Technical Need advice of how to correct the door gap.

Exactly. I'm enjoying the trip

 

I'm in glorious Queens, NYC . The car came from a field out west I'd guess. Bought it from a guy in L.I. NY about 30 min away. He delivered to my door for $8000. I consider that a good deal and reasonable tuition considering the lessons I'm learning. BTW when I retire in a few years I want to move out to Akron- Canton area. Buy a big house and two big shops.

 

Has the floor also been replaced by the PO? If so, once the frame/chassis is confirmed true and level (I would mount it onto a frame table if you can get (or make) one, does the floor sit true on the frame? You may need to start by cutting the floor free of the body. Once the floor is able to sit right then you can start measuring in a million spots, side to side, diagonally etc. to figure our what needs to be cut loose, moved and then re-attached. This may include cutting free the previously chopped roof. It seems like this one may have been "fixed" and chopped without the benefit of bracing, without having ensured the foundation was correct, or by using a tape measure. You now have the joy of working backwards to correct the issues.

I would probably start there before I started cutting open the chopped door tops (though, no doubt they too will need attention).

As a side note, if the same craftsman that chopped the top was involved with the the chassis build, I would be measuring the heck out of that as well, not to mention inspecting the chassis welds real closely. I would cut a few of the welds apart to look at the penetration and to see how much ugly welding was taken care of by real nice grinding.

 

Lol

 

Craftsman, I love the sarcasm . I went over the chassis welds at the MII the PO installed. They seemed adequate on most but I cut out most all and rewelded all. Front floor is not installed. I have no frame table nor will I get one anytime soon as I have no space for it. This car will be fudged into chocolatey mediocrity. That is its purpose and destiny. It's a tester. If I ever get a nice unmolested coupe I will then build a frame table and build it as so many have suggested.

 

Talk to that metal wizard flop.

 

You have to pick a starting point, the only thing that is not adjustable is the edge of the 1/4 panel. You can move the cowel up and down foreword and back, you can move the rocker by changing the shims under the body. Go door to 1/4 then once there door to rocker and finally move the cowel to get your gap. You may have to cut the top loose to get this also the chop on the door may have to be redue if the back edge of it is not in line. See if you know someone that has a 36 so you can see the back of their door so you will have something to compare yours to. You need to stand back at least 25 feet to view the side. If you don't you can't see the forest for all the trees. Standing to close you will never get the whole picture. Some one already posted you start from the base board when you build a house you do the same with a car. Correct the mistakes as you move upward. Check the floor for any chance that it's diamond from being hit in the rear. I know it's a lot of work but that's probably why the previous owner sold it. Take your time and double check everything, allow for shrinkage when your welding. PM me if you have any questions I have been beating on metal 50 years+ and have owned many hot rods. Some times we run out of talent and need to ask for help. Frank

 

It looks like the roof line is sunken down right where they added a piece

 

Where’s that picture been ???

SOB that is fucked up

 

on the first post

 

Damn thumbnails
Won’t open

 

copy mine

 

Stand back 25 feet ??? My property is only 40 feet wide .
Thanks Frank.

 

1 bolt everything down, 2 align the cowl and door reveal lines, 3 use 1/8 gas welding rod on the door edge where it's too wide, if its too tight in spots grind the door edge down and 4 as needed, portapower the door jams where you have to, 5 never use those hidden hinge setups, they cause these kind of problems.

 

So I started the door party tonight. Cut off the door frame top but the door still made contact at the front. I cut a small wedge to pull in the front of the door and now it closes. Adjusted the hinges to get an even gap at the B-pillar but the A-pillar gap is very uneven. It seems to me the A-pillar needs to be shimmed up the same distance the body line is off. The fact that the door latch stud is too low supports my theory.
On a positive note I'm turned on the A/C in the garage today and it rocked. The first time I've been in there with out a towel around my neck and on my head to keep me from drowning in my own sweat. God is good.

 

And when you raise the cowl, looks like the front of the hood will need to go up even more. From those last shots it looks like the A piller is too far back? Hard to tell from the keyboard,

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That's the whole A piller, cowl. Needs to roll forward.

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Floor in ? Sub rails?

 

No front floor installed yet.

 

These pictures show me that the cowel needs to be shimed up at the back to get it even with the door and pulled foreword at the top. IE the cowl need to rotate counter clockwise . Do you have any shims under the cowl ? Bear in mind when you do this it will change the top of the door opening. When you get the A pillar gap and the B pillar gap lined up you need to put a brace in there to hold it square tubing from the cowl to B pillar about the top hinge to the cowel like the first picture. Once you get the cowl lined up to the door you can put a X brace in the opening to keep your lines while you work on the top part of the opening. I assume that the previous owner did not do this bracing. Remember to take it in small steps . I be checking back tonight to see your progress. Frank

 

Would you fix the roofline first? Or cut the door to fit the misshapen opening from the roof?



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I'd be tempted to cut the door tops off, then work to fit doors to the openings. Rooftop next, and reattach/fit door tops last.

 

That roof is fucked up,,,, bad
They’ve already tried to fuck the door tops to match the fucked up roof.

I’m kinda thinking without laying hands on it or actually studying it in person.... I’m thinking they got the B pillar off because the rear part of the chop roof like thru the quarter and rear windows Is off. (Looking from outside Rear roof Needs to be rotated clockwise and the cowl/windshield section needs to be rotated counter clockwise) that fixes the dip in roof line.
That being said,,, looks like they’ve already tried some of that here ,,? And looking from inside the opposite rotations would help. Kind of a mystery.
Yet wound up with this dip

 

Pulling the cowel forewand is going to make the roof pull down at the splice more.
You may have to cut relief In the windshield post, but you are going fix the sagging door opening. Because you already have a roof insert installed this is going to make this difficult. Is the roof cap welded in solid or is it tacked in place? A picture of the top from above would help. Frank

 

Yup. That's what I'm doing.

 

Added 1/2" shims to theB-pillar. Getting closer. Before I go any further I need to tack back in some pieces I cut out at the door hinges as the doors are flexing without them.
Now off to bathe my dog and think more on this. 90°+ in NYC . Great to be out in the sun with a bald head

 

When the "builder" put those jackass reversed door hinges on, that meant cutting right through the B pillar in two places on each pillar.

And...look at how close together those hinges are for a coupe door height...trying to properly fit a taller door that will stay fitted over time, will be pointless. I would switch back to stock type hinges & locations before any more effort is wasted. In other words, ...Start Over.

here is the same type of butchered pile of crap that I started with, same jackass reversed hinge locations. The doors would not even close, then they gave up.



^^^I cut all their "hard work" out, started over from scratch and....

 

You mean "Do It Over" ? I would if I could but cant find new hinges or even good used ones.
Nice job by the way. At the bottom of my list of options is cutting off the roof, top of the doors and cowl and going roadster. I still have faith I can fix this enough that it'll be close enough for me.

 

Above and below

 

Cut it at the red line - pivot on green dot
Then rotate cowl and windshield as a unit.
That raises the door opening.


Plus I think the taper of the door is wrong since those hidden suicide door hinges went in