Door gap clearance issue SOLVED! I am disappointed in the why.

well in the pursuit of perfection on the Mocking Bird I just found something I just don't like it's this top corner of that door where it meets the fender I just the clearance is an issue and trying to repair I've been doing some brainstorm and some thinking he has some smoke come out but I got it figured out I believe and I'm going to show you why where when and how in case you're running into a problem like this and how we're going to go about fixing it first off let me show you what the problem is now that door Gap is just absolutely beautiful I love it everything's dialing in great minus this corner here this corner here actually is so close to that Fender when I open it watch this thing here I mean I you you barely have enough to put paint on it that's just not going to work uh you know as you start working on this car something bumps around something shifts you're going to destroy the paint in the front corner so I'm trying to figure out what I've done wrong I've built several of these cars but I've never had this issue before cuz let me show you a little something watching this door opens first that corner actually tucks underneath the fender H that seems kind of odd cuz say you know why man let me show you a little something something here on this car right here now this car here same Corner we agree I'll open the door and watch what never happens it never goes underneath the fender so something's wrong well that's the question now here's what has to be going on that's an original 1969 door original 1969 Fender and those are original 1969 hinges that were rebuilt by me now on this car repop door and replacement hinges original Fender so my theory or what I think is going on is we aren't pivoting on the same plane I had to bring these doors out quite a bit to match the fender to get my hood Gap where I wanted it but the problem was that I thought about it let's see if I can draw you a picture to figure out a little something something for you here but let's call the pivot for this hinge illustrate here this is that Leading Edge of the fender I'm going to help hopefully visualize what's going on now if we the door is say right here this is our door and this is where it's bolted at so it pivots on this radius here so door all the way in we kind of this is our swing radius right well I had to adjust this door way the heck out well now we're further from our pivot point or our center of the circle and guess what's going to happen we're still going to follow the same Arc but you see what's happening now so as my door is swinging it has to go under the fender to clear because I've had to adjust this door out so far crap so what do I do have some ugly gaps or what do I need to do I push the door back in I'm not going to be on the same plane well that drives me completely nuts so the best the theory or solution I have let's see here's a clue right here well what we need to do then is since I can't move the door back in to match the fender my straight line here I need to bring my Pivot Point out then we can adjust adjust the door back in to match the fender so you guessed it I'm going to put some shims in behind that hinge to bring my Pivot Point out and see if we can bring our swing radius back into this position here so hopefully this works first step is though take the door back off all right door has been removed the other thing I've done now is I've traced out the exact outline of the hinge that way I can get it positioned in the exact same spot cuz literally all I want to do is bring this thing straight out to change my Pivot Point I don't I don't want to affect the height the door CU it'll mess up my Gap here in the back and across the bottom so next thing is going to be remove these four bolts then I'm going to put these little shims behind each bolt as an experiment make sure it's going to work and if it does maybe I'll come with a little more permanent but again I'm hoping this will be a solution it seems that gravity is working just fine today I put a little bit of something to make it sticky uh I kept trying to hook these on the bolts and of course gravity takes over and flips them out of the way so just needed like another helping hand to help keep these things in place so hopefully this will make it where I can get those in there more getter um I'm like I said just I kept trying to finish them in there and go and fall right back down especially as I was wiggling around trying to get the other ones in there so this is kind of a a temporary experiment and if this works then maybe I'll Trace out a template something that thick and cuts down the material that way I don't have to worry about just leaving his little shims in there but anyway nonetheless I'm going to put the bolts back in it here line up my marks and see how that goes all right now here's that looks like now I've got a space between the hinge and the a pillar post here like I said then it's going to make our Pivot Point further out um doesn't look too bad I'm not sure if I love those little shims as a permanent repair but we'll find out if that's going to work first next thing I'll go ahead and throw this door right back into place door be installed line back up back here line up across the bottom looking pretty good go ahead and pull the door open and we're halfway we're just now almost is going to go under the fender and here's all the way it just goes there but I have a whole lot more Gap so I'm not worried about paint anymore on this case so if I wanted to call it good I could but I'm still kind of wondering was it really the door or the hinges going forward in case I R this problem again um I probably will either if I do new hinges I might make some actual plates ready to go ahead install those in there before I go through all the headache have to take this door back off wrestle it back on but just wanted to share that with you it is a solution but really it's covering up a problem in manufacturing between either the door or the hint St you have a solve the problem is going to work I'm not going to have a problem with paint chipping off the Leading Edge of the door um I can't say that I love it I I kind of Wonder now maybe I should just rebuilt the original hinges in the past is what I've done but I had such great success on the 68 Great Pumpkin and Lou did on his car with those hinges that I follow thought I'd follow suit cuz they're relatively inexpensive so I guess technically you can still could be the door um or I guess maybe a combination of the both but either way this is going to work can't say that I love it but it's going to work now I'll probably show you some behind the scenes details the reason I share these things with you is it's worth putting the car all together I'm going to say that probably 20 or 30 more times I'm not really doing any body work yet I'm still just test fitting panels and operating them to understand any kind of potential issues I may have when this car is done cuz last thing I want to do is put this thing back on the road and all the paint's chipping off the edges cuz I didn't check clearances or set gaps or adjust body panels the best that I possibly could now granted this consumes lots of time I I it really hasn't changed a lot since you guys have seen it last but I have probably 10 to 15 hours and just adjusting tweaking bending shimming cuz Even This Hood I got the thing where I can shut it with my hand and it lines up front to back I got a video here on how I do the hinges on the previous bill so if you want to check it out how to get your hood to shut like that check it out here so but I'm going keep working on it I might throw the factory hinge back on just to see so I can tell you if it was the door or the hinge moving forward um that way we may we can avoid that weird shim situation but it's going to work um but nonetheless plenty more little tips and tricks I'm going to bring you way keep you motivated in your little two-car garage making things happen getting the best possible results not perfect but very high quality or very highend or looks like it was done at a professional shop these little details are going to help help you get to that point so nonetheless thank you for watching thank you for subscribing sharing with your friends and continuously building this project Mocking Bird thanks for joining us and we'll see you guys next time yeah for those of you folks that stick around after the movie's over to watch your credits to find the cool little Easter eggs at the end well those who stuck around this time you're going to be happy you did I have something I want to show you there be the reproduction hinge and here be the original hinge back on the door you see something here I have a mile and a half Gap now between the two of them so I'm going to say the problem is the hinge so going forward these work great for 68 not much so much for 69

Channel: VVG Restoration Station

Views: 2,213

Keywords: Pontiac, TransAm, Transmaroado, Firebird, restored, restoration, diy, Camaro, Metal work, rust repair, 1969 Firebird Restoration, 1968 Firebird Restoration, 1967 Firebird Restoration

Id: GR98BkP7CU0

Length: 8min 10sec (490 seconds)

Published: Wed May 29 2024