Fixing Door Gaps

[SCFFR]

Since I finished up my under car exhaust last week, I decided to get back to the body work. I think I'm about 90% done with just a few details to work on. I wanted to finish up the doors so started there. As many had suggested, I got the top of the doors aligned with the body and used Rage Gold to bring the body and door surfaces to the same plane. Finally got the profile of the top rear of the door to match the profile of the body opening.....please note they are significantly different. The door in more "rounded" whereas the body opening above the door latch is more "square" for lack of a better description. Nothing a few coats of filler can't fix but does take time.

Since the bottom edge is sort of "out of sight" I hadn't paid too much attention to it but once I took a good look saw that there was a section at the front bottom edge where there was a noticeable gap between the door and body. I had pretty much set a 3/16" gap around the rest of the door but in this area, the gap was almost 3/8". Not sure if the problem is in the body or in how the edge of the door was trimmed. Regardless, my options were to either build up the body opening with filler which I didn't want to do since that much might eventually develop cracks over time or add to the door edge. Chose the second option but again didn't want to use filler. So, I roughed up the door edge with some 80 grit and cut a number of 1/2" wide strips of 1.5 oz fiberglass mat and laminated a new edge to the door. You can see from the pics that I added about 3/8" to the problem area of the door. Decided on glassing the edge instead of using fiberglass filler since I think the lamination provides a stronger edge. Took about 30 minutes to get the glass work done and once it had kicked off, trimmed it with a razor knife first and then carefully with the side grinder.

As you can see from the final pic, the gaps have closed up very nicely especially in that area where there was the big problem. Will finish up the gaps with a 1/8" thick paint stick with a strip of 80 grit paper glued to it. This give a perfect 3/16" gap all the way around.

I do have a question though, what is the recommend method to finish the door edges and opening? On the trunk and hood lids, I used a 1/4" i.d. rubber sanding guide to round off the edges. Should the same be down on the doors and edges or should they be left "sharp"?

Again, many thanks for your help.

Ron

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[Dan Babb]

I think all the edges should be rounded off. It gives it more of a finished look. Square edges just don't seem right...I think if you look at your other production cars, all the edges have a round edge to them.

[VD2021]

In addition to the look all edges should be rounded in order for the paint to lay properly. Paint will naturally build on the gun side of the edge as the paint is sprayed leaving a build-up of paint along that edge.

[WIS89]

Ron-

Great work on that glass! I think most folks would have laid on the rage, and crossed their fingers. I haven't done glass work in years, and that was on sailboats, but your work would certainly put mine to shame!! Well done Sir!

Regards,

Steve

[riptide motorsport]

Very nice work!

[SCFFR]

Thanks again guys for the feedback.

Took your advice and put a small radius on the edges of the door and opening. Years ago, I had bought a set of inside and outside rubber sanding guides from Eastwood which have come in real handy with the MkIV.
Was hoping I wouldn't have to do both doors, but not that lucky. Glassed up the RH door last evening so will get that fitted today.
I looked at several pics of cars and did see similar issues at the bottom of the doors so don't think it was just mine. Then again, I'm just way too detailed not to have consistent door gaps all the way around so I didn't mind spending the time. If FFR would trim the doors about 1/8" larger all the way around, it would be easy to get a perfect fit.

Steve....like you, I got all of my glass experience working on boats. For about five years while I was living in Florida, built custom sailboats so had tons of experience working with fiberglass. I knew that a buildup of Rage or Duraglass on the edge instead of mat would not last. When we would build a deck for a sailboat, had to consider that people would be constantly walking all over it so "filler" edges didn't work.

Ron

[SCFFR]

Spent all day yesterday fixing the gap in the passenger side door. As you can see in the pics, with the top of the door properly adjusted with the door opening and cowl, there was a pretty big gap at the front edge and bottom. After several applications of mat, got it to the point where I can now removed a little of the edge to get a more consistent gap. One layer of 1.5 oz. fiberglass mat equals 1/16" of additional width to the door edge which you can see in the pic of the edge against the red gelcoat.

Ron

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