The Camaro Club (UK)

I am just trying to get my doors aligned after fitting new pins to the hinges. I dont have a good benchmark for how well the doors should fit as the doors were a mile off when I got the car, and they have been badly repaired along the bottom edge in the past so the door to rocker/sill gap is all over the place anyway.

And marking the hinges before I took them off made no difference as they were so far out and had been shimmed to compensate for a saggy door.

At the moment I have the door sitting fairly flush with the body in all places. And the crease lines up at the rear quarter, but is about 3/16" low to the front wing although the top of the door is level with the top of the wing. But I cant really move it any further up at the front edge as then the door would hit the wing when it was opened.

The gap is also pretty tight to the quarter, less than 3/16" but pretty wide at the wing. Again cant get it much closer without the door hitting the wing when its opened.

But then I don't know what it was like from the factory so I might be chasing it and it never was that great. Plus the door isn't the straightest in the world. So it might be a case of getting it close enough then finally sorting it when I do the bodywork next year.

Anyone have any photos showing how the doors should fit once aligned properly? Or any idea of how good the factory fit was?

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My '80 progress thread - hugger orange! Now with LQ9 power - forged pistons, LS2 rods, 236/242, .621/.612, flowed and milled 317 heads. MS3X

4L80e, 12 bolt, 4.11, Moroso brute strength posi, steel shafts.

Subframe connectors, g-braces, solid body bushes, carbon hood and front bumper, custom door cards, Autometer gauges.

The whole front end adjusts around quite alot due the subframe, inner wing/outer wing design. Never seen it done myself but I've heard of people fitting the doors without the front panel on and then adding wings, front end etc..

(I'm pretty sure this is how they re-fitted mine when it was re-sprayed 6 years back... )

Someone else more 'body shop' experienced should know..

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“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”

Thanks

This is as good as I can get it before I strip the paint and sort the sheet metal out...closer than it was before I did the hinge anyway.



The main crease lines up, the lower one is all over the place, but thats bad repairs in the past. Even gap at the rear quarter the gap at the wing is wider, but I dont think it could get much closer as the door is only clear by approx 1mm when its opened.

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My '80 progress thread - hugger orange! Now with LQ9 power - forged pistons, LS2 rods, 236/242, .621/.612, flowed and milled 317 heads. MS3X

4L80e, 12 bolt, 4.11, Moroso brute strength posi, steel shafts.

Subframe connectors, g-braces, solid body bushes, carbon hood and front bumper, custom door cards, Autometer gauges.

Assuming that the rear 1/4 panel is factory original, you have to line the door up to that first as it's the only real datum point you can work from as it's fixed & doesn't adjust. Looking at the pics, the bottom of your door has had some serious filler work in it & may have had some re-skinning done at some point in its life, so you can't use that as reference to the sill.

Soooo, align the door gaps to the 1/4 & make sure that the swage in the centre of the door lines up with it too. You then work forward from that point. The gap to the wing doesn't look too far out in the pics, if anything the top edge of the wing at the base of the pillar looks wrong. As has been said by Stu, the whole front sheet metal work is adjustable by using shims if needs be.

Is it possible to gently pry the top of the wing upawards just to get the gap correct at that point?? if it's had aftermarket panels fitted, they'll never align properly without some serious attention. It has been known to weld strips of metal/rod to the edges of repro parts just to get them to gap up properly. Take a look at the build thread on my '69 in the projects section & you'll see some of the difficulties I encountered trying to align my wings

Don't just assume that the front sheet metal is in the right place, work forward from the 1/4's & take nothing for granted hth

cheers...Nige

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Too much power...not enough hands!!

Thanks Nige

I plan on having the front end sheet metal off at some point, which will let me line it up better I think.

The top to the wing to the door has about the same gap as the rest of the wing to door I think its just the angle of the photo making it look a bit odd..

I wish the door had been reskinned, its been attacked with lots of filler at some point, and badly at that. They are probably the worst part of the body but nothing a lot of time and patience wont straighten out.

When I do the doors I will be taking a twist knot wire brush in an angle grinder to the bottom edge to try and find out what someone has done to them and then start again. Unless I happen to find a set of good doors in the mean time of course which would save me a lot of bother!

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My '80 progress thread - hugger orange! Now with LQ9 power - forged pistons, LS2 rods, 236/242, .621/.612, flowed and milled 317 heads. MS3X

4L80e, 12 bolt, 4.11, Moroso brute strength posi, steel shafts.

Subframe connectors, g-braces, solid body bushes, carbon hood and front bumper, custom door cards, Autometer gauges.