!

 

[rodman99999]

The original owner of my T ordered it with manual locks. He damn near ordered it with manual windows too, but he saw a TR with manual windows on the lot way back when and hated them, so he checked PW.

Of the 4 TRs I've owned my T is the only one with manual locks. And I don't miss the PL at all. At all. Ever notice how manual stuff works? Always works?

strike

I like my manual seats too!

I've been a purchasing agent for a couple cars lots, and done check-outs on A LOT of cars!! Trust me: manual stuff DOESN'T always work. It does break a helluva lot less than power stuff though!! Some one used to offer a speed-em-up kit for our cars' windows. It had a relay, a bigger wire to go directly to the battery, and went to that wire/harness you were talking about. Not as much voltage drop to the driver's window/the passenger's wasn't as bad( still has a puny wire running over there). Wouldn't be hard to duplicate.

 

[darkred87T]

I figured I would have to drill some holes. Like I said earlier though, I have a whole car as a donor so I can use all the wire harnesses out of it.

 

[V6UnderPressure]

Hate to bring this post back from the dead but I am actually going from power windows to crank to avoid hassle down the road and to put her on a diet again. Is it easy both ways?

 

[turbofish38]

Sure is. Run down to the boneyard and get the four plastic plugs to cover the holes in the door jamb where the wire and conduit ran. Just disconnect the harnesses at the kick panels.

 

[V6UnderPressure]

Did the crank update. Pretty easy, except for lining up the window. What a pain in the arse!