Is the door supposed to fit flush with the windshield pillar? Mine has a wedge/flare on the pillar. My door fits good on the bottom at the cowl but sits behind the flare on the pillar.... Is that how it is supposed to be or do I have something else going on here?
56's are a PITA to get right. I fought mine for years and finally gave up and went to a 55. If you look at an old Ford shop manual they show a Ford tool for bending the doors to make them fit. I remember looking at an almost new one at a Ford dealer in 58 that had poor fitting doors. The salesman said it was "just a truck".
I drill and tap the hinges for set screws, 3 per hinge. 2 at the front and 1 at the rear of each hinge. This allows you to move the door in and out in minute measure ments. What it does is wedge the door. Then carefully bend the window frame in or out. Hard to describe but easy to do,just takes time. I have several hours in fiddling with mine. Hope this helps.
I have the door fitting good, even gaps, flush all around, top/roof/drip edge, sides at the back of cab and cowl area. It is like the cab is too wide at the bottom of pillar(just above the cowl). It is like the door is too narrow or something in this area. Ill get some pics today
I have had this problem on cars in the past,,some times all it takes is caveman mentality to get the upper part of the door to fit correctly. Take a piece of 2 x 4 and place it between the opening above the hinge,a extra pair of hand help and then put some body weight against the top of the door with a slight pushing force. This will help to close the gap. HRP
It is in an area that I can't bend........ It is perfect along the cowl and out a 1/4" where it transitions. Here is the area in question...... Good along door and horizontal part of cowl seam. This transition starts thickening right at the horizontal seam at where the mirror tab hole is. It goes from perfect to 1/4" if I were to bend it out and match the bottom of the pillar it throws it out at the cowl... from the front from the back, this shows it the best that 1/4" runs all the way to the top, perfect. This shows the flare on the pillar I was mentioning, I thought it may have been to keep the doors from whistling by pushing the air around it....I was just hoping someone had one they could confirm there pillar and door fit in this area. The flare is to the right on the pillar.
It's a 1956 Truck! That was more than acceptable when they were built. No one gave a shit about things like gaps etc. In fact people have gotten overly anal about them today - blame Boyd. The only way you are going to get that "perfect" is going to be by either filling it with Plastic Pink Bodyman or by cutting the door apart, widening it, and filling the gap you create. Just a fact of life.
Like Hotroddon says above, this was the tolerance in those days. Live with it, it looks close. If you are building a show truck, narrow the top of the cowl.
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