Door fit problems - or worse. Options

[andrewb]

Hi - here are a few pics of my car which needs 'quite a lot' of work.



The immediate problem I'm trying to solve is this - the drivers side door gap - at the forward edge.



There is no adjustment that I can see (i.e. no shims on the hinge mount) which can only mean that the front wing (sorry, fender) is 'out'. As far as I can tell it is the original.

My questions are

1. Would it have left the factory like that ? I've read that tolerances were a bit slack by todays standards. The door gap on the drivers side is about 4mm more than on the passengers side. It hangs low by about 5mm when open but lines up perfectly when closed. There is no discernable play in the hinges. The door does shut with a liitle resistance but does not open and close as freely as the passenger side. Gaps on that side are a steady and even 2 to 3 mm front and back. Roll bar to windscreen frame dimensions are equal side to side within 1mm and do not change when the doors are open. The doors are the same size.

2. If it didn't leave the factory like that - what has caused it ? The car has had a light knock on the left front corner which I will show in my next post but the damage doesn't appear to extend any further back than where the inner wheel arch meets the bulkhead between the fuel tank and spare wheel well. The inner longs are completely shot both sides, the inner INNER longs are shot up to about 2" above the floor, the floors are fairly bad and the hell hole is good. I'll show all this with future pics.

3. Can I put it right and if so how ? Again - more pictures following will help you to decide.

Thanks in advance. The knowledge on this forum is priceless.

[McMark]

This looks like evidence of replacement. Better picture please....

[andrewb]

This looks like evidence of replacement. Better picture please....

Not had chance to take a better pic so here's another (bad) one from a few months ago of the area that you wanted to see.

All it shows is a big gap. I know I shouldn't have done it but enthusiam overcame ignorance and I drilled out the welds holding what was left of the outboard end of the valance to the wing and gravity did the rest.



There is definitely no evidence of a previous repair. The odd thing is that the other side is in a similar condition but nowhere near as bad which is what makes me think that the front end - and specifically the valance - has been pushed sideways and the flexing of the welded areas between the valance and the front wings has then lead to the corrosion. I've noticed this before - a smallish impact leads to corrosion in surrounding araes and joins. I'm guessing that the deformation - even if only temporary - opens up microscopic 'cracks' in the surface of the metal and allows moisture to get in and get to work. Any metallurgists here who can confirm that theory ?

When I've built my underframe jig I will then construct something off that which will give me a car centreline - then I can check whether the car is permanently turning a right hand corner.