Panel Gap Magic

[Felix]

What's the secret for getting precise panel gaps?
Are mine beyond saving, do you think?
I don't know where to start.
The passenger side is passable but the driver's door
sticks out like a sore thumb.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. The car is a mk2 gt6.
First two photos are driver's side, next one is passenger side.

Thanks!

Felix

[WIMPUS]

Seems one end of the bottom half of the door is good (bonnet side) and the other to the rear end is pushed out at the sill  :-/

Mine has it all the way!, but my door is not so good anymore.

Maybe there is something wrong with your door also ? Maybe twisted (at first sight)  :-/

Even from the factory they where not that great at the bottom where it meets the sill  :B

[Dan16v]

Same here, gap at the back of the door, just on the passenger side

I had thought it was a poor fitting sill that had caused it

[byakk0]

the first question is, have the sills been replaced? Or have the doors been removed?
I'd try adjusting the door. You may need to put thicker shims between the upper hinge and A post, and that should force the top of the door out. Then you can adjust the latch in further, hopefully, so you get a better gap when closed.

Otherwise I don't think there is much you can do short of carefully bending in the bottom of the door, unless you want to mess up the paint and respray after you have done metal reshaping to the sill and maybe the dogleg on the wing.

[JensH]

IMHO - two things come in mind:
1. If sills have been replaced, new ones are often fitted far to high; esp. if the floor pan (or just outer flange) has been replaced (flange on new floor pans too small).
See drawings.
2. Doors tend to bend with age making the lower rear corner sticking out.

[DanM]

It could also be that the rubber seals supplied these days are round foam and much thicker than the originals, Mine shut fine without the seals but do stick out with them in place

[Dannyb]

If the doors have been reskinned then the doors can be pulled out of shape.

[GT6 M]

its v v hard to get every thing just so
get the top ok, then bottoms oot
get the rear ok, and bonnets line is oot.

try and move hinges on dor in /oot, as thee,s only go in / oot ways
if not enough, then either ad packers to scuttle,ns,or if to bigg / sticking oot, wack area in where hinge sits
with a flat chisel, blunted off.
if doo,n this, the glass / 1/4 light hits door frame,or is too tight, then adjust the angle of this frae inside the door
can move in /oot/up / doon a bit.

bonnet line can be improved upon by altering the top cones, but softer ones will distort badly.
so will no hold shape if bonnet is..stretched wider.. using the cones.
stretch,n the bonnet will get it sitting flatter in middle, and also get the door to bonnet line better.
altering the packers behint the catch on scuttle will move bonnet lower sides  in /oot, too. but will no effect the top v much ato

failing all this, then there is still the use of fillers to get the rear arch, front sill to match up,
and maybe also on the door too.

to get things spot on is alott of hard work in my findings

M

[don cook1]

When I was working at Fords...on the line in the body-shop we made final adjustments to doors/tailgates/bonnets with a very large rubber hammer!

[daedalusminos]

If it's not poor restoration work then door twist is most likely. The skins I've encountered are only folded from waist down so not much torsional strength - not sure why from factory they didn't add a couple more tack welds along the bottom.

[Felix]

Thanks for the replies. I believe the doors are not the originals, and were added during the last major bit of restoration four years ago.
I don't know if the sills were changed at that time.

The car looks great from the passenger side, but the driver's side looks better when the door is open!
I'll probably get used to it and live with it. (I've only had it since April).

Felix

[junkuser]

Visited the assembly line for Morris Minors in Sydney and was impressed by the big blokes whose job it was to twist the doors, once on the car, to get the correct close.
Just grabbed the doors and twisted them!
Don't know if it was the doors or the bodies that varied in shape, just surprised me that either varied in a mass produced car.

[byakk0]

This will make you laugh then.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBsPFI--muo

[junkuser]

So pretty easy to get a Herald to look OK byakk0.
And people wonder why replacement panels or ones from donor cars don't look quite right.
Thanks for putting it up,
                                    Mal.

[Phwoar]

junkuser wrote:

..... the big blokes whose job it was to twist the doors, once on the car, to get the correct close.
Just grabbed the doors and twisted them!

Had a mate who was a panel beater, he used the same method. I almost fell over the first time I saw him grab a door and reef on it.

Cheers, J.

[Felix]

Here's a pic of my GT6 Mk2 on the passenger side, just to complete the post, now that I'm getting the hang of resizing and sending images to the forum.
Nothing to worry about on this side, if you half close your eyes!

[garyf]

I reckon that is better than it came out of the Canley Factory!!

I was told by Dave Gleed, a guy who used to work at the Canley factory that they had a Wooden Buck the shape of the door for the Herald/Vitesse range.

This was so that when the front & rear scuttles where bolted onto the Chassis they could make sure the gap for the Door was correct ??)

I bet you don't get that in the Toyota Factory at Burnaston ;D ;D ;D