CANT ALIGN PASSENGER DOOR. Options

[JOE M]

The bottom pic is the underside of the car, right?
What is directly on top of that, under the battery, against the firewall. That is where bad rust will be hiding, if its there. It might have apint or somehting covering it, probe it with a screwdriver or a pic. Even tapping the screwdriver with a hammer should not harm the metal if it is solid. If it goes through, then you have to make other decisions.

Don't feel bad if it does - it does (or did) for most of our cars.

It could just be that your door is mis alligned, or needs a little shim.

If it was me, it wire wheel that rust and slap some rust converter on there to keep it from rusting further (the bottom pic) and then repaint with something tough - eastwoods chassy black or some other epoxy based paint. But, well, thats me and I have not been able to drive my car since the resto started Oct of 2005....

Zach

Thanks Zach. I did probe around with a screw driver and I was not able to poke through anywhere ( my wife thinks im crazy because I spend so much time under the car). The hell hole seems to be solid. The bottom pic is almost directly under the wheel well. That is probably the worst rust under the car. I am starting to wonder if the P.O replaced the rear quarter and mis aligned it. I dont know if this picture helps.

[Jeffs9146]

It looks to me like someone did rust repair because there is no jack point! I would guess that they did it wrong.

[VaccaRabite]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif)
Jack point delete usually means some sort of rust repair, as it is a super-common spot for it.

Zach

[JOE M]

Sorry for my ignorance but does that mean that mean I could have big problems. Could I put a jack under the long (directly under the door) and than jack it up. Maybe this could be used as a guage to see if the car is sagging on that side. If I jack it up and the gap in the door gets better or becomes acceptable than I would assume that I have a problem. However if the gap is the same maybe that could be an indication that the repair work was simply done wrong. Just a thought.
Also if I wanted to expose the long what is involved? That is probably the only way to know what I am up against.
Thanks again to anyone who can help.

[jd74914]

Your door probably won't align perfectly right because the car body wapred a little when the jack point/longs were fixed in that area (that is my personal experience).

[JOE M]

Your door probably won't align perfectly right because the car body wapred a little when the jack point/longs were fixed in that area (that is my personal experience).

I guess my question is should I live with it and call it a day or should open the can of worms. Im not sure I want to find out that I have an $1800 parts car(lol). On the other hand if I expose the long and find that it was just a bad repair job and all is solid I can start sleeping again at night. Either way , the more I think about it sooner or later I am gona have to dig. I think for now I will align the best I can, run it for next summer,and than think about the inevedable next fall(my spelling sucks sorry). Damn, i`m only a couple of months into this 914 life and already loosing my hair,going grey, and missing sleep.Oh and my wife thinks i`m now crazy. Please tell me it gets better.
Thanks again for all your help.

[tdgray]

Joe... to be a little more specific on what the guys are saying.

When repairing that section it usually nessesary to cut the bottom of the fender away to gain full access to the area.

The PO probably did not re-attach the fender section correctly therefore making the panels not line up correctly.

Only way to correct this is to cut bottom of fender again and align properly...repaint and viola your done.

OR

Just live with it. If you only paid $1800 bucks for the car this is the kind of thing your going to get.

[Jeffs9146]

Depending on how extensive the rust was or is will decide how you repair it! You can follow along an extream case repair here

Rust Repair

[jd74914]

What does the gap on the front of the door look like? From looking at your pictures again I do think that the "sagging" is probably a result of the chassis being rewelded and warping. You *can* fix this by cutting open the long or changing the edge of the rear quarter and rewelding it correctly if this is the problem.

I may have missed this. but if you jack the car up in the middle does the door gap change?

[JOE M]

What does the gap on the front of the door look like? From looking at your pictures again I do think that the "sagging" is probably a result of the chassis being rewelded and warping. You *can* fix this by cutting open the long or changing the edge of the rear quarter and rewelding it correctly if this is the problem.

I may have missed this. but if you jack the car up in the middle does the door gap change?

The gap on the door does not change when I jack it. I think this may indicate that it is fairly solid and probably welded wrong. The driver side is much better. It has an even gap and the door closes with no issues.

[TC.356]

OK, what if . . .

Figuring that you're not going to open up the longs and lower closure in order to re-set and re-weld the sheet metal that the previous owner messed up on, how about removing the inner upholstered panel and sliding a long, thin STRONG pry-bar into the inside of the door bottom and (padding the top outer part of the door frame) against the outer frame work at the top and kinda twisting/prying/rotating the door a bit to bring the bottom inwards.

Sounds harsh, I know, but you honestly see this kind of thing done at every body and fabrication shop around. Especially with after market sheet metal.

Of course, don't go overboard and cock everything out of alignment, but gentle/firmly applied pressure against the top to pull in the bottom would go a long way towards correcting the proud lower door edge.

[rjames]

Your door probably won't align perfectly right because the car body wapred a little when the jack point/longs were fixed in that area (that is my personal experience).

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif)

Probably a long shot, but is there any chance that the door itself is tweaked?

[JOE M]

Your door probably won't align perfectly right because the car body wapred a little when the jack point/longs were fixed in that area (that is my personal experience).

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif)

Probably a long shot, but is there any chance that the door itself is tweaked?

I dont think the door is tweaked. I took a little more time and looked at the door again. The gap near the front fender is the same on both the driver and passenger door. I am starting to think more and more that the rear fender placement could be the problem. The door overhangs the rear quarter panel by about 1/4" but is o.k at the front. I think I am going to take some diagnal measurements and see if that points to anything.

[TravisNeff]

can you give us a photo of the car

From the rear of the car, along the passenger side so we can see the profile of the full passenger side of the car, taken while kneeling down. from that we can see how far off the door and the rear quarter is.

[craig downs]

That pic of under the car looks like the car was sectioned as you can see a welded
seam

[roadster fan]

I think Craig is talking about these spots. In the center area you can actually see the weld beads. It looks like the other areas I circled are some type of reinforcement. It looks to me like the back half of one car was added to the front of another, also.

I will get you a picture of the bottom of my car tomorrow so you can see what it should look like in that area. You may try to find differences in paint color in hidden areas in the front and rear, that would help confirm also.

If it is a good running car, you can probably recoup your investment by parting it out, so dont feel too bad if you decide you can't live with it as is.

Jim

[JOE M]

can you give us a photo of the car

From the rear of the car, along the passenger side so we can see the profile of the full passenger side of the car, taken while kneeling down. from that we can see how far off the door and the rear quarter is.

Here is a pic from the rear of the car. I think if it is a bad hack job I can live with it for now ( as long as it is safe ). If I can get a 4 or 5 good years out of it I would be happy.

[rhodyguy]

the guys may be on to something with the sectioning. if you take your seats out and look on the interior floor you may see weld lines, or similar patches. @ $1800 for a driver just enjoy it. folks have have paid a GREAT deal MORE for cars with worse problems. i hope that's a little consolation.

k

[VaccaRabite]

Seriously, the car looks good. So long as you can close the door, I'd just drive the piss out of it. Seems like its had rust repair done, and the car warped a bit. You could always bend it back on a celette bench if it really bothered you. Don't part the car - too nice for that!

Zach