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Can anybody tell me what I need to do to fix this

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Randy Harris

Randy Harris

Jedi Warrior
Offline
My car ('66 BJ8) came back from the restoration shop a couple years ago with the driver's side wing window leaning inboard of the windshield frame. It's flush at the base and then leans in at the top about 3/8"-1/2". I have an illustrated pic of the problem that you can see at
https://www.cooperguitars.com From the home page just click on the BJ8 link and scroll down to the last thumbnail photo of the car with my wife and grandaughter in it.
How can I fix this? Also, the front edge of the driver's door sits inboard of the front fender by about 1/8". Enough to be noticable to the eye. It's perfect on the trailing edge. I'd appreciate any fix suggestions on this as well.
Although the extensive body and paint work was "lifetime" guaranteed by the shop, my experience with this Stockton, Calif.- based body shop was so negative that I'd never let them touch my car again.
Anyone help me?
Thanks in advance
Randy '66 BJ8
 
Re: Can anybody tell me what I need to do to fix t

Randy,

You have my sympathy. It is a little late & risky to painted surfaces to try to correct the problem after the fact. The door to body alignment can be adjusted by various combinations of moving & bending hinges & twisting the door to fit. The window pillar top can be moved out by adjusting it's lower inside the door anchor point inboard with shims & or bending. The glass must not be put in a bind during the fitting & should be removed first.

The whole process can be handled by an experienced body man, if you can find such a person. I have spent literally hours getting a door aligned & found that an "expert" can often do it much quicker. It is an interesting process & I have observed bodymen inserting wood blocks into joints at selected places & applying closing pressure to the door to bend the hinges. Kind of scary to watch. Have you asked the original shop to correct the problem? I hope someone else has an easier solution.
D
 
Randy,

It's possible that your window frame is bent but I would take off the interior door panel and look at where the frame attaches to the door. Perhaps you have loose, bent or missing hardware allowing it to angle in.

The front edge of the drivers door is adjusted two ways (actually three ways because the fender may not be mounting properly). Assuming the fender is mounted properly, the easiest adjustment is to open the door and loosen the top 4 hinge screws that attach the hinge to the door pillar (you will need a large posidrive screw driver ..#4 size). Watch to see if the hinge moves a bit when loosening or apply gentle pressure to the top of the door to get it to move. Retighten and check the result.

If moving the top hinge outboard does not fix the problem then you need to remove the whole door and adjust the top hinge where it attaches to the door. First mark your hinges so that you can see how far you are moving them.
By moving the door side hinge inboard you effectively move the door out. Adjusting the hinges on the doorside is tough because some of the bolts are hard to get to and you need to put everything back on to see how well the adjustment worked and that takes time. When I set up my doors for gaps I only used two screws and 2 bolts for each hinge (diagonal pattern) until everything was right, then marked the hinges and installed the rest of the bolts/screws on reassembly.

Cheers,
John
 
[ QUOTE ]
Is the place mentioned a body shop exclusively or a repair shop that sends the paint and body work out?

[/ QUOTE ]

The body shop that messed me up was recomended to me (and supposedly overseen) by a high profile repair/restoration shop that I feel must remain nameless.
In my case, both businesses were so completely incompetent and disrespectful of my car (and me) that I would never use or recommend either again. Enough said.
Further details can be had offline.
Randy
 
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