In the year 2006, this is not a "minor imperfection" There is no excuse for not being able to manufacture and line up body panels that fit, especially on a 50K car.
Sadly most younger Americans have been taught to accept the status quoue... now let me go look for my gold chain an Rolex... thank God there are still a few of us "old folks" to snap you back into reality... Never ever accept crap! if they throw it at you, immediately throw it back in their face! Dont' allow GM to get away with this crap! It's not rocket science... they know exactly what is required to make a "good vette"... and so do you! The technology is there, the material and computer power is there'; the problem is with the clueless marketing moron's that GM put on th epayroll... I will never buy GM again... By the way, the last GM car I owned befor the Vette was a 73 Vega... after I got rid of that piece of iron...

 

FWIW, our car was built in mid-February 2006. It either does not have this problem, or the problem is too slight for me to notice.

 

damn...now I gotta go look

 

If this is only occurring on more recent production 2007 models, I wonder if the buyout & early retirement program had anything to do with it?

 

Just looked at mine - no problem. build date 11/2/06.
No orange peel either.

 

My doors line up flush and my '07 coupe was built in mid July.

 

Great job on identifying the problem, but what's the solution? How would the dealer fix something like that, and where in the world would you find one competent enough to handle the repair without making it worse or screwing up something else? I wonder if member JmpnJckFlsh could lend some insight, he seemed pretty knowledgeable on the procedure for plastic laminate repair in the topic on dealer cracking the rocker panels, I think I'll send him a PM.

 

A non-uniform distribution of adhesive doesn't necessarily mean the door contour is incorrect...if the stamped metal door frame is for some reason "short", leaving a larger gap with the door skin, the adhesive is expected to fill any irregularity; uniform adhesive thickness is less important than getting the door skin where it needs to be.

Having said that, in the pictures shown, it DOES appear the door skin contour is incorrect in the center where the adhesive thickness is greater because it doesn't match the rear fender contour. Compare the thickness of the two doors at exactly the same height from the lower door edge...they should be exactly the same.

Typically, if you can not "adjust out" misalignment of body panels, you are out of luck. I just went out to check my car, and it also has very slight misalignment at that location...fits excellent top and bottom, but has a slight bow out in the center. Sometimes, a given model car will just have a screwup built into them...every one of them will have it; some owners are sensitive to such quality issues and others are not. Sorry guys, but these are not hand-built Ferraris.

Bowling Green has a laser computer station where an operator checks panel fits and gaps after assembly is almost complete...it automatically compares sensed values against factory allowables. Back in the seventies, C3 body panels were spec'ed to fit FLUSH plus or minus 0.040"...for what I have seen on the old cars, that spec was very optimistic. I wouldn't be surprised if the "built in" factory allowables had not already been increased at the rear door edge to get the cars out of the plant door.

Since the door contour fits the fender at the top and bottom, you can compromise the fits at those areas to make it look better in the center (probably not a good idea since the top of door is the area most seen). If you are REAL adventurous, you could look at "shimming" the center of the rear fender contour out to match the door contour since the rear fender is attached with screws. This would probably require almost complete removal of the rear fender, and is an idea best left to a bodyshop; you're going to build stresses into the fender panel...too much deflection and you're goind to crack the paint.

 

Thanks for the reply, good information. Basically anyone with the problem is pretty much screwed.

 

Or possibley a misaligned assembly line machine? Almost everything is lined up by a machine on the line.

 

You either put it out of your mind...no one but you will ever notice it...

Or, you **** and moan enough to the dealer to replace the door.
That's sure to take multiple calls and visits to your friendly dealer!
Then they have to order you the new door.
Then you're called back in and find out that they ordered the wrong side door!
Then you have to refit the new door and color match it to the rest of the car. ***FUN!!!***
More visits and back and forth because of color and imperfections.
Then you need to bring it in again so that they can see what else they damaged while in the process of fixing what should have been right from the factory.
Then another visit to fix that stuff....

Put it out of your mind!

 

So I tried to put this out of mind, but every time I walk by the car I just end up looking at it.

I know I don't want to get a new door because that will most likely end in disaster.

So I took the car over to the body shop of the local Chevy dealer and talked to the manager (I showed him the strange bulge in the door glue). As 2LT-Z51 had mentioned before, the body shop manager also noticed that the front of the door (bottom) looked like it could go in a little. He adjusted the hinges while I waited, and although it did help the problem still persists.

The body shop manager now suggests shimming the rear fender out a bit, just as JmpnJckFlsh had mentioned. Maybe I will let him have a go at it ...

 

And, you forgot to mention the rattles that come standard with any replacement door.

 

I finally took my car in to the dealers body shop, great people to work with. They did a minor hinge adjustment, and shimmed the rear fender out a little bit using small rubber washers. I think it looks pretty good now.

 

That looks closer to acceptable. If you are happy, it is good.


anothercrisis

 

Looks great to me.

 

I just went out to my detached garage and did the same thing! Pathetic that I'm looking at this at 9:15 pm... but I just had to know. At least mine are in line so close that it's impossible to tell with actually measuring it. Sounds like the door production process could use some quality assurance. There is simply no reason for this to be like this on any car let alone a top of the line Chevy that cost 50 grand!! I'm happy mine are aligned properly but I know it would bother me if they weren't......

 

Nice improvement...I would say it was worth the headaches. Thanks for sharing the before and after pics. I will have to pay attention to this area when I make the trek to the NCM on 2/6.

 

Don't let the Dealer touch. You'll be sorry ! Drive it and forget about it. Save the Wave.>George