New to the forum. I was going to purchase a '76 when I noticed the gap between the fender and door, what would cause this?

 

This is a common issue w/C3's. There are ways to correct it.

 

How expensive are we talking here?

 

Seriously, it's the way they were built. Your expectations for these cars may be a bit high. Repairing it will involve adding glass and a repaint.
my passengers side has looked like this since new.
I have never "fixed" it.

 

Door gaps are often not the greatest, sometimes they came that way and other times there is an underlying reason for it. Collision damage, body mounts, frame rust issues even poor assembly after painting.

The car has had lots of body work done, rear spoiler, the seem is filled in on the rear cover, maybe the front...And it has a shiny coat of Re-sale Red paint... I would be very careful around this one. .have you checked the frame and bird cage for rust? Do you have more and better pics, probably nothing but the door looks a little lighter than the front fender... Take your time and look it over carefully

60

 

I haven't seen it in person, the pics are the ones posted on Facebook. Thanks for all the help.

 

1) Could be worn front body to frame rubber bushings. And/or Rusted components up front around the front body mounts. It's not uncommon for front rubber body bushings to wear/squish, etc.

2) Aged/failed adhesive: The top corners are bonded to the birdcage there. Over the years of weather, horsing around, age, etc, that region can become un-glued ...literally. Could be water/ice pried it apart back when it was young. Or, like mine, the adhesive just got old (like they almost all do) and brittle and cracked. Also, any rust in that area can get under the adhesive and over the years loosen it. I had quite a few areas on my car where the adhesive just failed from age. What I did on mine in that corner region, was work a hacksaw blade and then a thicker (and longer) sawzall wood blade in that area of mine to cut out the old adhesive and the blade teeth chewed away the surface rust. I just did it by hand, not with the sawzall. Its easy to do by hand working it back/fourth. Once cleaned I blew it out real well, and worked new adhesive in the gap. Did not damage any paint. (you have to remove some trim to get in there). I did other work to my car but I was able to reduce the gap some.

3) Birdcage: It's a good idea to observe the birdcage for possible rust. Not saying it's a telletale, but it's worth looking further ...as would be prudent for any C3 purchase.

4) Door Hinges: On some cars the issue is actually a saging door, or worn hinges which can allow the door to drop down an 1/8" and it "looks" like the upper corner is ill-fitting. I also had that going on with my car. These C3 doors are astonishingly heavy for their size and the hinge pins and brass bushings are barely adequate. C3 sagging doors is super-common. The door can lower and also 'Cant' backwards opening up the gap. Open the door 6" and lift up on the bottom to see if it's loose. Look at the door peg for wear, and/or the inner latch mechanism. It could also be a minor combination of all of the above.

5) Poorly adjusted hinges: Adjusting these Corvette doors can take an astonishingly long amount of time to 'get right'. Ask anyone who's done it. People who aren't super picky or don't have stick-to-it-ive-ness, might quit w/o going the extra 110% to get the adjustment just right. I think I spent 2-3 hours getting mine just right.

You see a lot of C3 corvettes with this issue. Maybe most. If the car checks out otherwise and you like it, it fits your budget, I wouldn't let it stop you from buying it. As you can see from the items above, they're not insurmountable. Rebuilding the door hinges is a piece of cake. Maybe that will resolve 75% of the gap.

 

It looks to me like it could just as likely be the door alignment as the fender bonding. Look at the rear of the door where it's peak mates with the rear fender's peak -- seems the door is ~1/2" lower than the body line. This sag would open the gap at the upper front of the door and could be caused by worn hinge bushings & pin. If you open the door a foot or so and lift up on the end of it, you'll feel worn hinge bushings & pin from the sloppy up/down movement. These doors are long and heavy so this is a very common development.

 

My passenger side door is a little misaligned from what I think is needing bushings. Bugs the crap out of me but its on the list……I’ll get to it eventually.

not being nit picky or critical bit from your pic does the front fender look to be a different shade than the door? Could it have been hit and repaired? May be worth looking closer.

 

Yep, good eye! I think if you get the door adjusted, lift the whole door 'up' 1/4" or so it'll close that gap. More than likely he took it somewhere to have the hinges rebuilt, and they did the usual 'quickie' job. 80% of the bozo's at shops would NEVER put the kind of time it takes to get the doors adjusted 'perfect'. Could take 30 minutes, could take 2 hours. And we haven't even TALKED about getting the side glass adjusted properly!! A lot of guys, like me, would be embarrassed to admit how long and how many trial and error adjustments it took to get their door and glass adjusted properly. After I did all the things in my above list, the gap on my car is on the money.

Side note: Opposite of the C3 door situation, ...Square-body trucks used to take some work to adjust perfectly. However, with GM's 88-98 OBS pickups, GM boasted in their introductory 1988 brochures about precision robot placement and welding of certain brackets & components, among them the door hinges. They are welded to the doors AND the truck body. There's Zero provision for adjustment. But the hinge pins are really easy to remove, which is nice. But guess what? It works!! I put a different door on my pickup a few weeks ago (from a truck a couple years apart) ...and dang if that other rust-free, used door from wherever it came from lined up 100% perfect to the fender and body!! Zero adustment needed! (thankfully neither had been in an accident.).

 

The opening poster needs to look very closely at the body lines and gaps on the doors and front fenders. First off....can you feel movement in the door when you hold it open about a foot and then lift up and down? If you can then pins and bushings in the hinges need replacing.
Next is the gap pinched almost tight at low part of the door and front fender, and does the lower line of the fender look like straight or is it sloping lower as you look forward.....if this is the case then you may be able to raise the front end of the body slightly to even the door gaps. Here's a video on how to do that.....Starting at about the 9 min mark....

 

Times Ten...
I bought my '76 new, never wrecked, factory paint. Bushings, body mounts, hinges....all fine. My gaps are the same as when it left the factory 47 years ago.
I've talked to body guys over the years and after they open & shut the door a couple of times they all said the same thing...leave it alone!

 

Nice looking original paint. You have a fantastic car. But looking at your car's door, with a little finesse a guy could make those gaps even better. Show those old-timers from the factory a thing or two, lol. Weather the bushing/pins are worn (they wear a bit just from normal driving), the striker probably needs to be raised a little, ...a little micro-adjusting at the top hinge (raise the rear up and the whole door a 16th" ....there's room to even the gaps with some effort. Probaby a morning's work. But still, it's a nice time capsule to see how they did them from the factory.

On some old contemporary literature and reviews back in the day, you see pictures of some 70's cars which had really tight lines. Then some which didn't ...esp at the front nose. Maybe that was the built on Mondys & Fridays syndrome they used to talk about ...lol

 

Thanks Mark..
I'm sure it could be made better too. But the door still just "clicks" shut like it always has. I think that's why I've been told to leave it.
Plus I've been putting up with body imperfections for decades. Early on I dreamed of the day I could afford to get a perfect paint job, fix the seams & gaps.
Now it's just the opposite. I want to keep everything just like it is. And for an original 78k car I don't think it's that bad...

 

It's grrrreat!! Leave it. You have a good story.