I have the right side inner rocker all welded up as well as the hell hole and jack post. Is now is the time to test fit the doors before I weld in the door sill and quarter pannel? I think it should be fine. I'm concerned the chassis may have warped and I'd like to be sure before I finish the rest of the welding.

Thanks,
Rob

They should be on the whole time. Pretty hard to fix after the fact.

I used the hinge brackets as a point to brace off of. So I was unable to leave the doors on.

You need to maintain the correct door spacing when you are doing the work you describe. You need to have the doors on and latched, or brace the opening to the correct dimensions. Tangerine (a board sponsor) makes a great bracing kit.

This is exactly what I did. When I measure, the door gaps are exactly what they were when I started. I guess I'm just nervous about removing the bracing. Moment of truth?

-Rob

I've finished all welding on the long so I pulled the passanger side bracing and bolted the door up. The gap just about doubled from what it was before, which was very tight at the bottom before, in fact it was almost touching. I was so worried about a shrinking door gap that I preloaded my door bracing, probably too much. The gap is 10mm at the top right now. Is there a way to shrink the gap just a little?

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In my opinion there are two ways. The right way and the wrong way..

The right way is to cut the longs and do it again.

The wrong way is to weld some skin to the door to visually minimize the gap. (However your window wont seal properly without spacing out the gaskets, your targa top probably wont fit right either..)

I dont know what your building the car for, but its up to you.. Thats one hell of a gap there..

I managed to fix the passenger side. It now measures the same as it did before I statred cutting it up. The gaps look about the same too. Unfortunatly they are not uniform. Then again, they were never uniform front to back or left to right. I don't think there is any easy way to change that.

-Rob

Here are some updated pictures.

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That looks a lot better!

How'd you do it? Trim a little and re-weld down on the long?

I would certainly mount the doors and the roof and check the fit.

Looks like the car has moved. Best adjusted on a frame rack where measuring tools are handy. Not good to guess on this one, but you know that the factory quarter panel and door fit nicely originally and that is the gap it needs to return to.

I cut and rewelded the long just forward of the jack post. Then I welded a reenforcement on top of that.

The doors shut, and the top fits. The door gaps look "ok" to me. Should I leave it as is? I don't know if there is any way to make the doors fit any better as the panel fit when I got the 914 was mediocre at best. Is anyone in the Tacoma area experienced in this?

-Rob

I would put the bottom of the quarter panel back up to see if the gap disappears and if so have it pulled.

I picked the car last Sunday afternoon. Gearhead1432 is being re-stationed in Oklahoma for the next 4 years so he asked if could get his project restarted. Primary scope of work asked for, R & R rusted areas. But first thing will be to take chassis measurements and see where's he's at. At first glance his re-cut and weld on the long looks good. His hell hole repair looks tidy.

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We probably won't touch it till around Christmas. It will give him time to decide whether to strip it down and epoxy primer the tub. Not my call, I'm just the hired gun. But that is my preferred method. So we start with a clean slate. Outsourced : Est. $3k.

With Matt on his way to Red Rocks and the shop given a deep clean it was time to deliver Rob's car to Forest Grove.
Short day today. Super In Law needs to be at the church at 3pm.
So shooting pictures and labeling all the incoming parts will need to wait till next.

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Wow that's quite the flashback. Glad she's in good hands now.

Awesome!!! I should send you mine to finish!! You like crazy custom stuff right

Took about 25 pictures of the parts that came with the car .............
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Next time we get the pallet stacker out we'll get all the parts palletized and up out of the way.