Looking for advice regarding aligning the drivers door on my 63 convertible. The passenger side isnt too bad, but the drivers side is WAY off. I do 95% of the work on the car myself, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Since it's so far off I'm assuming it has to be how the body is shimmed / mounted to the frame. Any advice on shimming would be great.

Looking closely at the door however, makes me think that it will never fit , since it is so low at the top and slightly high at the bottom. Is this door just not correct for my body or can I somehow get it aligned?









Front bottom

 

I think the rear of the door needs to be adjusted up some. I would not worry about the gap to the rocker at the bottom growing a bit - many of the cars originally had a large gap down at the bottom. Then the top lid would need to be adjusted to flush up a little better with the raised door and fender top. The front of the door could probably go up just a small amount to match at the top of the fender and that would avoid cocking the door in the opening. Kind of have to juggle how much you can raise the door and still keep the mid-height character line in reasonably good alignment across the front/rear fenders and the door. You probably won't get a perfect outcome - there will be some compromise. Your front/rear gaps look slightly irregular but appear to be reasonably consistent in width at the very top and bottom so I'm doubtful that playing with the mount shims is going to accomplish much.

I actually have a coupe so maybe someone with a convertible and some additional ideas will chime in

 

I think you need to let well enough alone if the door opens and shuts good. You could spend a whole lot of money trying to fix that.

 

first thing is how are the door hinge bushings?

 

It looks like there has been some unfortunate body work that will make better alignment impossible.

 

Not sure how from pictures as 3 dimensions are mandatory. Adjusting a door can take hours or days. But if you want to attempt a change, work the front edge. Get the body line correct first, both in/out and up/down. How does the top match the fender? If not correct, compromise may be required. Forget the bottom.
Next, check gap in front edge and rear near door bottom. If you got similar gaps, great. If not, repeat from step 1.
Once you are satisfied with the leading edge and the lower rear gaps, adjust the rear top gap with body shims.
If not satisfactory, repeat from step 1 till you get the best compromise you can live with.
There are no shortcuts. Ignore the bottom alignment.

 

I agree with all these posts and just want to add that you would be surprised what a DA sander in the wrong hands has done in the past and these areas you show are prime for this type of sanding damage.

Get the style line straight and the door flush to slightly in from the surrounding surfaces ( which it looks like it is ) and the rest is body work. FWIW, the bottom looks typical of factory fit.

 

Thank you guys, I was afraid the body was too crooked on the frame and the doors were a lost cause, I will follow your advice and try to get it aligned better , sounds like a good winter project !

This corvette has had a rough existence, i believe it was drag raced and thrashed pretty hard back in the day, I have been slowly bringing it back into a decent and reliable driver.

 

My thoughts as well. Unless you are going to take a grinder to it and re-do the 'glass and repaint, you are ahead of the game simply leaving it be.

 

I still think the entire door can slide up very slightly - just enough to still keep the belt line of the door roughly aligned with the fenders. Right now, the photos seem to show the doors belt line just barely a Little low - I mean by a hair. If you move the door up to where it is just a hair high it will still look pretty good and maybe close up the gap with the rear fender at to by a sixteenth or so. The door will probably be still a little low but that is the compromise.

The top edge of the door should be a little lower than the top edge of the rear fender as the downward slope should continue across the gap. Lay a pop cycle stick across the top edge and the gap, holding it flush along the ridge of the fender and that will show how low the rear top edge of the door really is.

Beyond that, any further improvement will have to wait until the next paint job.

 

Without breaking any paint.......................

I think the only way to change that door opening is to maybe play around with body shimming. When you have a fixed opening like a door or hood opening you sometimes have to give some to get some. And sometimes, the result is less than satisfactory.

I might suggest raising the A pillar to get rid of the A margin at the front fender or lower the body on either side of the rear wheel. This might help both the door height and margin problems. Marbe.

 

And I thought my 63 was the only one that ended up with 12.5 pop ups and beat on. :-)

 

Can someone explain how you determine whether or not new door hinge bushings are needed ?

 

I have limited body work knowledge, so please bare w me... But is there enough flex in the body to make it possible that the rear of the car body is sitting too high on the frame causing the rear of the body to be so high in relation to the back of the door? I ask this because of the fairly close lines at the front of the door but so way off at the rear? Just an idea but thought u guys may have experience with this?

 

Open the door to the first stop or less and lift up on the back edge of the door. There should be essentially no movement other than what translates into the body and rocks it slightly as you lift.

There is another common issue with C2 hinges to which is the metal hinge plate that is riveted to the front, interior of the door. It tends to deform the aluminum rivets and loosen up over time. You can often tell from opening the door up to the full open position and look at the line of rivets down the front face of the door in the jamb. Push the door fully open and if you see those rivets are loose and not tight then that needs to be fixed as usually you will not be able to get the front of the door to adjust flush with the front fender on closing it. That usually involves removing the door and replacing the rivets with special flat head bolts and nuts or if you are able to get in there with something to flatten the rivet shanks, then just replace the rivets.

 

Just refreshed my screen and saw this reply, thanks, while I have limited knowledge, that thought has been on my mind with the amount of difference at the rear of the door.

 

I think Mike is exactly right. The gaps look more like a body mount shimming issue rather than a door hinge adjustment issue. From all the chips I see on the door edge, I would guess that the door wedges are either missing, or improperly adjusted as well. The wedges should be shimmed to force the door into a tight fit when the door is closed. This keeps the door from banging it's upper edge against the quarter as the car goes over bumps and railroad tracks. You really have to treat body gaps as a whole car issue and not just door adjustments. First thing you do is to set the sill gap uniform and the gap at the front and rear bottom corners of the door the same with the top edge at the rear at the same level as the quarter and the top front edge at the same level as the front fender. While you are doing this, get the in/out set so the door follows the front fender. don't worry too much about the rear edge, as you can move it in and out later by adjusting the strike.
Generally speaking, if the gaps at the front edge or back edge of the door at the top either gets larger or smaller, then body shimming may be necessary. you can't fit a rectangle to a parallelogram, no matter how much you adjust it. To close up the gap at the top rear edge of the door, I usually increase the rear-most shim on the body. This forces the gap to close up as it pivots around the mount right behind the door. If the gap is too tight or too big at the top front edge of the door, you can subtract or add shims at the mount at the front of the door, nothing takes place in a vacuum however, Any changes at this mount will also affect the rear top door gap as well. That is why I always try to correct the rear top gap by adjusting the rearmost mount. changes in that mount will only affect the rear gap of the door. Any changes that at not made at the front-most or rear most mount will affect both the front and rear door. Before you start adjusting body shims, draw out the mount positions on a single line drawing and understand what the effect will be by increasing or decreasing shim height at any given mount. It is really pretty simple, but you have to get a good understanding of what does what. Now for the disclaimer, if bad bodywork is the cause, you may never get it as good as you want without doing some bodywork. That is one of the nice things about fiberglass, it is just about as easy to add material back on as it is to take it off!


Regards, John McGraw

 

Well, here's mine on my '63 after countless hours of glassing, sanding and door adjustments and body shimming.
Fortunately I'm still in the body finishing stage, so the penalty for screwing things up is just having to re-do more work.
But without damaging paint, and adjustment as the only degree of freedom, you may want to leave well enough alone, once your doors open and close easily. But overall, the fit of '63 body components, especially doors, leave a lot to be desired.