Door gaps are not even any more!, Now what??? Options

[FourBlades]

I was test fitting my doors before painting them and noticed this:

Driver side.



Passenger side.

[FourBlades]

Charlie,

Thanks for the suggestions. I was hoping to help other people to avoid this
problem by show casing my own error. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/chair.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/chair.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/chair.gif)

I also thought some World member would know what to do to fix it,
and I still do.

I am pretty sure I read on some forum that a guy had this problem and
some old time body men fixed it by heating it up but I can't find the post
anymore.

OK, just for reference, I spent about four hours on welding in all three pieces
of my Engman kit. I used a Hobart Handler 140 amp machine set on 3 for heat
and 50 for wire speed (this is pretty hot for sheet metal on this machine).

I welded all the rosettes, and also seam welded a lot of the openings, edges,
and joints where the pieces meet. I did most of it in one session, but some of
the final seam welding I did the next day. I welded 4-5 rosettes and then waited
5 minutes or so to cool off, then welded some more. It was probably a 75
degree day when I did it.

I tried Rich's suggestion of using a jack to spread the door opening. It maybe
got me another 1/16 or so but was starting to buckle the rear fender near
the back of the door. I was using 2x4s on the door pillars. I probably need
to make carefully shaped cauls (pieces of wood) that match the door pillar
shape to spread the load more and have a second person pull out on the
rear fender.

I can live with this if I can't fix it...first time I hit a tire wall at Sebring I hope
it is on the passenger side. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/happy11.gif)

Thanks again for all the suggestions...

John

[horizontally-opposed]

I am pretty sure I read on some forum that a guy had this problem and
some old time body men fixed it by heating it up but I can't find the post
anymore.

Might have been me. Though it wasn't nearly as bad as what you're dealing with. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...80724&st=80

See post #85

pete

[Richard Casto]

I am pretty sure I read on some forum that a guy had this problem and
some old time body men fixed it by heating it up but I can't find the post
anymore.

Might have been me. Though it wasn't nearly as bad as what you're dealing with. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...80724&st=80

See post #85

pete

I did use a brace bolted to the upper seat belt mounting point and the lower
hinge plate. I think the brace I used must have been too weak. It was made
from 1 inch square tubing welded to a (pretty small) turn buckle.

Sorry that you are having this issue, but you are really scaring me now. I have pretty much the same brace in place right now and I just finished welding in place the the new outer longitudinal on my passenger side.

Right now everything if fine (measurement wise), but I guess I need to remove the braces to see what the measurement are without them in place.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

Sorry for the continued hijack John, but I figured I would reply to my post above. It sounds like you are getting some good advice on what to do.

So I removed both of my braces this morning and measured before and after. Before was fine and oddly enough when I removed the passenger brace it seemed to come off relatively easily. But... I seem to have lost about 2mm on the passenger side. I put the brace back on (no change to the turnbuckle and it goes on relatively easily) and it still measures -2mm. But with just maybe a single turnof the turnbuckle it's back to the correct measurement. It doesn't make sense to me about how easy to brace is going on/off, but regardless it shrunk a small bit.

Bottom line is that I think I didn't have enough pre-load on that brace and it allowed it to tighten up enough so that in a relaxed position it lost 2 mm. But I am not worried as I am putting a full cage in the car and right now it seems to be easy to put just a bit of pressure to get it in the right position. Which I think I can accomplish with the cage. When we put the cage in, we are going to have to be very careful about how we do it so that we correct some of this as well as not make it worse.

This is where Pete's old post that he linked above was interesting. I think it shows just how much this car will flex and gaps change just by loading the body in a different way.