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Finishing a body off resto on 75 Conv, no hit body, 84K mile, southern car. Doors removed for painting but hinges not removed from car. Door hinge bolts sprayed with alternate paint color to help in door replacement. New suspension, frame blasted, painted and all mounts verified solid with 2 new shims placed each mount. Door latching pins removed, doors have new whether strip. Car does not have engine or trans at this time. Anyone have a procedure for aligning the doors to body? Have 1/2" gaps (door to body) at both front and rear of doors (see pix below). Do I need to remove body and start over with shims etc? Have come so far to have this problem now. Any experienced advise appreciated. Rear door gap Front door gap
Pics show that it's not as bad as it looks. Loosen all mount bolts as much as possible FIRST to prevent cracking paint/fiberglass.
Remove shims at #3 mounts to close gap. More shimms can be added to #4 mounts in order to close the gap at the top rear of the door...add #4 shims as needed to make the gap from top to bottom look even.
SNUG the #3 & #4 mount bolts to see if the gaps close up. Loosen rear mount bolts and add more shimms as needed...re-snug mount bolts.
The front fender-door needs to be moved closer together to adjust the door at the top by adding shims to raise the nose of the car. Remove #3 shims and resnug bolts to close gap.
Add shims and snug forward mounting bolts under radiator to see if gap at top closes up....re-loosen forward mount bolts and add more shims as needed.
Re-snug mount bolts after adding more shims.
Update us with pics of adjusted gaps
***Expert members feel free to correct/add to my reply
The door to front fender fit/fair is a crapshoot as the factory QC wasn’t the best and you aren’t going to move the fender. Focus on getting the door/quarter gap as close as practical and ensuring the door latches properly. Make sure the window/A pillar contact is correct or you will have leaks/wind noise from there. You likely won’t get everything perfect as it wasn’t built to perfection. Some compromises are probably in order.
The door to front fender fit/fair is a crapshoot as the factory QC wasn’t the best and you aren’t going to move the fender. Focus on getting the door/quarter gap as close as practical and ensuring the door latches properly. Make sure the window/A pillar contact is correct or you will have leaks/wind noise from there. You likely won’t get everything perfect as it wasn’t built to perfection. Some compromises are probably in order.
I managed to get 1/4" movement by raising the nose and removing shimms from the #1 mounts, but that was my car.
A smaller gap would have been nice but I did not want to hear fiberglass/paint cracking noises
doorgunner, Question, in your second para you said "Remove #3 shims and resnug bolts",
did you mean to remove shims from the #2 and the #1 mounts, then shim under the radiator and re-snug all mount bolts?
Also, since I have to lift the body to get to the shims, would you lift the body all the way off to be able to mount engine and trans in the frame and then start the door alignment process? Your opinion?
doorgunner, Question, in your second para you said "Remove #3 shims and resnug bolts",
did you mean to remove shims from the #2 and the #1 mounts, then shim under the radiator and re-snug all mount bolts?
Also, since I have to lift the body to get to the shims, would you lift the body all the way off to be able to mount engine and trans in the frame and then start the door alignment process? Your opinion?
"Remove #3 shims and resnug bolts", (I may have gotten ahead of myself...see the diagram)
To adjust gap at rear of door:
Removing #3 shims will cause the body to flex downward at the door lock pillar.
Adding shims to #4 mounts will cause the rear of the body to rise slightly which will close the door to quarter panel gap.
To adjust front of door-gap where it meets the rear of the fender:
Removing shims from #1 (and possibly #2 mounts under the kick panels) will cause the firewall area to lower which will close the door-fender gap.
Adding shims to the nose mounting points will cause the nose to rise which will lessen the gap between the front edge of the door and the matching area of the fender
Do not lift the body all the way off...you should be able to remove the rocker panels and use wooden wedges to raise the body on one side of the car just enough to remove or add shims as needed...then remove the wedges and snug the mount bolts down to see if the gaps look better.
Once you get one side (driver side) of the car adjusted to suit you/loosen all body mount bolts on the driver side so you can go to the passenger side of the car and use the same method.
It took me a while to understand what needed to be done and why.
Several hours of adjusting the shims produced the results you see below.
1. Front is even but a little wide at 3/8" gap.
2. Rear is OK but still a little wide at the top.
3. Problem is the rear door will not close flush with fender, it stands out 1/4".
Here is additional info. Door latch pin not installed. Loosened all mounts on drivers side.
Radiator support loose. All mounts on passenger side tight with 2 shims each. Added nine (9) shims to No 4 mount at rear. Verified body is on frame straight by using 5/8" rod thru rocker and frame.
Questions: 1. Should I take weather stripping off doors until alignment is completed? 2. Could the weather strip be faulty,
Any advise appreciated. Front door gap, 1/4" to 3/8" Rear door gap, 1/4" Door fit at rear.
Weatherstripping, if new, can be highly problematic. If you can, try to fully latch the door and let it sit for a couple of days before attempting further adjustments.
HELP!! - Excessive Door gaps 75 Conv
