RENNLINE 911 Door Cards Installation Instructions

Posted on Mar 09, 2016

We recently installed some of these RS inspired door cards from RENNLINE on our 84 911 Carrera but as they don't ship with instructions we thought we'd write some.

These high quality, black leather door cards from RENNLINE are simple looking and retain all the functionality of the originals in terms of switch gear etc. One bonus is that they replace the unusual and hard to explain door latch handles with a rather nifty red pull strap. They also save a little weight which is always nice. They come with everything you need to complete the swap making it a very easy job.

It is a very versatile kit that comes with all the cutouts already made. All you do is cut out the leather from the holes you need and leave the others in place.

 

The first thing to do, obviously is to set about removing the old door cards. The details vary depending on you actual model but the principles are all very similar if not identical to ours. Our door pockets were already removed as they interfered with the door bars on the cage. On ours there were Phillips head screws along the bottom edge, one at the top rear corner and one at the door handle.

Removing all the other doodads from the door is pretty easy.The door caps are held on by two screws; one under a cap at the rear in the and the front one is accessed with the door open. If you have electric mirrors you will have to unplug the connector from the switch once you have lifted the door cap up for access. Then it should pop right off. 

Before you can remove the grab handle you have to unhook the latching actuator from the door handle latch paddle. We just popped it off with a long screwdriver. The handle itself his held on by two Allen screws in the top and two in the bottom.

The electric window switches pry out with a wide flat blade screwdriver. Make sure you are not prying on the metal bezel surround as this stays in place, for now. Ours were rather a tight fit but came out easily if we worked our way around. It is a very good idea to take lots of pictures of the wiring as it is not obvious how they go back once disconnected and there is not a lot of slack.

If you are swapping over the door speakers to the new door cards you can unscrew them now. Four Phillips screws hold the covers on and some more the speakers themselves. Pull the two wires from the connectors on the speakers once you have clearance.If you want to leave them in place it is easy to disconnect the connectors once the door card is freed from the door. Just don't forget.

The round door lock is held on by one screw. Just pry off the cap and undo the screw and it all comes away nicely. Your door should now look like ours above.

The door card itself is held on by a combination of screws and push pins. The pins are on the front and rear edges about half way up. Ours had two at the front and two at the rear. You can pop them with a flat blade screw driver or special tool. Ours came out easily. The screws are along the bottom with one up the sides on the front and one at the rear. If you just took off the door pockets these may already be out. Now your door should look like this:

The moisture barrier just peels off. It will peel off very easily if it has been removed more than a few times in the past. Ours was held on by not very OE looking masking tape. Then you get this:

There are probably a bunch of "while your'e in there's" at this stage. In our case we checked inside the doors for rust and debris, lubed up the window, locks and door mechanisms then put the moisture barrier back with some 3M spray adhesive. The adhesive didn't work too well so we used some masking tape. That probably explains why we initially found masking tape.
But before you do that it might be a good idea to install the latch pull loop. We didn't which is why we are telling you now. It attaches to the hole in the mechanism that the lever rod is or was connected to. It is very fiddly as it attaches with a pin and a very small snap-ring that wants to fall into the door and hide.
I guess now it's time to start cutting holes in you nice new leather door cars. Gulp! We identified all the holes we needed and cut them diagonally with a utility knife so we could fold back the excess in little flaps. We cut the foam backing away first but even being careful we cut the leather in a couple of places. It wasn't a problem but we really wanted try to have ears to fold back as that's how the factory did it. If you have power windows you probably only need one cutout on the passenger side door card. Just sayin' ;) Once cut we glued back said ears with 3M adhesive and weighted it down over-night while it set.

We mentioned to be careful not to damage the power window switch bezels when removing the switches. We now you have to remove those bezels and transfer them to the new door cards or your switches will flop about. We found the tabs holding them in place responded well to a pair of needle-nose pliers and the same tool worked well to secure them into their new homes, though ours seemed a bit cockeyed for some reason.

The door latch loop surround just screws on with two small screws supplied.
The kit comes with new push pins. These install with a slight twist. We used pliers to avoid breaking a nail. Easy peasy.
The last thing to do before installing the new door cards is to mark the locations of the screw holes and pull handle holes so you'll be able to find them once it is in place. We simply pushed a nail through the leather so we could find the hole later.
Then, if you haven't messed up you should be able to offer up the new door card to the door. Don't forget the moisture barrier though. Then you can mount the pull handle. It screws through the door card into the metal of the door. we just drilled pilot holes through the door card using the holes we had punched earlier as templates.
Before screwing the handles on slide the screw covers up onto the handle so you can slide them back down later to cover the screws. We found a couple of washers behind the handle made the mounting tabs stand off just enough so the clips of the covers could latch on. Top Tip!
Because these door cards are not as thick as the originals (that's part of the attraction) we found the door lock bezel was loose as it was designed to be squished against a panel twice the thickness of this one. Our solution was to stuff some packing paper behind the door car in this area to pad it out a bit. Worked for us. We also thought about making or finding a large black spacer/washer of some kind to fit behind the knob pushing the bezel further back.

The last job is to tidy it all up by reinstalling the door caps but ours were brown! We discovered that they were covered in leather from the factory but it peeled away easily to reveal patterned black plastic below. After removing a bit of old glue they looked like new and matched the new door cards perfectly :)

This is how we removed the mirror adjuster from the door cap.
and before we knew it; race car!