Panel Gaps

[Barry]

I'm pretty pleased with how my gaps have turned out….

[Jonny Hart]

Us later car folk can only dream....little finger ok, thumb bad.

[rft218]

Hi Guys,

Fantastic responses - thanks, it has given me much to think about!.

Keith I am near St Agnes - I have sent pm.

....so I know what I am trying to get to, but nowhere near yet, the comment on bum sag was a little worrying, but thankfully the a pillar / windscreen seems parallel to the window frames at the moment

The problem I have currently is with the bottom rear of the door and the outside panel alignment. With the door on, at the rear door top near the window frame the alignment on the outside of the panel is not bad, the window frame isnt too bad to the rear pop out, and the door is flush (ish) against the front wing.... but the bottom corner of the door and the B post / rear quarter are not even close. The door is in by probably 12mm in that bottom corner. As it is flush at the front it leads me to the conclusion that the door is twisted.

The rear quarter will probably sit in bit more into the seal grove but that might give me a few more mm I am probably still 10 mm out.

If it was a beetle the door would probably 'adjust' by hand but the 911 variety is a different affair!

What I could really do with is a measurement across the outside of the rear quarter around the bottom of the B pillar as close to where it meets the sill as possible. With this I would at least re-assure myself that it is the door at fault and not some nasty body issue!

I dont suppose anyone has a car in bits that has that measurement, I guess in an assembled car the seats will be in the way

Cheers,

Roger

[Darren65]

Hi Roger,

I have access to three cars at the moment from which I could take measurements, 2 of them have just been expertly restored on a Celette jig - if you'd like to PM me your number I'll give you a call and discuss exactly what you're looking for.

As there's so much flex in the body I would try and get your car a jig if at all possible, unless you're welding onto a straight true shell I would suspect gapping is going to be a real challenge.

Cheers,

[rft218]

An update on this. I finally managed a day in the garage today and got some progress. Thanks to all that have helped with dimensons etc.

Barry was indeed correct, after creating a jig for the car and checking all of the dimensions I concluded I was suffering from a bum drop.... about 8mm from what I could see. I made a frame up that has allowed me to 'adjust' the car and gaps are now looking very close to the desired state. I need to put all the wings on again and see where I am exactly but certainly close enough.

Darren thanks for the dimensions on the sills. This enabled me to work out that the door had a twist on it so that I was then brave enough to straighten that up.

I have had some 10mm plates plasma cut that fit onto the torsion housing that people might be interested in so I will put up the photos of the 'jig' for people to see when I get a chance.

[Bruce M]

Home made jig? Cool
Interested in pics of that.

[Barry]

Ditto

Thanks for the follow-up as well Roger, you'd be amazed how often it doesn't happen .

Very interested to see your solution .

[rft218]

OK here is my first attempt at pictures!, I hope you can see it. Ref the jig...

What I did was made 2 plates for each side both in 10mm steel. The first bolts into the torsion housing and with a piece of 80mm bar machined down it fits into the torsion tube on one side and through the plate on the other. The 80 bar has hole in it with a 32mm bar going through it and is threaded onto another piece on the inside of the torsion tube. This then goes through to where the torsion bar would normally locate. This give a very sturdy bar aligned with the middle of the torsion bar to allow me to rest long square section on it to get precise dimensions back to the engine mounts and to the front suspension points. This is when I realised that Barry had remotely diagnosed my issue spot on, bum drop. The engine mounts were about 8mm low to the dimensions they should be, the car did not have kidney bowls when I got it and was pretty weak around the jacking point so I guess this has happened over the years.

The learning point is check all the dimensions before you start. I checked the torsion bar to front suspension to check the car was straight before I started but didnt think that the rear behind the torsion bar would drop, and with such big consequencies

So.. to correct it I added another piece which fitted onto the 80mm bar which is the bit that looks like a key in the pictures with masking tape. This is then bolted to the post that goes to the floor. This can rotate on the 80mm bar. I could then jack the back and with some undoing of some of my middle sill welding could get it back into alignment. The adiditon of the kidney bowl seems to have stiffened it up some more and the next step is to get all the panels down the side on to allow me to tack the sill and re-attach the rear wing. Progress!

Hope the pictures are of interest - maybe a little heath robinson but it worked!

[rft218]

Those pictures clearly didnt work - I'll try again!

[Gary71]

Hi I think it maybe that the drop box account is secure as you have used the correct tags. I'm really interested to see the jig so if you email the pics to me I'll host them and post a link. internet at suggate dot co dot uk

[rft218]

Take 3!

[Gary71]

[rft218]

thanks Gary!

[Darren65]

Good to see you've solved your problem Roger

Looks like some very tidy work going on; would be great to see a few updates as you progress

Cheers,

[haasad]

Nice looking work, I love these type solutions arrived at by asking "could I do that"or "I'm not paying that"

andy