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NOTE: Starting in (I think) 1987 GM put VIN labels on many major components of the car. Removing these VIN labels is a criminal offence. Whenever you use parts with VIN labels make sure you get good receipts for them. If you don't get good receipts then consider changing the door guts only. You don't want to be stuck with a VIN that might be a problem on the car.
Another Note: Expect to spend 20-30 hours on this project. Maybe more depending on just what you need to do. Including the mirror repaint I probably have 40+ hours into this upgrade. It was worth it though. Now if I can just stop reaching for that phantom window crank...
WARNING!
Disconnect the battery while working in the dash! You will have multiple hot circuits in there.
Expect to be adjusting the windows if you do this the way I did. One or both will need at least a little tweaking. The adjustment notes are in another article listed in the Body category.
I never owned a car with power windows. Frankly, I find them a pain on most cars I've driven with them. On a Fiero however it is next to impossible to reach the far window from the driver's side. You may as well get out, go around, and open it for the effort it takes to stretch across the inside. Power windows are pretty much a must have item. Power lock would be handy but aren't as needed. If you have the windows you can open the window and let the passenger unlock the door themselves. Power mirror also has little benefit unless you have to adjust it often. I think I only ever need to adjust mine a couple times a year because it got bumped. Not too big a deal. On the other hand I drive with both windows and the roof open whenever possible. If it suddenly starts raining then you have to stop someplace to role up the window. Not fun.
Recently I lucked into a good deal for a set of power window doors off a scrapped 86 SE. I paid about $130 for 2 whole doors and a raft of interior parts. This is the "short" story of what it took to migrate them from the 86SE to my 87SC.
Obviously I had to remove all the stuff from the SE. Expect to spend 4-6 hours at the scrap yard, longer if it is raining like the day I went. Actually it drizzled all day until it was time for me to pack up everything. It waited until then, when I had to be outside unprotected, to pour like hell. It kept pouring for the next several hours.
WARNING: Disconnect the car battery before working on the harness. You will have multiple circuits to deal with. The courtesy light circuit is hot at all times.
When you do a project like this you have to remember that scrap yards often don't have the car's keys or have removed the battery from the car. You will likely not be able to lower the windows in the normal manor. This will affect removing the doors, since you have to be much more careful dealing with the glass.
The doors have 2 connectors; unless you also have power locks/mirrors then you have more. The large connector is the window motor. The small one is the "ajar" switch. These are under the carpet. Unplug them then stuff them and the rubber tube end out through the hole in the post.
The best way to remove the doors is to remove the pins from the hinges. Don't waste time trying to save the hinges whole. Since you can't operate the windows you likely won't be able to get to the bolts inside the door. You can't skin the door because if the windows are up then you can't get to the nuts to remove the mirrors. Be careful with the spring in the bottom hinge. Pry it out of the hinge before you try to remove the pin. Don't get in line of sight while prying it out in case it goes flying. (Usually they pop up into the fender, but don't take chances.) To remove the pins, first pry off the tin clip near the head end of the pin. This clip keeps the pins from falling out when used head down.
Once you have the doors off, you can lower the windows by stuffing a length of wire in the 2 terminals on the big connector. Then touch these wires to a charged battery. (Those portable emergency battery units work great for this.) If the window doesn't go down then reverse the leads and try again. If it still won't go down the door may have a problem. (If it goes slow make sure the battery is fully charged before you assume the door is messed up.) You could do this before taking the doors off the car. It's just more awkward.
The interior is the hard part. You have to rip out the entire dash and the console to get the harness out. There are clips under the console frame the have to be removed. The harness itself runs through a plastic guide just below the windshield. There's not enough room to get the connectors through even if it wasn't taped to the tube. A cordless reversible electric drill helps allot.
SAVE EVERYTHING. Even the screws. Grab the heater control motors and cable too. Throw it all in your bucket. (You did think to bring one... Oh well, look around there's nearly always one or two laying in some other junk car.) I got really lucky. In my case the dash was good so I got that out carefully and will replace my cracked one.
The best place to start is with the removal of the switch plate. Take the harness off the switches and work your way up into the console and dash taking things apart as you go. Once the dash is out disconnect the connectors by the passenger's door and work your way across.
Getting out the harness is a little tricky. You need to be careful not to destroy all the clips that hold it's connectors together and the clips that anchor some connectors to the car. Most of the connectors are obvious how they lock together. These aren't:
This whole thing's mostly time consuming. At least you don't have to worry about labeling connectors. They only fit one way latter.
Putting the whole mess into the other car takes far more time than getting the parts did. You have to do all the same things to the second car to get it ready for the new parts. Don't expect to get it done in one day. Unless you have a secure enclosed workspace I strongly recommend you install the interior stuff before messing with the doors. Then you can drive the car and still have working windows until you get time to prep and swap the doors. (If you can't do both doors in the same day then do the passenger's side first. That door likely doesn't need hinge pins put in.) I spent most of a day just doing the interior work. Depending on just what you need to do to the doors they can take a day or more each. (To do a good job on a set of mirrors can take a day or 2 as well.)
One nice thing is that you don't have to remove the console frame to get the harness in. This saves a lot of time. When you remove the dash you need to watch out that you don't break the frame when you pull out the 2 small tabs that align the frame to the air duct hole in the dash. The tabs are about 1/4 inch long and insert in the edge of the center air outlet.
The window switch connectors will fit through a space on the left side of the steel dash frame. Put them through then move the harness to the right side. Try to tuck the harness in with the main harness for the rest of the car after you get it in place. It will stay there by itself once everything is together.
Ok, so you forgot where that pink wire went now that it's a week latter. It goes into the terminal block with the only other thick pink wire there. Just put you new wire into one of the 2 available holes next to the existing wire. If you aren't 100% sure your new wire is going to the right hole, wiggle the existing wire and watch the terminals. The correct terminals will wiggle too. The rest of the connectors go together the same as they came apart. There's really no way to muck this up except for sticking the pink wire in the wrong hole.
Once you get the harness fully into the car reconnect the battery and stick one of those 30 amp cans in the fuse block. (It goes in the empty hole next to one that looks just like it.) Put a meter or light across the motor connectors. Watch the light or meter while you push the window switches. (The key needs to be on.) Test both sides. Do this BEFORE you reinstall the dash and console. (Make sure none of the exposed dash connectors are touching anything.) If you did everything right you should see positive or negative voltage on the motor connectors depending on which way you push the window switch.
On the subject of switches, the ones you just got likely need to be cleaned or replaced. They are tricky to take apart and put back together but it can be done. If you take them apart use dielectric grease to lube the contacts. This grease won't burn and crud up like regular grease will. Make sure you mark the switch body and the contact board so you put them back together the same way they came apart. If you reverse the contacts the switch will work backwards. Be careful not to bend the metal "framing" on the switch or you could short the circuit out. (If you do have a short the switches are the first things to check.)
This is also a good time to clean up and paint a set of mirrors. You'll need to skin the doors anyway, so you might as well have decent mirrors ready to go on. Any other interior parts should be cleaned and coated with your favorite protector before you put them in or while you have them out. This is likely to be the only time you'll get to clean all the crevices, remove wax build up, etc.
The doors will need to be skinned inside and out. (That's in another article) This is really the only way to get at the top hinge bolts. Don't bother to take the hinges off the car. The door sides of the hinges will likely need adjustment so don't put the skins back on until you check alignment of the window. If the window binds then the door is too tight to the car or is rotated horizontally. Do not leave the window bound up. You'll wreck the seals and could break the window or the window machinery in the door. Before installing the new doors then clean and paint the sheet metal as needed. This would be a good time to mark them for anti-theft purposes.
Once the doors are on, connect the motors and test them WITH THE DOORS OPEN!!!!! This is important. Don't do this first test with the doors closed because you haven't checked the alignment yet. The windows should go up and down at the same speed. If the windows don't work right then now is the time to fix them.
Next lower the windows and close the doors. Now close the windows. STOP if the windows bind! Adjust the front of the door in/out & up/down until the windows work and seal properly. (If the windows don't quite seal along the back edge it likely means the door latch is worn. Now is the time to fix that too.)
Once all this is done put the appropriate skins mirrors and trim back on the doors. If you broke the wedging ear out of the trim clips put a gob of silicone sealer on them from the backside. (If you have power locks and/or mirrors test them before putting the inner skins back on.)
That's about it. The major stuff anyway. I've left out lots of little details that don't really affect the project as a whole. You'll see why if you try this. It would simply be to hard to describe every screw and bolt you had to mess with. You also have to allow for doors with power lock/mirrors that mine don't have.
You don't need allot of tools. A 7mm nut driver and/or socket. A Skew® offset screwdriver kit is great if you can find one. It has a gear head that lets you remove the speakers really easy. (Skew drivers are made by Spec Tools.) There are a few 10mm bolts to take out. The doorpost switches are 11mm. A door panel lifter helps to remove the clips that hold the carpet to the console frame. (You'll want the panel lifter when you are getting the parts.) You'll also need the stuff over in the door assembly article. (You really want to replace at least the driver's door pins, and both exterior dew wipes.)
The car looks allot better with the dash replaced. The 2-tone gray lightened the interior up a bit as well. The new dash even has one of the better looking pockets on it. The horizontal one that actually holds things you put in it. (Now there's a concept.) It's got a couple small scuffs but that sure beats cracks. Plus there are no window cranks now to fight with or bang my knee against when I don't spin them to the bottom.
I washed the mirror shell with citrus cleaner and water after sanding off the old paint. I don't know why but every passenger's side mirror I've seen is badly pitted. The driver's side ones doesn't do it bad if at all. To make sure the pits are dry after washing the shell, bake the shell, just the shell, at 200-250F for 15-20 minutes. If you don't do this then you trap water in the pits that can blister the paint on the first hot day you get. The heat will also drive out oil grease, and maybe wax, you missed in washing. You may have to wash and bake it two or three times to get it all off.
To fill the pitting in the top of the mirror I used a standard 20 minute epoxy. I filled the pits but scrapped it off as much as possible otherwise. I used the epoxy because it was handy and because it's structurally strong and dimensionally stable. It won't come back out or draw water like body filler sometimes can. I also didn't want to try to clean out hundreds of pits to where the fillers will stick reliably. Epoxy will stick to nearly anything that's clean and dry. I used sandable primer to smooth any tiny dimples left in the pits now filled with epoxy. (sandable primer is better for most things anyway.)
I used Krylon™ semi flat black on the mirrors. It's a little shinier than stock but not so anyone but a show judge would care. I chose it mainly because it's less than $3 a can at Wal-Mart. Regular trim paint can be from $6-$10 a can. You don't want full flat paint. Full flat looks like hell if you get car wax on it later. (Mirror shells would be a really good application for powder coating. You'd have to make sure the pitting was filled with compatible filler but it's worth the effort if you can afford it.)
update... The Krylon looks nice but it's chipped easily. It doesn't seem to bond well with automotive primers. I'll try the regular trim paint next time I mess with them.