I have been doing body & paint for many years & one of my pet peeves is body panel alignment. Making sure all the gaps are really nice. I am working on a 67 barracuda for a guy & i am in the middle of lining up the left door & fender. I have all the gaps nice except for where the door meets the cowl. The gap is about 3/8 to 7/16 wide. Now normally i would loosen the upper door hing where it bolts to the door & push it in. It will not go in any more. There is no more adjustment. Now i know you have to watch because when doing that the bottom corner at the quarter will move out. Any ways has anyone come across this problem ?
DOOR ALIGN ISSUE
- Thread starter cawley
- Start date
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A Bodies have horrible fitment.
You may never get it to fit any better.
You could always add material in the area.
You may never get it to fit any better.
You could always add material in the area.
Sometimes the hinges are bent or has been hyper-extended and you will never align without changing them...I'm dealing with a 71 demon now ..after 2nd door swap on driver side ..gap where door shuts was almost an inch wide...hinges were bent forward...bent up door and fender..had to replace
Think that is just the way they fit in that area on the A bodies. See if you can find some pictures of other A bodies in that area, they are all the same there.
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Kendog 170
Let the boy go !
My 68 Dart convertible has the same issue. My 68 Hardtop did not.
Kendog 170
Let the boy go !
Ohh, rebuilt hinges and tried different hinge. No help. Rear wheels are off about 1/4" side to side in back too. Must have been built on a Monday .
Super-Cuda
MOPAR .. Move Over, Plymouth Approaching Rapidly!
I watched exactly this repair/adjustment done on one of the Resto shows, I think it was Overhaulin. They used 1/8" round steel ready-rod, welded it to the section that needed closing up and then ground it to proper shape. Looked factory when finished. It is TV though so was probably harder than it looked to accomplish!
Kendog 170
Let the boy go !
I can't remember as I tried a few things but I think I filed more adjustment on the cowl side.
You can grind the upper hinge a bit thinner where it contacts the door frame... or weld and grind the edge of the door to make it fit how you want. These things were horrible from the factory and sometimes you just need to grab the welder and make it how you want it.
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Kendog 170
Let the boy go !
Here.
cudamark
Well-Known Member
Add metal to the door to fill the gap if all the other gaps are good. I just had the opposite problem with one of my doors. The front of the door was too close to the fender and the fender was all the way forward and the rear door gap was perfect. Had to cut and weld the front edge of the door to get enough paint clearance.
Super-Cuda
MOPAR .. Move Over, Plymouth Approaching Rapidly!
Another procedure I saw for fixing this is to slice the section of the panel, stretch it out and then re weld the slices, grind and refinish.
I would do some work on that cowl edge too. It is not straight and has an area that is making that gap worse. It is pretty close to where the lead usually is in that seam. Did you remove the lead and replace with plastic filler?
the was already done when i got it to do for this guy he just wanted me fix a few dents block sand it to make sure its straight and install and align panels
i have been doing body and paint for some time and i never seen one this bad
Kendog 170
Let the boy go !
Now that I see your pic I realize I'm wrong on advice. I thought you couldn't get the door anymore forward not in. You may need to weld a bead on the edge of the door and Fender and smooth grind to fit. And as suggested add some filler on the cowl where it's bowed in.
I'm going to get mine as close as I can, and blame any bad spots on the factory. Adds to it's originality.
Super-Cuda
MOPAR .. Move Over, Plymouth Approaching Rapidly!
Hey Cawley,
I'm looking at this picture and I'm wondering if the fender was pushed back into the door buckling it. Maybe that's why its showing such a gap. Look at the shading on the top of the door. It looks like it was repaired before. If the door edge was closer to the cowl, the rest of the gaps would be fine. Is this an original door and fender for this car?
Dartswinger70
Well-Known Member
I have a similar issue on my 70 dart. i thought "maybe if I move the right side "over" a little I can cheat it out..." yeah, no... the fenders are lined up to the cowl correctly but the drivers door gap is a little more than the passengers at the cowl. I cant figure it... I will say that ,my car took a shot in the LF corner, pushing the hood and fender back at one point. I had a dent in the cowl that I had to repair etc.
I want mine to look as good as possible, but I don't have Mark Worman's tools or staff. I took pictures of mine before the garage incident, and the factory gaps were not that good. Uneven, and some height differences. I'll get it as good as my parts and skill allow. and not apologize to anyone. If my wife likes it, good enough.
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