I need some help. I ordered a rear compartment master frame from Willcox. When I installed the hinges and doors the doors would not close. When I re-installed the doors on the old frame, they fit well. I measured the inside diameter of the door frame on the new rear compartment door frame and got 11 inches. When took the same measurement on the old rear compartment master frame, I got 11.25 inches. When I called Willcox, they pulled their rear compartment master frames and measured and got 11 inches. Could a couple of you who own '76 Vettes take a measurement of the inside diameter of the door compartment of the rear compartment master frame and tell me whether you get 11 inches or 11.25 inches so that Willcox and I can get this sorted out? This not a complaint against Willcox. They have been great working with me on this. Kudo's to Tony at Willcox.

 

My 76 is in storage for winter but I will be visiting Red tomorrow. I will get a measurement for you. The Willcox dudes are great to work with & I am sure they will get this worked out.

John

 

Here you go:


11"- now go get 'em!

 

My 76's original storage compartment frame was in pieces and couldn't be salvaged. I replaced it with an after market unit. The doors are snug and must be lifted squarely to open them but I'm happy with it.

I just installed my Q-jet I just got back from Lars and while I had the car opened up I measured the inside dia. of my repro frame. It came in at 11" on the nose. So, I guess it matches up with Bonedaddy's.

HTH....

 

My St.Louis installed frame measures in at 11".......

 

We have since talked with this customer on the phone on Friday in lengthy detail.

Below is a picture (D and E) of an original 1968-1979 Three door trim frame. The original frames measure 11 1/16” from the back edge measuring forward to the front edge. In measuring the same part in reproduction, we came up with a measurement of 11 1/32” Just from looking at our measurement; taken on the original unite it appears as if the tape may be a little crooked and may be the reason for the variance of 1/32”

We also measured original doors (B) with the trims on them, as well as the rear door trim width of the reproduction door trims. The measured width of both is 10 ½”.

With this in mind, the rear door hinges when mounted to the original rear compartment frames have a measurement of 3/16” Photo (C). Subtracting the 3/16” from the 11 1/16” frame should yield a clearance from the front edge of the door trim to the inside edge of the rear compartment trim of

Door trim to edge difference without hinge on original unit 9/16”
Door trim to edge difference without hinge on Reproduction 1/2”

Allowing the hinge clearance of 3/16 this should allow for a difference from the front edge of the door trim to the inner edge of the trim outer frame of 5/16” on the reproduction doors, and 3/8” on the original unit. This clearance should be more than ample room for installing the doors in the frame and allowing full function.

I’m not sure what the problem is with the customer’s rear compartment and components. I’ve asked him to re-check his measurements again and to see if maybe some of the trim screws, the hinge rivets may be causing this problem.

While checking the customer’s photo (Picture F) he sent in to us, we discovered that his ruler was not flush with the back wall and used photo shop to move the ruler to the edge of the wall. When we did this, using his ruler we obtained the same measurements that we were getting. If you will notice the edge of the rule in Picture F is not flush to the back wall of the unit, the measurement indicated in this measurement shows being 11 3/16. When adjusted with photo shop, the measurement was 11 1/16”. This was not done to prove the customers measurement as inaccurate and only to know for sure the measurement was accurate.

As indicated by Bonedaddy, and Sevnt76, both measured 11” as did ours. I don’t believe our measurements to be off and I’m stumped as to what the problem may be. The parts used by this customer are the same parts we use to assembly the complete units and we have not had any problems with the complete units dragging the doors on the floor frame.

Any suggestions to this customer would be greatly appreciated.

Willcox Inc.