Another door fitting question

[Valkster]

Hi all. I have been away from the project for a while and finally back at it. I have read over numerous posts about door fitting. Most all generally agree and indicate that there is a lot of give and take. Can someone give a little advice about the passenger side photo here? I have my steel rule flush to the door, and you can see that the gap with the body gets progressively wider toward the right end of my rule. The rest of the door fits really nice at this point. Is the body and door supposed to be a straight (more or less) continuous line, or does it bow/arch over distance? I can make the diverging gap at the body go away, or nearly so, but it requires moving the door striker out, and really pulling the rear body sill/rocker outward a lot (1/2" or so) to get everything to line up. This goes against almost all forum posts...most say the passenger side rocker doesn't need a lot of adjustment.

Also, I posted a picture of how I went about the latch issue on our car. We were caught up in the transition latch (car build in 2022). We didn't know this until we went to gap the doors and installed the latch. I imagine most have already dealt with this by now, but just in case someone wanted to see what I did here it is. I made an offset latch pin. It is made of stainless and composed of a round pin and T-shaped stainless bar stock. I milled it out on my old Bridgeport and welded the pin in place from the backside. The T-shape is not visible from this picture, but that is what keeps the assembly from rotating in the slot. If anyone is interested in other pics of it let me know. I think it looks nicer that the FFR supplied workaround.

Thanks for any insight,
Mark
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[Jeff Kleiner]

Mark,
Yes, the body side takes a dive inward ahead of the door so they are not a flat plane. Same on the driver's side (moreso actually). Also where the body curves down from the cowl to the side the radius is not the same as the radius of the door. Both sides. As I've said before, it's all bodywork and they're all like that. These areas were the focus of the changes we made to the Mk5 body. Correct, the passenger side ordinarily gets pushed all the way in and only needs minor adjustment for fine tuning.

Jeff

[Valkster]

Thanks for the quick reply, Jeff. Unless I am still off in my adjustments I am seeing the reverse of a roll with the body in that Pic. That is part of what is confusing me. The Front edge of the door, except where the radius doesn't match the body, appears to match the body near to it, but gets worse the further I get away from the door. Is that a sign of misadjstment somewhere else?? Thanks again

[Valkster]

Hi, again. I have made more adjustments and used a longer straight edge to see a larger area. The rocker/sill is full inward to the frame as far as I can push it in front of the door, and the rear of the sill is pushed in but not as hard as the front. First, to try to clarify an earlier post asking about the bow of the body and door. What I was asking, is there a bow horizontally for the door and body when fitting and filling? With a long straight edge, the door seems pretty flat/straight horizontally along its surface, at least for the most part. However, the body down near the louver cutout has a bow from front to back (please see pics).

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This bow seems to be part of the issue I am perceiving with the door fitment. Overall, the door fits well to the body at the top of the door (front and rear) and I can see that what I need to fill on the top front of the door matches most forum pics. Also, I see that the body needs some filling just forward of the door where the radius from top horizontal to vertical is (due to the body and door radius not matching). The next pic shows that at the upper part of the door, I am pretty well adjusted from body to door. A little filler and it should look nice.

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However, my ongoing problem is about halfway down on the door as it transitions to the body at the front. The pics show that the door and body are nowhere in line with each other. I have made several adjustments at this point. Is there supposed to be a bow from the body to the door created with filler to make this look correct? I would have to pull the rear of the door out a lot to make the straight edge look right, and this would throw the top areas way off, plus pulling the body outward is against what everyone says for the passenger side. One pic below shows if I put the straight edge against the body, and what the growing gap looks like at the door, and the other is vice versa.

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Sorry for the troubles, thanks for any insight.
Mark

[GoDadGo]

I fixed my drivers door by splitting it and glassing it from the back.
This door split fix was not a "Jeff-K Approved" solution; however, it worked and worked well.

Door Fix Video:
https://youtu.be/6UK6K2jcwTU

Final Video Before Painting:
https://youtu.be/po1Bb2_XDDk

Graduation Video:
https://youtu.be/9WEe6-wdNtA

Three Year Update Video:
https://youtu.be/iwslgKJUaKc

We got a ton of advice we got from "Sir Jeffski" when we did the bodywork and the car turned out really nice.
If you pay a lot of attention to the doors and gaps, then your car will look amazing.

Good Luck!

[Valkster]

Thanks Steve. I have enjoyed and learned from your videos over the last few years. Can you or anyone else tell me about the straightness of the middle-to-lower part of the door and front fender on the passenger side? Sorry for the crude drawing but see it for what I mean. In the upper part of the door, a longer ruler placed on its edge horizontally against the door and fender shows it to be pretty much a straight line between the two panels, except for the body dive that Jeff mentioned to me on a post above. This would be the top sketch on my pic, more or less. If I move the ruler down to halfway or more of the door, I get more like what I sketched in the lower part of the picture. Is yours or anyone else's a straight line down lower on the door/body, or does it become a compromised blend of filler? If I push the lower door in, I can see where feathering filler at the door (thicker filler near the front gap, to nothing as I move to the rear of the door) would help hide that change but not give me a truly straight body line down there.

I have a few really old pics from here that I hoped would educate me, one from Jeff, that shows a long trowel being held from the front door gap to an area toward the rear of the door. It was showing an area that needed to be filled and feathered out on the door, but none of the pictures show if the end result is a straight body line or not between the entire door and fender.

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Thanks again for any help or explanation,
Mark

[Valkster]

Oh, and again, I have moved the door all over the place and have it looking like most all forum posts as far as what needs filler and how it should look. The rocker/sill is all the way in. The rear of the door fits really well at the top and sides with the body...I am just dumbfounded with the lower portion of the door-to-front fender not being straight.

[rich grsc]

You're trying to make straight lines on a car that has no straight lines?

[Jeff Kleiner]

When doing the bodywork on these cars there are two tools that will only cause frustration and confusion...a tape measure and a straightedge.

Jeff

[Valkster]

Fair enough, thanks guys. I actually used a "tool that reads distance and rolls up to hang on your belt" ;) :D last night after my post. At the height on the door/body that I was asking about, the body is about an inch narrower at the rear of the door than the front, so no, it cannot be straight. Sorry for asking the same question over and over, I have done a few restorations on old cars and was trying to get this one straight or at some defined arch. I agree, it cannot happen. The best I can do is make the body lines flow, blend, feather and transition nicely.

-Mark