door interchangeability

[Dougieboy1]

i need a replacement door for my 1972 MY car. Will any door from 1969-1973 work or does it have to be for a 72/73 MY car? Am wondering about the check strap mount and electric window switch holes.

I currently have a door from a later car fitted and the mounting plate for the check strap seems different to my other door which is a 72 door.

any thoughts?

[Richy]

'73 and later cars have a latch with larger screws and larger holes in the door , so not a perfect match . The door stop mounting area changed in '76 I think . You are looking for '69 through '72 .

[MattB]

So for my '73 I could use a '73 to perhaps '76 door? What about side impact beams? And any thoughts on which years provide for better door gaps?

[304065]

Matt, while it is theoretically possible to take the Doors off Seinfeld's Mexico Blue 993 and mount them to (formerly) Seinfeld's first 911, it is not recommended-- virtually every year was different in terms of holes and other features.

Why do you need a replacement door? Can't you fix your door? that would be better than any replacement and even if it's swiss cheese these things can be fixed.

[MattB]

Someone likely changed the door in the past and the gaps are larger than I'd like. I'm guessing it's not a door original to the year. Maybe I'll start by seeing if I can figure out which version it is...

[Dmill]

The best I can determine, the safety bar was installed in doors in January of 1973...All LWB doors prior to 1/73 did not have the safety bar and as others have said, there are some small differences in for example the size of the head of the phillips head bolt that holds the latch into the door....I think (not 100% sure) the 69-71 doors have a smaller headed phillips head bolt and the 72 - 73 doors have a slightly larger headed phillips head bolt.

[304065]

From our departed friend and mentor Roland Kunz, c. 2002:

Hello

Are the doors from a 993 the exact same as from say a 3.2 Carrera?
No
Are they similar or are they exact part numbers?
? Can´t understand the sense of that question.
Do coupe doors differ from targa and cab doors?
Yes the Targa/Convertible have a sheetmetal welded into the window channelends to avoid a visible gap.

I heard through the '98 model year the 911 doors and hood are just about the only unchanged body panels. Is this down to the part number or do they mean visually identical?

The generaly shape ( the outher skin ) is the same from 65-98 but the innner structur changed several times.
The front hood canged in 74 massivly and also has some little chages in 89 ( trunk light ) and 94 ( Washer nozzles in trunklid ).

The inner door skin changed in this main spoting phases:

65-68 the rear from the door has a rised area where the door lock sits.

69-79 flat rear end and some holes with sliding flat nuts for the door pockets. one hole more for the wireloom ( Electric winder ).
The door stop area is changed.
71- the mounting screws for the rear lock changed from M5 to M6 needing a deeper recces
73- US only, reinforcement beam, big hole for the alarm lock
77- relocation from the mirror holes and one more hole for wireloom ( mirror ) again. The sliding nuts where removed, the door pocktes use plastic anchors for the screws.
80- reinforcement beam standard ROW, more holes for new winder system reinforced door stop area.

85-89 The two holes for the upper frame mount in the rear changed to a long cutout. The upper front end was changed the recesed area helps the mirrorswitch a support brace will hold the upper cover. The door will now carry a two way speaker system and the door pockets where slightly shortent on the front end so the front is screwed direct to the skin and not indirect via the little plastic cube. The backend has two little holes for the internal door mechanismen cover. The door locks are mountet with reinforcment washers. The rear door pocket anchor area is reinforced from the backside

89-94 (964) big hole on the frontend to run the new wireloom

94-98 (993) big hole on the underside for the windowframemounting. some holes more for internals.

Porsche always replaced the stocks with newer doors so you always had to modify the new doors to the old versions or just boltet it up as it is. The 993 door will fit into the 65 body and all the holes are in it or marked to be drilled up.
If you use a 89- door the interiour light switch will not work correct.

Fiting a 65 door into a 993 is big work.

Grüsse

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsc...atibility.html

[Jim Breazeale]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Very helpful info except for:
Do coupe doors differ from targa and cab doors?
Yes the Targa/Convertible have a sheetmetal welded into the window channelends to avoid a visible gap.

That is simply not true. The door shells are identical in every detail.

Regards

Jim

[Cornpanzer]

One other little detail. 1969 has a different door limit strap mechanism that the 70-73 and the later straps will not fit the 69 door shell.

[mac73s]

So for my '73 I could use a '73 to perhaps '76 door? What about side impact beams? And any thoughts on which years provide for better door gaps?

One other bit of trivia re using a later than 73 door....the door pockets changed and therefore doors from 74 up do NOT have the (4) sets of blind/captive nuts that are needed to install the original front and rear door pockets. If you are updating to a later style of door card/door pocket arrangement then this would not present a problem and you could use a later door. When you consider that 73 was the first use of the safety beam AND the last year for the (4) sets of captive nuts, then the 73 door is a 'one year only' arrangement. I have a great supply of doors that were gathered before I realized this...yes...I learned the expensive way