Door top question

[andy]

I've notice since day 1 that my 1973 712 has a rod/bar coming from the bottom of the window into the top of the lower portion of the door. This rod/bar/pin is just forward of the handle to shut the door. My '75 710 doesn't have this rod/bar/pin.

What is it for? Was there a design change in the doors between '73 and '75? What's it do? Is it a guide rod to put the tops back on if they've been taken off? I'm asking because it is warming up here and the first thing I plan to do is make the door tops removable.

Thanks

Andy

[krick3tt]

It might be the drain for the window track. Check to see if there is a hole above it into the bottom of the rubber track.
If your sill is tall it is probably the special sill that helps to drain the track.

Morris

[M Wehrman]

Of the 2 Pinzs' I've had,they all had different door tops. They must have been constantly updating. If they kept it up maybe we would have power windows!
Mark

[andy]

Strange stuff. I've had the tops on my 710 just sitting without being bolt for a long time. I'm curious what the ones on the 712 will end up doing, particularily the bar/pin thing.

morris, if it's a drain that means moisture goes right inside the door. Maybe that explains why I need to take the inside panels of the doors off and attack some of the rust. Whoever the previous owner was installed some black plastic inside panels that are pretty flimsy. I don't know if they weren't cut right to start with or just warped after the abs plastic roof lost the fight with UV rays and collapsed.

I'm just sort of hoping whatever the purpose is, it isn't a necessary support because I'm pretty sure when I take the doors apart it will become history.

Thanks for the info so far.

Andy

[krick3tt]

Andy,

I bought the 'improved' door sills from SAV that have a drain in them but did not run the outlet down through the door. On yours there should be a hose that drains 'through' the door and out the bottom, not into the door cavity, if it is done properly.
I ran my drains out just below the window to the outside just so that I could remove the door tops.

If you PM me I can send you a few pictures of the installation that I did. Makes it a lot easier when it is time to remove the door tops.

M

[andy]

Morris, I'll pm you when I get after it in a couple of days. I'm waiting for it to warm up and stay warm and I also need to use the truck in the next couple of days and don't want to get hung up because of a rusty bolt or two.

Thanks,

Andy

[texas pinzgauer]

Andy,

I got tired of unbolting and bolting the door tops each time the weather warranted a change so Robert Crow suggested I simply cut out notches for the stock door handles and I don't need to bother with the hardware and have had no problems.

Andre Swanson has built a rack for me and there's a place for the door tops....photos to follow once I receive the rack and get it mounted up.

Don't know if this helps any.

David

[andy]

I havent bolted the tops on my 710 doors for over a year. The guide rods are too much of a pain at the wrong times. If I'm not in a hurry the tops go back on no sweat. Any sense of urgency and it is a battle.

I started this because I want to get the tops off the 712 doors and that might be a problem. The extra little appendage bothers me some what, but it it's a drain all will be sealed

This truck suffered a little from exposure when the previous owner sort of abandoned it. So, with better (warmer ) weather it's time to try to rectify that as much as possible.

Andy

[krick3tt]

I bolted the handles to the door tops by making larger holes in the bottoms to allow a nut to go over the bolt and fit in, thus making the handles part of the top and not joining the two together.
Works great, but then I also removed the original pins from the hinges and replaced them with removable pins to take the whole door off. Really gives the cab a flow through air movement and increases the side view.
These two options give me real flexability in the desert, doesn't do much here in the rain, that is why I installed the drains.

[andy]

Morris, looks like you were right. There apparently is a drain in the rail in the front half of the windows. It never occurred to me to stick my head in there and just look. Now I'm wondering why the 710 doesn't have it. Thanks.

Andy

[krick3tt]

Andy,

My 710 did not have the drain rails either. Had to buy them and trade out the others. Still have the originals.
In retrospect I think if I had taken the original rails and attached (braised?, welded?) a drain to the front half, I could have accomplished the same thing and saved myself a huge amount of money. They were about $300 for the pair. One side cost more than the other, why I'll never know.
But...the drain rails are taller.

M

[andy]

10-4, I don't understand it either, but now that I know what they are, I'm not concerned about it. Both sills where the door top meets the bottom have lots of rust.

Some of that is from sitting outside w/o a roof, but I'll see what I can do when I pull the panels and get some of those EI has.

Thanks again.

Andy