There are number of things I need to do to recondition the body of my 944. I've already taken care of the sunroof (replaced one of the locking finger assemblies) which then corrected the alignment of the sunroof when closed. With that done, I still had a bad squeak - the sun roof seal squeaks as the body flexes when driving over un-even ground [like my driveway]. Dry silicone lubricant solved this problem - but only temporarily.

Before I go any further though I have to take care of a couple of dents.  The one in the drivers door is pretty serious and borderline as to weather it should just be replaced. Doors are not really hard to find but swapping them out will take awhile due to having to move the window, wiring  and door latch stuff.  So first I will attempt to pull out the dents and fill them. 

Well, I straightened out the door but it required a lot of filler, so once I found a replacement door I had it shipped to my home. Here, you can see that I have the old and new doors together for a swap of the seals, window & mirror hardware.   

This is almost a classic 944 problem. The window channel breaks loose and soon the window jumps out of its track. This one had been welded but there is another anchor point (just under the weather strip) that also needed to be re-welded. 

This small crack is also seen on many 944s, it is also a result of fatigue placed on the door skin by a loose window channel.

With all of the window hardware out, I got a peek at the window regulator. The power window operation on these cars is often slow. Mostly, that is due to poor electrical grounding or a defective switch. But this lack of lubrication doesn't help. The grease was probably slowly washed away over the years. 

The inside of the door is NOT water tight. Quite a bit of water can make its way around the window seal and into the door. This is not a big problem if the plastic shielding is in place and the drain openings at the bottom of the  are not clogged. Getting the plastic shield back in place is important. Above, I'm replacing this plastic, note how, the openings have to be done first from the inside and then a second overall cover. The inside flaps, force rain water (that gets in around the window fuzzy) to drip inside of the door. The OEM piece is the same 4 mil plastic that I'm using here but it is poorly tailored to the door. Even with a brand new OEM piece. I had leaks, above you see a bonzai effort to stop the leaks. .

Are you wondering why old cars have that special smell. Well here is one source - water made its way through the plastic shield and over time rotted the door panel. If you're buying used door panels, always check the lower edge for water damage. This one is headed for the trashcan.