History When did body panel-door gaps become an issue?

Good insight guys and some good stories too.
It appears that we'd be discussing OT cars based on the time manufacturers were getting this all figured out (unless it were a hand built premium car).

I've seen many restorations that just look too over processed. Most 50's cars don't have perfect gaps and that looks correct to me. 50's trucks even more so.

I'll build to as good as the factory did and it'll look right to me.
To those who want more craftsmanship than the original maker provided, you'll be pleased with what you've created.
A Win Win situation.

 

Door gaps? Yea,right! I figured I was pretty lucky when the doors fit in the hole. They open and close and fill most of the holes when they are closed, I'm good! Then add the fact that the bottom 7" of the car is nonexistent, the body is on a different frame, and every panel around the door & trunk lid have been patched, the door gaps are somehow are not very important. I've added enough rubber weatherstripping around the doors to keep most of the wind noise down and keep the rain out.

The gaps look great from behind the wheel, while driving down the road, as long as you don't look at the doors. If you don't like the way my hot rod looks, don't look at it. Gene

 

Probably because my day job has been a lot about quality control, and fit & finish - anything I build is going to have the best gaps i can do, clocked fasteners, and my pet peeve, trim aligned and fit to the car without hiccups. Otherwise it will bug the crap out of me for the life of the car.

I know they were not this perfect new, and respect that others are going for a totally authentic look. But in my mind, after spending years building a car, the last person to assemble it was me. Somehow saying "but the guys who originally built it didn't give a damn" doesn't absolve me from trying to build it to the level it was designed.

To each his own.

 

My whole interest is in building the car---once it's done I have no desire to even drive it other than testing to see that everything works. When finished it is just a source of cash to start on the next near hopeless one. With this attitude (or mental defect) everything has to make Pebble Beach cars look like Rat Rods and to hell with the time or cost. My best friend calls his project done the minute the engine fires and it moves under it's own power. Of course he says I wouldn't accept a piece of ass without a condom, diaphragm, and spermicidal foam and I tell him he wastes his time wiping his ass because shit doesn't bother him. Glad the rod world is big enough to hold both of us.

 

Yeah, we know. 'Golden Eagle syndrome'...

 

I think I figured it all out- I,m gonna buy a roll of 1/4" black tape, go over every edge/gap, and run a razor blade in-between. Then hand the "perfect-gap police" a pair of smudged glasses for their "I- don't actually- have -a -car" inspection report.

 

I look at it this way all I really need are nice tail lights. If your car is fast enough you never hear how inferior you are.

 

36 pages of body panel fitting Procedures recommended by Mopar for their Master Tech Service Conference in 1949

http://www.mymopar.com/downloads/mtsc/025.pdf

 

Personally if the doors close well, don't hit anything, and are centered in the opening, I wouldn't worry about a little extra gap. None of the non restored survivors ever had perfect gaps either. So I wouldn't worry yourself too much with it.

 

That shit more or less started with the Boyd types, among other builders, which compounded the price for a build. I can't believe there are so many enthusiasts who will end up shelling out zillions for that perfect car. Of course, after looting their life savings, they don't enjoy their rides because "it's too nice to drive!" I know of more than a few that fall into that category. What a fuckin' waste ! If I can only afford to use fingernail polish to fix the chips I get on my Deuce from cruising everywhere, that is what will happen. It has $50,000 plus in it from 2009, but it is to drive and enjoy. Now at 69 years young, I don't have that many summers left, maybe, so drive it is what we do.
,

 

In total agreement with you, hotroddin. You Cal boys are bad (?) about setting up your rides pretty right on. That tends to make us other builders strive for perfection in our rides when it may not be compatible with our intentions. I go by Terry Hegman's shop in Fountain Valley when we visit Sou Cal, and his work is so pristine it makes me sick. Not really, but he is a metal magician and probably among the best anywhere in the world. He kinds of talks funny ! HA HA.

 

Was just reading the way the AMBR cars are judged, and door/panel gaps as well as how smoothly the door shuts, is part of the criteria.

I have no knowledge of how long this has been going on, maybe before Boydsters?

I guess what I'm saying is many try to do what they see at shows, I recall the restored cars at Harrah's as a kid in the 70's, and my dad saying "those cars didn't look that good new".

Truth though, I enjoyed going out back and looking through the unrestored ones more.

 

The door gaps on my Hudson are not perfect by a long shot, but I wasn't building a street rod.
I worried about it for five minutes, and thought, screw it, I can live with em, I only got this thing to please myself.
In 09, I was in Australia, and one night, stopped to look at some late 60s Camaros in a shop window.
They were three restorations that were for sale around 100k each.
The hood gaps were shocking.
Half an inch on one side, and nearly touching on the other.
Im no Camaro fan, but I did think for the money they were asking, I'd want near perfect gaps.

On an old hot rod, I don't see it as an issue.

 

What ever you do don't ever spend the time to get a perfect 3/16ths around 1 door of a 4 door.

 

Getting perfect door gaps was either born in you or it wasn't. A friend of mine started doing body work when he was a kid, taught by his Dad. This was 1950 and he made sure the door gaps was perfect if he had to cut, shim, or bend the metal. He died about 10 years ago of old age and cancer and even then with poor eye site he could run his hand down a body panel or door and tell you any imperfection in it.

 

I've owned an ass load of those trucks and Ford didn't worry about gapping them, I'll guarantee you that. I'd almost challenge to get a paint stick gap all around on a lot of them, they are dam close. Just getting them to shut good and not touch the fender is an achievement if they are pieced together.

 

The gaps better "look" good and be clean to the naked eye. If a gap "looks" funny, goofy or off you can bet your ass there's plenty more funny goofy and off stuff.
It should be done in metal too, not heavily mudded edges
Does it take that much effort to waddle out holes with a die grinder, to move a door hinge, to weld a chunk of rod to a door edge and grind it to fit when a car is apart?

Vernier measurement and accuracy on gaps is likely to cause you plenty of un needed trouble and result in gaps that "look" off yet measure perfectly. Those verniers can help to show what's off and where an adjustment needs to be made to actually correct the issue vs fixing a symptom.

Now the question was "When did that become an issue? ? ? "
About 4-5 days out of the womb

 

I can remember my dad lusting over mercedes door gaps and the way the doors latched in the early 70's

I can also remember my dad going to a big dealership in memphis to buy a new oldsmobile and looked at 80 -100 cars and couldn't find one that didn't have a fit/finish issue that wasn't obvious at 20 feet.

 

I'm just happy the doors haven't fallen off my car...screw the gap.

 

In the 70s you were just lucky a door opened and closed on an American car.