I will be starting a restoration of my 1970 1.7L in a few weeks. I will definitely need to repair both longitudinals since the car has slightly "buckled" and the door are not lining up. I will be building a dolly to put the car on. From what I can tell on the forum an adjustable door brace is a good idea over just keeping the doors in for alignment. I will be checking the targa to windshield measurements.

Does anybody have a set of braces I could borrow for the winter? I am in metro NY/NJ.

Any instructions on how to make one? I have a Mig Welder.

Is there a way to brace the car and keep the doors attached?

Is it OK to keep the motor in the car while doing this? Hell hole looks OK, just need a new tray.


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Tangerine Racing makes a kit that allows you to keep the doors on.
Even if you can weld, it's nice to just buy the kit (it's a proven winner!) and get focused on "the real work".
Just my opinion, but it worked for me...

If you're repairing the tray in the engine compartment, you'll want to pull the drive train.

And if your longs need repair, you may have hell hole issues you just can't see... yet.

[quote name='tygaboy' date='Dec 4 2017, 01:18 PM' post='2554863']
Tangerine Racing makes a kit that allows you to keep the doors on.
Even if you can weld, it's nice to just buy the kit (it's a proven winner!) and get focused on "the real work".




FYI, for the Racer Chris kit, the doors have to be removed.


You can weld the doors shut, cheap way of doing it.
Someone hear made a set from angle iron with turn buckles on the ends. Do a search (use Google ie: site:914world.com)

You can see pics of how I did mine here. There are much nicer designs but these were cheap, only took an hour to make, and have gotten the job done. Materials are 1/2" black iron pipe, two turnbuckles, two nuts to weld onto the sills, some 1" bar stock, and some bolts and washers. I was able to dial in dimensions with good precisions once the outer longs were off.

I agree with others about pulling the drive train. That will be way less work than trying to work with it in place. And consider your longs like a box of Cracker Jacks. There will be a nifty surprise inside every box.

Don't argue with Tygaboy.
My latest kit includes brackets that weld behind the speaker grills so the rods clear the closed doors.

Well you learn something new everyday!