Door Fitment

[HVACMAN]

I have started fitting the driver door on my 33. When I line up the belt line on the door and body, the top of the door is low by at least 1/4 inch. Is this normal?

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[sread]

I think that is pretty much normal. Mine looks about like that at the front but not that bad at the rear.

[rapidray]

The only way to adjust the rear of the door height is with the four 1/4 bolts that go through the door hinge. Your holes are too low. I installed my door on the body without those 4 bolts installed and then set the height with 4 self tappers. I then removed the door and installed the correct bolts. Ray

[sread]

Most have found that the entire top edge of the door is too thin and needs to be built up anyways (at least on the Gen 1 cars). I plan on laying down 2 or 3 layers of glass cloth/mat and then go from there. Ultimately, I think I am going to try and bond a piece of sheet metal across the entire top of the door whenever I get to jacking around with the window install. Think I will drive mine around for a year or so topless before I tackle that.

[HVACMAN]

The only way to adjust the rear of the door height is with the four 1/4 bolts that go through the door hinge. Your holes are too low. I installed my door on the body without those 4 bolts installed and then set the height with 4 self tappers. I then removed the door and installed the correct bolts. Ray

Thanks for the response rapidray but I haven't installed any of the door metal yet. I'm just fitting the doors into the opening. If I line up the belt line, the top of the door is too low as in the pictures. If I line up the door top, the belt line is ~1/4 inch too high.

[tony]

So I'm kind've amazed the gen 2 kit still has these door issues.

[rapidray]

Sorry I didn't see what step you were on. I would concentrate on the belt line fitment as it would be the hardest to repair. I was a body and paint guy for years and still struggled with the body portion of the build on my gen 2. Having said that I would fit the door hinges, belt line, gaps etc. prior to the upper part of the door to body repair. If the repair area is more than an 1/8" inch deep use layered fiberglass (as suggested by sread) prior to bondo. One other thing have you by any chance checked the trunk and hood for fit? Test fit all the panels prior to doing any repairs. Cheers Ray

[HVACMAN]

Sorry I didn't see what step you were on. I would concentrate on the belt line fitment as it would be the hardest to repair. I was a body and paint guy for years and still struggled with the body portion of the build on my gen 2. Having said that I would fit the door hinges, belt line, gaps etc. prior to the upper part of the door to body repair. If the repair area is more than an 1/8" inch deep use layered fiberglass (as suggested by sread) prior to bondo. One other thing have you by any chance checked the trunk and hood for fit? Test fit all the panels prior to doing any repairs. Cheers Ray

Thanks Ray. You have confirmed exactly what I was thinking. Thanks again for the help.

[fostia]

Thanks Ray. You have confirmed exactly what I was thinking. Thanks again for the help.

Reviving this thread because it's not that old and I have fiberglass questions (never done it) about the door tops. I have Gen 1 doors and am at the body work part. My outside belt line and gaps are generally fine and my driver's side door is generally where I want it (still have just a little more tweaking on the passenger door). However, when that's all dialed in my driver side door top and inside beltline is terrible (see pics)

This thread says if the gap is > than 1/8", then I should lay up fiberglass mat instead of just using bondo. I've never done this before so maybe someone can help? See pictures for current supplies... I have Bondo hair, bondo glass, West System 105 Epoxy and 206 Hardener. I have colloidal silicia, small strands of fiberglass, 1 oz chopped mat (i think this is waay too thin), fiberglass cloth, HSRF (not much left since I've used a lot for the mold lines and hardtop) and Rage Gold.

So how should I do this? Should I get heavier mat? Use the mat I got? Use the cloth? Just use the bondo hair? Use the mat then bondo hair or bondo glass? How do I lay down the mat? Just sand the gel coat good and then lay the mat down with some overhang? I've heard that vinyl ester resin is preferable to epoxy due to compatibility of other resins. But as long as I just use my HSRF and Rage Gold over it and stick to epoxy, I shouldn't have a problem? I couldn't find any information of using Rage over epoxy resin. Is that okay? I bought the west system epoxy as a recommendation of Tim Whittaker to bond in his curved trunk bars which I purchased. Still haven't done that.

Lot of words here but I underlined my main questions....

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[rapidray]

I also had a few problems when trying to get the heights and gaps set correctly so I finally called Tony at FFR and the first question he asked is what my measurement was from the dash panel to the rear body. I can't recall what the manual says to set it at but he told me that I did not need to set it exactly at that. Looking at your first picture it almost appears that your rear body mounts may need to be raised slightly. The top door gap looks wider than the lower from what I can see. In my case it was the opposite. I had someone sit on the rear of the body while I installed my rear body bolts and it made a huge difference. When using fiberglass I always pour resin on the panel prior to placing the resin soaked cloth on the panel. Make sure you get as many air pockets as possible out of the cloth (very important)! If you need to layer it sand the first coat prior to adding additional fiberglass. It took me over a month before I was satisfied with the fitment of the body. I am still apprehensive about the reassembly after paint. Be patient and it will all come together. Here are a few pictures of mine prior to disassembly for paint! Cheers Ray

[RoadRacer]

I also had a few problems when trying to get the heights and gaps set correctly so I finally called Tony at FFR and the first question he asked is what my measurement was from the dash panel to the rear body. I can't recall what the manual says to set it at but he told me that I did not need to set it exactly at that. Looking at your first picture it almost appears that your rear body mounts may need to be raised slightly.

I don't think I'm thread-jacking since this ultimately all relates to doors, but I'm just starting with my body (gen2 over gen1 chassis) and wondered where to start - it seems to me that the firewall is the only fixed spot, right? Everything else can move, so I was wondering if I should secure to firewall, then tape/clamp/screw doors and hardtop in place as best I can, and finally see where the rear of the body works best. Thoughts?

[rapidray]

That's how I went about it. I did measure the opening (dash to rear body) initially and got it close to the recommended measurement. Nothing worked well there so after collaborating with Tony at FFR I made it slightly larger. (not much and worked well in my case). Manual calls for 45.5" page 342, mine was slightly larger. Ray