Testarossa door lock removal, and window fix.

Well I've finally found the time (and inclination) to do a few things inside the old girl's doors.

1. Bailey channel rubbers that the window slides in had perished just above the mirrors and had started whistling at speed.
2. Windows were slow as a wet week in Sydney.
3. My drivers door lock barrel will lock but won't unlock the door manually. Remote off the alarm works fine, but not manual unlock.

I located a place here in Melbourne that specialises in older style vehicle rubbers, took the car down there and he found a rubber in stock that fitted well in the channel. $125 for both windows - 2.5 m each.

Next was to get in touch with Rod Dickman (Fellow FChatter) and purchase a set of his wonder booster gizmos to fit inside the doors to assist power to the window motors. $114 inc postage and a wek later they had flown accross the Pacific and landed in my shed. Beautifully packaged and presented with all the gear required to fit and comprehensive instructions.

So let the fun begin...............

 

Rodney Dickman
Rodney Dickman's Auto Acc's
Web page: www.rodneydickman.com
7604 Treeview Drive
Caledonia, WI 53108
Phone/Fax(262) 835-9575

 

Window gizmo's - 'bloody marvellous'

The windows are 40% better now than they were when the motor was running and 75% better now than they were with the motor off.

Ie: before with motor running they were okay, now they are good. When motor was off they barely moved, now they are better with engine off than when the motor used to be running.

All in all a solid investment. It's p1ssing rain here at the moment and I've just come up out of the shed and left the camera in the Testa so you blokes can wait till tomorrow for pics.

Long day - Windows out, window frames removed, one side bailley channel rubber completed including the tricky little 90 degree mitre cut in the top corner - yeah that was fun. Both door locks removed coz the paint was shabby. Sandblasted, primed and repainted, now drying overnight to refit tomorrrow.

Getting there.

 

Rodney's little boxes are a treat. They arrived very profesionally packaged with all clips, silicon wiring and instructions required to do a great job.

Very straightforward job on the Testarossa.

Remove the door trim. 1 screw near the door latch on the trim. Four or five embedded into the carpet along the bottom and up the front edge. Slip out the door pocket. Be gentle they do break. Two 10mm head bolts in there to be removed.

Lift the interior door handle near the ashtray and remove the screw under there. Last screw is under the top of the actual leather handle used to pull the door closed. Pop the trim at the back first and lift gently up untill it clears the window frame. Then slide towards the rear of the car to slide the trim section back that is around the mirror. Once it moves back about 5" then lift the whole trim clear. There is a small cable that conects the internal door handle to the cable pivot assembly. Push the green clip off the rod and remove the cable. Put the door card away out of harms way. Don't want to scratch it!

If your car has never been touched there will be a double thickness plastic liner taped to the outside of the door skin behind the internal trim. There will also be a single thickness sheet on the inside of the door to direct any water that enters from the window seals and ensures that the water drops striaght down to the bottom of the door where the drain holes are. Gently remove the external liner back about 10' from the mirror end. Then fold the internal plastic back and up at a 45 deg angle away from the bottom front of the door. It will hold back under it's own pressure or hook it behind a window cable for support.

This will expose the wires around the bottom of the window channel. You will see a large earth strap which bolts to the first bolt holding the window cable mechanism into the base of the door. Remove the nut and the earth strap.

Again, if your car has not been opened up before, look up the front window channel about 1/3 up from the bottom. You will see a 1/2" wide strib of metal running vertically up the door with a few nuts on it. These hold the strakes on your doors. On one of these will be a gold anodised metal ring supporting the electrical cables as they come through the door entry and then go off to the vaarious aspects of the door. Locate the yellow and blue single wires and trace them down. There will be two white plastic joiner covers to help identify them. These are the window motor wires. They are yellow and blue going into the joiners and just plain grey going to the motor unit.

Rodney supplied crimp joiners to connect his units but I preferred a soldered joint, especially given that I was splicing the winder gizmo in only an inch or so away from the Ferrari joiner. As can be seen in the following images, I bared back the grey wires and simply soldered Rodneys two grey wires straight in. Then I slipped some heatshrink tube over the solder and fused it. Then I simply reconnected the Ferrari joiners and put the plastic covers back on.

The earth from Rodney's unit went to the bolt where the original door earth goes. I put Rodneys on first and then the original wire and nut, thereby sandwhiching Rodney's earth under the Ferrari earth and ensuring a good connection. Wiring done!

The box placement was really easy. These units are fully sealed and impermeable to moisture so sitting them in the bottom of the door is no problem. There is a rib stiffener on the Testarossa and there is a perfect placement between the rib stiffener at the bottom of the forward window channel and the window mechanism that sits along the base of the door. The entire are here is tar painted with rust preventative and it's a sticky awful mess. Using a blade scraper I cleaned off a suitable area to locate the box and then with 4 generous dabs of silicon, I affixed the box to the base of the door. Silicon won't stick to the sticky tar mess, so clean it first.

All in all the job shouldn't take more than an hour, unless like me, you get distracted and decide to attend to other 'issues' whilst you are in there.

Thanks Rodney for a great and inexpensive fix.

 

Picture 1: If you are lucky and your car has not been opened too often you will have nice plastic on the inside under the door trims.

Picture 2: Also more plastic on the inside.

Picture 3: Shows the two grey wires that run from the joiners to the window motor and where I spliced into them.

Picture 4: Shows where to scrape off the gunk and place your little black box.

 

Images
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Ths images shows the box position just before I siliconed it into place and also where you pick up the eart point from.

Second images shows everything in place ready to close up the door.
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Yes, I expected to have to run 12v as well, but Rodney is a clever cookie. He has wired a pair of relays in such a way that this is not required. He is basicaly shortening the resistance runs thereby maintaining a good constant voltage and earth supply.

Great part is, 1: They work and 2: No need to run extra wires.

 

Well it took a few days to get it all done but it worked out great.

New bailey channel rubbers fitted and done. Properley mitre cut in the corners and now the window seal perfectly with no fouling old rubbers.

Dickman wonder window winder gizmos fitted. Great, no more slow windows.

Door locks removed, serviced and painted. The black paint was looking decidedly second hand and is now perfect again.

Warning and puddle lights removed, cleaned, serviced and re-installed. These have some issues which are simple to repair and which I'll elaborate on later.

Window motors serviced and cables lubricated.

New inner door plastic fabricated and installed. A perfect fit, and even better insulative qualities that the original Ferrari items.

New outer door plastic fabricated. Double thickness to include the drip trays as per the factory units. Pics to come. Templates for these have been made and kep for future needs.

About an hour more tomorrow just cleaning things up before final fitting of the door trims and it's all done.

NEXT...................!!!!!!

 

Passenger door lock before and after removal, servicing and painting.
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http://www.birdmanferrari.com/windows.htm