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door gap

2755 Views 5 Replies 4 Participants Last post by  vette82forme
I had a post here about my door gap but it was closed so I couldn’t add to it. To refresh your memory, the gap on both doors is off. The front top of the door is wide and the rear lower in narrower. A body shop that I went to get a price on re-painting told me they have to take the whole front end off to fix it. Well, I went to a corvette only shop near me. They told me that the car was probably in a front end accident and might have frame damage. He said the fix is easy and there’s on need to take the front end off. Any one ever hear of this.
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I remember your post. I believe I said at the time,that the shop was nuts, the front end needs not be removed at all to correct door gaps , and if thats what they want to do,they don t know what they are doing, go somewhere else.....let this shop fix it ..it is not difficult to make the door align properly ..
When I was restoring my '68 I found it was real easy to adjust the doors by adding or removing the shims behind the hinges. Then it really helps to have a stack of timbers or (???) to rest the door on while making little adjustments.

I'm in the process of repainting my '71 and I noticed the front gap (door to fender) on the left side wasn't consistent so I removed about 1/16" from the rear of the fender in a place about 5" long. Now the gap is exactly the same from top to bottom.
the vette shop the problem was with the frame and not the doors. the car was in an accident. when i changed the window motor the inside of the door was cracked and re-glassed on the outside. and when i removed the seats to do the interior i found broken glass under both seat.
the only way to know if the frame is bent, is either to see visible damage to the frame rail on that side or take precise measurements on the frame itself ... and if you can see where your door was cracked and repaired , its probably out of alignment too..did you mention to the shop that the door has been previously damaged and repaired? you can still adjust door hinge and stryker pin to correct the gaps ...it is not difficult to do, and takes only a few minutes..or ask the shop top do it..
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