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Advice from those with experience is needed with my 73 rebuild. The body has been off the frame and on a dolly for awhile and its time to get it ready to put onto the chassis. I have a very poorly fitting passenger side front door gap that has been there since I purchased this car. It appears to be a shi**y repair but I don't have the real experience to tell. I am thinking I need to remove the front clip until the body is on the frame and then re laminate it onto the car. If that is not what is needed, I'd rather not get involved in the extra work, but want to do this right - one time. it seems the body line doesn't line up and the top is way off.
I would leave clip on,put body back on and then close the door gap via the VPA trick.From the pic the repair looks like maybe there was a crack/water leak maybe.I dont think its related to the gap
Can you measure the gap between the windscreen and the top of the yellow painted body on both sides (same position) and see if the numbers are close to same?
also agree not to do body work until it's back and shimmed properly on its chassis .
The front clip on a c3 has a riser, a triangle piece that rivets to the cowl and the top cornors of the fenders bond to it,
From the factory it had a sealer but over time rivets get loose and sealer dries out and i believe at some point 100% of unrestored c3s will leak there.
Its not possible to shoot or pour sealer in to fix it, so the clip either has to come off or some cut cornors, literally to fix it,
Since your car has iffy bodywork if i was keeping the car for a spell i would pull the clip and fix everything correcly.
Keep in mind doing this isn't easy and thats one reason your car has the gap issues it does.
If you lift the front of the nose does the Gap close? If so, it's probably not very well bonded at the firewall and may need rebonding at the very least. And it might be difficult to do without taking it off and putting it back on. On the other hand you might just be able to get in there get some vpa in there put a couple of Pop rivets or screws through to hold it while it hardens when she get everything lined up right. Then of course take the pop rivets back out.
remove windshield and you will see your answer.
this will be your future. firewall was removed due to separation around the bird cage,
after the front clip was removed, exposing the firewall separation and corrosion.
repaired, reinstalled better than new, corvettes are basically glued together, you heat the seams and separate.
This is my Silver 69 before !
some quick replies: The gap was there since I first saw the car, body on and running. When I lift on the front end, I can lift the whole body up without the gap closing. I agree to try and leave factory bodywork alone, but I have a feeling this is in need of proper repair.
Thanks for all the advice, my decision is getting closer. BTW, anyone in the so cal area want to help out? Free beer (or bev of choice) and pizza with a fine BBQ dinner upon completion :-)
Here are pics of the gussets ( i think). First two show quite a bit of space between the cage and the glass. the next shows the passenger side upper door opening. then the third shows the driver side sitting close and tight.
I circled the area that can be separated from the birdcage and IF any old sealant has fallen into this area. It will not be able to close up tight....thus it can effect the top gap of where the top hood surround meets the door area. Also...this area can thus begin to rust due to water can now get between the gusset and the birdcage. like you can see in the photo in the previous post. above
The area where I have circled it in yellow is something I have seen NUMEROUS times and is not a major concern.. Often times this is due to a lack of adhesive when they were building the car and the adhesive just did not ooze out and as long as this area is flush with the door it does not matter. I often times fill in this area just so it is more visually pleasing to the eye when the door is open and people look.
I don't know how you can tell that without seeing the rear of the door where it meets the quarter panel. If the gap is good there and everything is lined up between the rear of the door and the quarter panel It probably is the front clip that is off. Without seeing that it still looks to me that the front clip is misaligned, not the door. You can see the bottom of the door paralell with the frame (as it should be I believe) while the lower edge of the front fender looks tilted up at the rear and that is also making the upper fender corner at the base of the windshield higher than the matching line on the front edge of the door.
Only you can take the time to measure and analyze the alignment between the doors and the rear quarter panels and decide if its the front clip, or the door that's misaligned. I think its the front clip.
Can you measure the gap between the windscreen and the top of the yellow painted body on both sides (same position) and see if the numbers are close to same?
Thats a great idea. You need to do a lot of looking and a lot of measuring and a lot of thinking to decide what the real problem is.
Heres the pic i posted of a close up of the trouble area,
In case you missed it.
Originally Posted by Priya
I don't know how you can tell that without seeing the rear of the door where it meets the quarter panel. If the gap is good there and everything is lined up between the rear of the door and the quarter panel It probably is the front clip that is off. Without seeing that it still looks to me that the front clip is misaligned, not the door. You can see the bottom of the door paralell with the frame (as it should be I believe) while the lower edge of the front fender looks tilted up at the rear and that is also making the upper fender corner at the base of the windshield higher than the matching line on the front edge of the door.
Only you can take the time to measure and analyze the alignment between the doors and the rear quarter panels and decide if its the front clip, or the door that's misaligned. I think its the front clip.
He just posted his "opinion" as fact, you know lots of people do that on here
Front Clip - Remove or Not?
