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Don't know about the C2 cars but the doors on the C1 will drop a little at the rear when the glass and all the other parts, including door panel, are installed. Lots of guys enlarge mounting holes in door when needed. Why not, if it helps. The factory guys even had to bend the coupe doors at top to fit.
Kind of surprising how light the doors are on the '63. They are empty, and I just held them up with one arm inside the door, while locating and screwing the bolts into place on the hinges. It's been awhile, but I think the door's on my '62 were a lot heavier.
First, I don't do this work. But, my body guy did and excellent job on my 64 which sits as yours but painted. What he did was align the front of the door/body line and gap to the front fender, ignoring everything else. Then he put weight, I think he told me 5 or maybe it was 10 # in the door and aligned the rear of the body to the rest of the door. I can post a picture, but they both are slightly high in the rear and perfect in front. Maybe 1/8" high. He assures me with the weight of the glass and mechanism it will drop to near perfect. If not, he'll work on the rear body shims. Maybe that helps.
PS, he did this when the body was in primer and bare, then repeated the process after paint. Can't wait till paint to do it.
First, I don't do this work. But, my body guy did and excellent job on my 64 which sits as yours but painted. What he did was align the front of the door/body line and gap to the front fender, ignoring everything else. Then he put weight, I think he told me 5 or maybe it was 10 # in the door and aligned the rear of the body to the rest of the door. I can post a picture, but they both are slightly high in the rear and perfect in front. Maybe 1/8" high. He assures me with the weight of the glass and mechanism it will drop to near perfect. If not, he'll work on the rear body shims. Maybe that helps.
PS, he did this when the body was in primer and bare, then repeated the process after paint. Can't wait till paint to do it.
Darn….I wish I was in paint, but I can't rush things!
I would NOT enlarge those hinge holes, most especially not if the doors fit previously....
I use John McGraw's method of alignment with the striker out of the door and some shaved wooden sticks to align the door from the inside while somebody observers from the outside (or your inspection camera does for you)...
My body/paint guy tweaked my gaps to eliminate some of the factory shortcomings....like the excessive gap you see on many original cars at the top front of the passenger door where it meets the fender...
Thanks Dan. That's just about the point where I'm at now.
Do you recommend a type of filler? I've been using VPA, and that stuff is hard as stone! But Dub had told me to shape it and get it close before it sets up completely, and that did help a lot.
Or, do you suggest to place more glass on top to blend in the body?
Thanks again,
Pat
Pat
I most recently used Rage products and liked Rage Gold more than the slightly higher priced Rage Ultra I think it was. It sands very well.
I'm not sure what most of the professionals recommend any more but for my own thinking I try not to go over about 1/8 inch in filler thickness for smaller areas and if it's a larger area that may even be a bit more than a good practice. If you have any areas needing more than that, my own practice would be to build it up with some fiberglass first.
One suggestion for areas like top of fender lines at the doors, you may not only need to fill the low side, but also in blocking you will take a little off of the high side as long as your maintain uniform lines and don't distort any body features. In other words with a 1/8" offset, you may end up with 3/32" filler on the low side and take 1/32" off the high side when blocking it all down flush.
Also, everyone likes tight panel gaps any more but I would never try to get them less than at least a full 1/8" while still in bare fiberglass - even a bit more wouldn't hurt. By the time all the primers, sealers, base coats and clear coats are applied, you will end up with almost no gap and probably have some issues with edges when trying to open doors. Corvette panel gaps were originally never all that precise or tight anyway. And all panel edges need to be eased with a small but distinct radius inside and outside to help panels pass by each other when the door is opened or hood raised. Helps prevent accidental chips in finished paint.
Dub over in the Paint and Body section can give you some far more experienced advice on the subject.
Last edited by DansYellow66; 11-30-2018 at 07:32 AM.
I have no experience aligning the doors, but it would seem to me that you would want to, as already suggested, align with the doors loaded. Also, since the body was removed, I would drive it around a bit and let the body flex and seat back on the frame. Maybe you have done that already. I don't know if that does anything, but it can't hurt.
Need to get another shim in the back to close the gap as Tim, and Jim pointed out.
Pat
That side is not bad at all Pat and looks very much like my coupe fit after it came out of the body shop last year- and the gaps were 'massaged' a bit by a guy with 48 years of experience on Corvettes solely...
As Dan has noted - you need to decide the point of "diminishing returns" when excessively tight gaps are going to cause problems down the road - literally...
Last edited by Frankie the Fink; 11-30-2018 at 08:34 AM.
That side is not bad at all Pat and looks very much like my coupe fit after it came out of the body shop last year- and the gaps were 'massaged' a bit by a guy with 48 years of experience on Corvettes solely...
As Dan has noted - you need to decide the point of "diminishing returns" when excessively tight gaps are going to cause problems down the road - literally...
Those gaps look nice Frankie!
I will definitely need to open up the gaps. Before I took it apart the gaps were already too tight, causing a big chip in the front fender at the beltline.
What the heck is wrong with this?
I think the door fitment now looks great
These cars were never perfect from day one when they were first built.
Hey Rich,
I've arrived at this point after much work. I still have a bit to do to tighten up the rear top, and also to create more of a gap at the front edge of the entire door.
Again, closing the gap, but what do you guys think about this? I just don't like that lower rear corner on the driver's side door.
Am I expecting too much, or are many fitting like this?
Pat
Pat,
That lower drivers side fit is normal, I remember on my 67 I cut the rear fender leg off and ground it then rebounded to level this area. Did the car leave St Louis like that, my bet is yes.
You may be able to fill a little on the door up to a point where it does not look to fat in this area.
Pat how was the fit before you took the doors off? As I remember your car was quite original. I ask because I checked both my 63 SW and my 67 convertible and both cars have what I consider good factory fit and the fender to doors line match very well on all of them, however the 63 driver's side would be considered the worse similar to yours. I think that you are very close unless you had better fit before disassembly. Great job by the way. The car is going to be amazing like your other cars.
Pat how was the fit before you took the doors off? As I remember your car was quite original. I ask because I checked both my 63 SW and my 67 convertible and both cars have what I consider good factory fit and the fender to doors line match very well on all of them, however the 63 driver's side would be considered the worse similar to yours. I think that you are very close unless you had better fit before disassembly. Great job by the way. The car is going to be amazing like your other cars.
Jay
Hello Jay,
You're right, the car was very original, but the fit of the doors definitely left a bit to be desired. I think I already have them better than they were, but the driver's door (lower rear), sure seems to go in farther then it should.
Again, closing the gap, but what do you guys think about this? I just don't like that lower rear corner on the driver's side door.
Am I expecting too much, or are many fitting like this?
Pat
IMO those look good and that kick out at the bottom is very typical of how the cars left the factory. The kick out on the bottom of my doors is much worse than yours and I see many cars with it worse than yours. One rear fender on mine is original and the other I had to replace. Without sectioning the door pillar fiberglass and the lower fender dogleg - there was nothing I could do to improve in when I installed the new fender - ended up looking just like the one I cut off and the other side. Some cars managed to get out of the factory with fairly good fit in that area and may have been slightly filled in during repaints to look almost perfect down there. Other's did major surgery and rebuilding down in that area as tbarb described above and made them look perfect. So it depends if you want to make them perfect or live with how GM produced them with some imperfection.
11-29-2018, 11:19 PM
