Well attacked the vette on Saturday and Sunday. I soaked the #3 and #4 body mount for 3-4 days. Worked for #3, the bolt came out easy.


#4 cage for the cage nut broke.


This is the #4 nut from above (inside the car)


I had to remove the deck lid, hinge and spring to get to that cage nut. Ended up cutting the bolt head off from below. I pulled out the old nut from above.


I replaced the old cage nut with a lock nut welded to an enlarged plate. Acts as a cage nut but is made from 1/8" steel and is much larger.


Couldn't get the spring back in after I put the hinge back in. I think it need to be installed before you install the hinge. No room for the outboard bolt though. Need a umpa lumpa to install that bolt (without the spring in it).



I ended up removing 2 shims from #4 and leaving the #3 alone. I read the article in Right Hand Drive out of the latest Corvette Fever and it talks about the factory using grinders to align the doors! (LARS did tell me this but I was chicken).

The door gap improved. I removed the door and enlarged the hinge alignment holes by about 1/16" towards the bottom left (allows door to go aft and up at rear. Front gap is good and no rubbing the stainless trim as before. Rear gap needs to have the edge of the door sanded/cut down about 1/8" in parts. Top edge of door is much better fit now.


Tomorrow I tackle the hinge spring again and finish up the rear edge of the door.

Did I mention the spring was a Bi#$%!

Pete

 

Looks like you have done good on your door alignment. Mine needs a pretty good tweeking also. The rear of the door looks fine, the front of the door is where my problem is also.

 

Eddie,

If you have 2 people and a jack the alignmenr isn't too hard. It is harder to get the door panel on and off then it is too align. You also need to loosen both the strike pin and the VERT guide at the top. It turns out the vert door guide (the tapered pin at top of door) was what was causing most of the bind on my door closing.