NSR door not fitting at lower rear.
 

I've been a bit preoccupied with family things so not here for a few days, just catching up today.
My #1 son spotted this (see photo) the other day, I can't say whether it's an old problem or a new one as it's only visible from an angle/direction that I would rarely look at my car from.

Basically the nearside rear door is a poor fit at the bottom edge at the rear, almost as if the panel has been twisted slightly or forced out at the bottom rear corner.
The rest of the door is a good fit, all the way up the front edge, over the top and down to the latch, then the shut lines open up towards the corner both from above and along the bottom from the front.

No signs of any damage or obstructions that I can see.

This may or may not be relevant, but this is the door where the window mechanism broke, so I have replaced the TOP door frame and entire rubber seal some months ago. I didn't adjust the door catch at all though.

It's counter-intuitive that that work would do this anyway, it's misaligned the opposite way to anything that the upper frame could force. :Confused:

Thoughts anyone on the cause and remedy?

Similar issue...
 

My NSR door (top part) was replaced when I experienced a cable snap and subsequent loss of window action up/down. Due to the inclement weather at the time, we put the door back together and it's always been slightly reluctant to close. This can be negated by using slightly more force when slamming/closing the door. I don't have any leaks.

It's certainly a job that I need to revisit and seeing your post has reminded me. I'm convinced that I'll have to focus my attention on the hinge part and in particular the angled aluminium shim located there, and also possibly change the angle of the door striker post at the rear edge of the door. I've enclosed a couple of photos of the way my car currently looks. I'm sure the principle remains the same despite the extra length of my rear doors (LWB).

Ah, now you mention it I recall those shims; I have the smaller one (can't recall exactly where it came from) left over. Maybe that's a factor?
My door, as mentioned initially is a good fit all round - I spent a fair bit of time adjusting the upper frame - and shuts satisfying well.

IIRC the shims were between the main door section and the upper window frame and I decided I didn't need one as my replacement frame was subtly different to the original.

This door misalignment is quite common - mostly back doors, but sometimes front. I'm not sure whether its simply metal fatigue as the body shell ages and begins to loosen up slightly, or whether the door skin takes a set from a slightly misaligned window frame, latch, or door seal.

The front corners, or top rear corner, of each door are fairly simple to align using the hinge, but this lower rear corner is really dependent on the other three and when it's out like this I think that's purely down to the shape of the door so one has to get a little physical with it...

I've done it on other (steel) Audis by stripping the door down and removing the frame and basically putting my knee against the lower corner and heaving outward on the top. That twists the door shell a tiny bit at a time, and by removing the catch its possible to close it without any force and see how it lines up. Once all four corners are lining up ok, put the catch back in and line that up so the door closes nicely. Then, put the window frame back in and line that up so it seals properly but isn't distorting the door.

Whether this will work on an aluminium D2 remains to be seen, but may well be discovered during my S8's winter downtime...

I wonder if the door was always slightly out of shape but twisted back by the top of the (original) window frame exerting a twisting force, outwards at the top when closed?

When I removed the window frame it could have twisted back to its current shape and when I fitted the replacement I concentrated on getting the fit around the top of the window correct, to minimise wind noise. I never noticed, or even thought about, the lower rear corner as I just assumed it had been correct and would stay that way.

Maybe if I adjust the REAR fixing of the frame so that the top rear of the window frame is twisted into the body that will twist the whole rear of the door when its closed?

I recall that there were just 2 bolts at each end of the frame to secure it, allowing considerable adjustment. What I can't recall is how much of the door trim needs to be unclipped to get at them.

Dad and I initially replaced the top frame and noticed when first attempting to shut the door that it wouldn't fit. The angle of the lower base door frame is pretty much vertical and the top frame was say 5-10 degrees bent over towards the cabin - our angle was too much at say 10-15 degrees so we had to readjust and then the door closed. I think we had too much enthusiasm and excitement coursing through our blood at that stage because I realised a couple of days later that the door wouldn't latch unless you gave it an extra push when closing it. It's been that way ever since.

The door shim(s?) dropped out when dismantling the door and I'm sure we just put it back in exactly the same spot. I'm going to attempt to realign the top frame of the door, and possibly pay some extra attention to the door striker post. You may have noticed from my camera pictures that the shiny trim is slightly proud of the adjoining surface. Thanks for those useful nuggets of info MK/HP.

Just to close this old thread down, the door now fits perfectly. :cool:
My "body alignment expert" apparently applied strong knee pressure and a bit of leverage to twist the whole door back to the correct shape!

Just another of the D2 Doctors services. :ROFL:

So not only a Doctor, but a Physiotherapist as well.

For some reason its always the left rear door which does this, and the bolted-in window frame holds it out of shape. The trick is to release all the bolts holding the frame in, which allows the door skin to relax, and then tighten them up again.

Often this alone will allow it to sit flush again. In some cases, such as Andrews, it needs the frame removing and the door skin tweaking back in to shape (by applying a knee at the bottom corner and some light leverage from she who ate all the pies at the top), checking it fits flush with the body, and then refitting the frame :)