993 door reinforcement kit

Timo993 · 11 Dec 2024

Hi, does anyone know if the door reinforcement kit fits a 993. They are advertised as fitting from 1970 to 1994. I know that the outside door skin is the same on the 993 and 964 but am not sure about the interior of the door. If anyone has had to repair their 993 door id appreciate hearing about it. Thanks

911UK · 17 Dec 2024

do you mean the 993 check straps ?

Timo993 · 17 Dec 2024

911UK said:
do you mean the 993 check straps ?

View attachment 109751

No not the check strap. Where the check strap is bolted to the door. The door metal is starting to brake and produces a clicking sound when opening the door. A very common fault on all air-cooled doors. Rennline do a reinforcement kit which is basically two metal plates to sandwich and strengthen the door its self. The check strap is then bolted to the reinforced door. Part number DH18

Paulb33 · 17 Dec 2024

That fix addresses an earlier air-cooled issue. The door was redesigned for the 993, which only served to transferred the problematic load into the door pillar. All our check straps will eventually fail at the anchor within the 993 A-pillar. A proper repair is an expensive (1k UKP) fix, for which there's no short cut. Get it done by someone who knows what they're doing. Not only is it a horrible noise, but you risk the door over-extending and creasing on the front wing.

PeterHoward · 17 Dec 2024

The repair kit will fit a 993 if there is damage on the door, if there is damage on the A frame its as Paul says. Take a good look and you should be able to see what is moving and causing the clicking sound.

Timo993 · 18 Dec 2024

PeterHoward said:
The repair kit will fit a 993 if there is damage on the door, if there is damage on the A frame its as Paul says. Take a good look and you should be able to see what is moving and causing the clicking sound.

Thank you very much for getting back to me as you've answered it for me. There's no problem with the A frame as that had been repaired when i bought the car in 2017 and is still in perfect order. It is a door problem so hopefully the reinforcement kit should do the job. I've just got to push the metal that has moved back into place before fitting.

Timo993 · 18 Dec 2024

Paulb33 said:
That fix addresses an earlier air-cooled issue. The door was redesigned for the 993, which only served to transferred the problematic load into the door pillar. All our check straps will eventually fail at the anchor within the 993 A-pillar. A proper repair is an expensive (1k UKP) fix, for which there's no short cut. Get it done by someone who knows what they're doing. Not only is it a horrible noise, but you risk the door over-extending and creasing on the front wing.

Thanks for getting back to me but the problem is with the door and not the A frame.

Paulb33 · 18 Dec 2024

Timo993 said:
Thanks for getting back to me but the problem is with the door and not the A frame.

Interesting. My understanding is the anchor in the A-pillar usually goes first on the 993. I wonder if fixing the anchor pin has then transferred the load back to the door skin, as in older 911s?

Timo993 · 18 Dec 2024

Paulb33 said:
Interesting. My understanding is the anchor in the A-pillar usually goes first on the 993. I wonder if fixing the anchor pin has then transferred the load back to the door skin, as in older 911s?

I think that's exactly what's happened. If it wasn't for the fact that Porsche was making a loss quite a lot of the time they probably would have come up with a better design! A bit like the door hinges on my old Defender!

Paulb33 · 18 Dec 2024

Timo993 said:
I think that's exactly what's happened. If it wasn't for the fact that Porsche was making a loss quite a lot of the time they probably would have come up with a better design! A bit like the door hinges on my old Defender!

There's a ton of info on Rennlist about this. I know enough to be dangerous....but I seem to recall folks advocating for a shaving of the nub on the stay, to reduce the load transferred.

Timo993 · 18 Dec 2024

Paulb33 said:
There's a ton of info on Rennlist about this. I know enough to be dangerous....but I seem to recall folks advocating for a shaving of the nub on the stay, to reduce the load transferred.

I've done pretty much the same research and also read that dismantling the check strap allows you to reduce the material on the inside to achieve the same thing.I think it's teflon or some similar material. The check strap that ive taken off is not in bad condition but is warn in enough hopefully to not create too much pressure. I think fitting a brand new one unmodified probably wouldn't be the best idea with the door in the state that it's in. Anyway, i'll find out when the kit turns up!

Timo993 · 19 Jan 2025

Finally managed to find five minuets to give the results of my 993 door repair for anyone else who finds themselves with the same problem.
I used a reinforcement kit that i got from Rennline which consisted of two fairly thick pieces of laser cut metal, two Alan bolts and some grease.
It was impossible to weld the broken part of the door so i used J-B WELD which is a two part apoxi mix which sets like metal. As soon as id applied that i cramped everything in place using the plates and a couple of nuts and bolts and left it for a couple of days to make sure it had set properly.
When placing the exterior plate, i tied some string through the top bolt hole of the plate so that if i dropped it it would be retrievable as
putting it in place is fiddly and if you were to drop it it would be irretrievable.
The worst part of the job is removing and replacing the check strap pin. For that i used a length of steel bar which ground an angle on so as to hit the pin back in squarely.
I will say that that i didn't use the Alan bolts supplied with the kit as the shoulders of the bolts were not large enough and fitting a washer made the sit too proud so i used some bolts that i had which were far more like the originals only just a bit longer.
All in all it's made a really good repair and it's really nice to not have that horrible clicking noise every time i open and close the door.