Rabbit Door Interchange and Alignment Issues

[82vdub]

I have grown increasingly tired of the vent windows on ole 82 coming loose from the hinges, so today I decided to do something about it. I have a spare rabbit that has the bolted in vent windows in it out back, that just happens to be the same color. I've got the perfect donor car - right color, right number of doors, it's out back, easy peasy. So, I swap the doors today, and since the donor door was stripped of the door mechanism, I swap those over as well. I take my time and lube up the window mechanism and the door mechanism since it's in my hands. This is such an easy solution to those crappy glued in vent windows. Low and behold, the donor door didn't fit quite right on ole 82. The door hit the fender (I know that's adjustable) and there was a huge gap at the back, but the door closed really, really hard. Something wasn't right. So I went to the Bentley to see if there's an adjustment for the hinges. I know that the hinges are welded to the chassis, but thought they would be adjustible from inside the door. Nope

I take a walk to my donor vehicle, and see that the hinge on that car was welded to the chassis about 1/4 - 3/8" further back than on ole 82. I go to the other side of the donor vehicle (door is off) and the hinge on that side isn't welded in the same position as the other side of the car.

So what gives? All these Rabbit doors should be identical as the chassis didn't really change over the various years. Anyone find out that all these doors aren't created equal?

[vwtyp133]

Most '80-'84 Rabbits sold in the U.S. & Canada were manufactured/assembled in Westmoreland County, PA (probably a venture Volkswagen AG would prefer to forget!), while most pre-'80 Rabbits, especially those with non-opening front vent windows, i.e. "The Bronze Edition", were AFAIK manufactured in West Germany. Recalling our '77 & '80 diesel Rabbits, although the 1500n.a. engines were both German-built, we noticed quite a few differences between the finished vehicles from the 2 different plants. If your 'parts' Rabbit is a German model, that could explain some of the misfit issues you're seeing, but OTOH it's no secret that the German variety was/is considered by many to of more consistent build quality than the Westmoreland County units.

[Fatmobile]

Really? What year is the one out back?
Must be an '83 or '84 if it has the bolt-on wings right?
You can just swap the wings. I think even the rubber will swap from a bolt-on wing to a glued-on one.

[82vdub]

Ole 82 is 1983, and the two parts cars out back are 83/84. They have the bolt in windows. I thought about swapping the frames, but after spending half a day on my endeavor, I needed to move on to something else. Not sure how long the frame swap would take, and the rubber from the donor door isn't so great, so I didn't really want to try to destroy that in the process. I may look at this a little closer later though.

[Fatmobile]

I'm going to check my door mounts between the '82 and '84.

[82vdub]

Here's some pics. First pic below is ole 82, and the pic at the bottom is from the parts car. You can see the hinge in the parts car is much further back than ole 82


upper hinge for ole 82


upper hinge for the parts car

[Fatmobile]

Right, on the actual door itself.
I forgot to check mine.
I thought they were an easy swap.

[82vdub]

Ironically, I never noticed the difference of the hinge on the door. I only noticed the hinge on the chassis. Ole 82 has the hinge further forward than the parts car. But, the parts car also appears to have the hinge on the door further out, moving the door even further back. I'll have to take a closer look at that.