tah Posted April 24, 2005 Share Posted April 24, 2005 I'm doing bodywork to my 72 240 and have a question. One of the PO's had a paint job which included a patch panel into the passenger quarter panel, meets the door opening - rear edge. After taking out the Bondo I discovered the reason for about 3/8" being filled. the body shop (I'm using this term very loosely) fit the patch poorly. The back edge was brazed into the existing metal about 1/4" higher then the existing metal. Then the front edge (which was low) was filled in to meet the door skin, also LOTS of filler. The question I have is getting the door aligned. The height is fine as it meets the body perfectly down to the waistline where the patch starts. Then the door begins to be higher than the body down to the rocker where the height difference is substantial (ok height at rocker but way high just before). I measured both sides of the car inside the door openings and found no discrepancies to account for this height difference. Thought for sure they had mounted the patch piece too shallow, but the measurements don't support that thought. I'm thinking that if I adjust the door to "make up" the height difference at the bottom, the alignment at the top 1/3 which is now fine will be thrown off. Anyone have input/experience with this issue? Could the door be "sprung"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillZ260 Posted April 25, 2005 Share Posted April 25, 2005 Just about all my alignment problems stemmed from the front of the doors starting to separate right where the window fram meets the door. The inner and outer skins were breaking appart from each other. I am guessing from years of pushing the closed with the window fram I know this may not help your situation but check this area for cracks, they are right where the spot welds hold the inner and outer pc together. All I had to do, with all the internals OUT, was bend the door back in place untill it lined up again, and re-weld the area taht was broke. The tops of my doors were sunken in compared to the body. You should be able to use this method for any small tweaks you need, I moved mine about 1/8 to 1/4". Hope that helped some... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnc Posted April 25, 2005 Share Posted April 25, 2005 What Bill said. 99% of the problems I've seen with doors is a structural problem with the door itself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillZ260 Posted April 26, 2005 Share Posted April 26, 2005 Thanks John! It's nice to know I get stuff right every once in a while Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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