I love Customs, alot of them have perfect paint and a great stance, but some of them just don't have that perfect fit and finish, one might expect. Door gaps are off, the deck lid doesnt quite fit right, etc. etc. In order, to take a car to the next level, I feel it's important to address all these issues, way before the body filler comes out. Here are some scans from a 1950 Ford shop manual, that shows some simple and clever techniques, some people might not know about. The illustrations show the 1950 Ford passenger car, the might Shoebox, but it will translate to other cars as well.
My dad worked for a Chevy dealership in the 50's and got to visit an assembly plant as part of his training. They followed a car through the production line from start to finish, watching each step along the way. At the very end, the touring group saw the car they had followed roll off the assembly line for final inspection. Among the crowd of inspectors was a gentleman who was carrying a 2X4 and a large mallet. Dad watched as he went around from the hood to the doors to the trunk, checking the fit of each. One of the doors was sticking a bit, so he place the 2X4 in a particular spot on the door, gave a god swing of the mallet- WHAM! He then rechecked the door to make sure it wasn't sticking anymore, then on to the next.
I remember one of the guys that I worked with telling a customer that came into get his car, but it wasn't ready, to go up to the office and wait. He didn't want the guy to see what he was going to do to the car. If you use the 2 x 4 and a BFH, they will always look for a mark or damage. If they don't see you do it, they won't look and will never know what you did.
My 48 oldsmobile has issues with door sag and now i think i may be able to fix it thanks to your post. Thanks man
Thanx for posting this up I have seen it more then once in old body manuals. I've also putzed around with adjusting door hinge bolts for hours only to have my old body and fender neighbor stop by and have at with a 2x4 and the well placed push of a hip and fix it in 10 minutes. Jaysin
Cool, can't ever get too much info on alignment. I couldn't agree more with the importance of alignment. It's a tedious process but necessary.
My wife used to work for a supplier inside a GM plant. In the final prep area there was a station for final "tweaking" of Hood, trunk and door alignment. I stood there and watched a guy smack $50k Cadillacs with a mallet and slam the hood/trunk on a piece of 2x4 (wrapped in duct tape) to align them. It seemed crazy to see at a modern plant. The Guy was amazing to watch though.
I know my '52 suffers from some misalignment issues certainly on the hoof and even some in the trunk. I really need to reread all of this and thoroughly apply of the techniques. Thanks Chris!
I've done some work last night on my shoebox, it's amazing how simple it is to tweak a door or a deck lid to fit better, just take your time. One other thing, I've done on my 1931 coupe is, to use different thicknesses of body mounts, those early Ford bodies are pretty flexible. A 1/16" or 1/8" difference, front to back, left to right, diagonally etc, can make a huge improvement, and make that car better than when it left the factory.
There's a video around.. on youtube probably.. that is supposed to be from the Trabant factory in the former USSR, showing most/all of these techniques in action on the assembly line... I may have seen it on here... not sure... will try to find a link... (update) and here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIAYxWCXF8A
I learned all kinds of 'unethical' sounding tricks at the body shop I used to work at. I had a guy here at work (office) complaining of wind noise coming from the top of the driver's door on his new Honda SUV (those little ugly square things). I figured the top of the door wasn't aligned right with the rubber seal at the top. We went out to the car, and I told him to roll down his window. I grabbed the top of the door, and placed my knee up high where the back of the window frame met the body of the door, then reefed backwards on it. He was like "what are you doing?!" No more wind noise.
Yeah I can imagine people would probably shit like a goose if they saw this being done to their car and didn't know what was going on.
Hey Chris, can I borrow that door tweaking thingy? Did my sled inspire this thread? Hahaha..... Big E
Hey thanks OP. Very timely indeed. About to bolt up my body mounts and check fit before chopping the top.
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