Adjusting the doors

[soundcontrol]

I'm testfitting the quarters and the outer wheelhouse, everything seems to fit well, but now I need to adjust the door properly to get the quarter as good as possible. (I can not testfit the fenders and hood, have no room for that). I will get the trunkfloor and extensions in also, before I weld anything. The door is a bit high and the lower part needs to come in, I never worked on the doors before, what bolts do I use to adjust, the ones attached to the body or the door or both? Is it a one man job or do I need help? And what is a proper gap with no primer or paint on? I'm sure there is some good tricks here, any tips would be great.

[Cuda Cody]

Put 52 pounds of weight spread out in the bottom of the door shell if it's empty.  That will allow you to set the body line and gaps as if there was all the guts (glass, hardware, regulators) in the door.  You really need to have the fenders and hood on to adjust everything at once.  The door adjustment is done with the hinge bolts.  Best o have 2 people if you have a friend, but one person can do it.

[soundcontrol]

Put 52 pounds of weight spread out in the bottom of the door shell if it's empty.  That will allow you to set the body line and gaps as if there was all the guts (glass, hardware, regulators) in the door.  You really need to have the fenders and hood on to adjust everything at once.  The door adjustment is done with the hinge bolts.  Best o have 2 people if you have a friend, but one person can do it.

Thanks Cody, the doors are complete with everything in them. I can not put anything else on there though. No space for that. I have to adjust the rest to the doors later. But what bolts? All of them, door and body?

[RUNCHARGER]

The bolts into the doors adjust in and out, the bolts into the body adjust up and down. The best thing to do is replace the hinge pins and adjust the doors perfectly to the old quarters then change the quarters and set the quarters to the doors but that ship has sailed now. If you are doing it by yourself an engine hoist is great for holding up the back of the door.

[Cuda Cody]

   Push the vehicle outside on a nice day and or make space.  If you set the quarter panels and they are not right, you might end up with the door gaps looking great, but the fender and hood might not fit.  It really has to all be done at the same time.   

[soundcontrol]

I forgot to mention that this is not full quarters, its skins, and I cut out my old quarters leaving a about 1,5" edge on top and on the section towards the door, so I still have the old quarter location intact to adjust the doors to. The picture with the quarter on, is just placed on top of that now, have not cut those parts away yet.

[Cuda Cody]

That helps a lot.  You really want the doors in the correct spot for everything else to line up. 

[RUNCHARGER]

Oh that's great: Yes install new hinge pins in your door hinges and adjust them right now. I guess other opinions may vary but when just the skins were available, after doing a few sets I would leave the edge that you have there and butt weld the whole skin to it. It was a ton of butt welding but I liked keeping the crisp corners and factory spotwelds in the jamb.

[soundcontrol]

Oh that's great: Yes install new hinge pins in your door hinges and adjust them right now. I guess other opinions may vary but when just the skins were available, after doing a few sets I would leave the edge that you have there and butt weld the whole skin to it. It was a ton of butt welding but I liked keeping the crisp corners and factory spotwelds in the jamb.

That is a good idea, I noticed that the corners are a bit more rounded than I would like (Goodmark). Unfortunately those edges I have are not original, I had skins on before, welded just above the bodyline, and not well done, tons of bondo, and rusty edges on the inside, thats why I changed them again. Also, in the door jam, there is no visable edges, just bondo. I have the original quarter edges from the top down to about an inch above the bodyline. I guess I will have to sharpen those edges a bit, same with the bodyline at the rear end, a little bit to rounded. I gotta practice a bit before I try to sharpen that one.

[RUNCHARGER]

Sounds like you're on the right track!
Ha, ha: This was my original Hemi Cuda. I started grinding bondo out of the driver's side door jamb and it was about an inch thick. I had to jack the jam forward and line it all up. I have no idea how the door was latching. Some of these cars lead checkered pasts.

[rhamson]

  It is a total panel fit and just not the doors. I had to add more metal to the edges to make the 3/16" gap even all the way around.

[rhamson]

Overlaying the edges of the old panel may be a good thing as the door gaps were big for me and I had to add metal to the edge to make the 3/16" gap even. The whole panel system from doors to nose piece and hood have to be set at one time to make sure the gaps are all right.

[soundcontrol]

In the perfect world I would try everything on at once, like Cody suggested also, but that can't happen right now, for many reasons.
But the gaps were fine when I took it apart, and I have not done anything to the doors, and I figure if I adjust them now to the old quarter edges and the rocker, the fenders and hood will fit later.... I sure hope so.

[soundcontrol]

I got the driver side door adjusted pretty good, gap to the old quarter edge is perfect, one small thing, the lower part of the door towards the rocker, needs to move inwards a little bit more, maybe just 3mm (about 2/16) to be flush with the rocker, but I'm out of adjustment on the hinge, is as far in as it will go. The top part is perfect so I'm not sure how to deal with that...