Broke my 7UP Pop Machine today....

[BB BELLA]

Not sure what part of the door you're saying would be hidden by trim...there's no trim on the doors.

I was thinking the pillar trim covers the top forward corner of the door where it curves down to cowl. if you think the metal is same gauge that's what I was wondering, just thinking maybe the aftermarket tooling might not be capable of stamping as heavy gauge!

 

[Hemirunner]

Wow, that sucks! Sorry to see this happen.

 

[dadsbee]

Not sure what part of the door you're saying would be hidden by trim...there's no trim on the doors.

I was thinking the pillar trim covers the top forward corner of the door where it curves down to cowl. if you think the metal is same gauge that's what I was wondering, just thinking maybe the aftermarket tooling might not be capable of stamping as heavy gauge!

If I ever make it to the shop like I'd planned today I'll weigh it and put the vernier on it somewhere to check. So far I've been sucked in to going to pick up used kids play centers and then a funeral this afternoon. Now it's snowing hard.. might get lost in the blizzard walking to the shop!

 

[dadsbee]

Lock pull hole on original door.

Lock pull hole on reproduction hole. Will have to see how the chrome bezel and window sweeps sit to determine if it needs to be moved inboard and then welded up a tad.

Original door skins of course spot welded to the interior shell. Nice wide overlap flange.

Reproduction door skins MIG'd in place. Will need to be dressed/cleaned up before paint.

Side by each for a full comparison. Then I have to test fit every original door piece before I deliver the car and door to Body by Biggs.

Upper hinge bolt hole is missing on the new door shell and it appears the one that they did punch is too close to the outside of the door. Threaded "bolt" plate that is behind said holes seems to be in the correct place... so it should all work out.

Pattern off the door at the A pillar and windshield cowling area.

Damn close on the reproduction.

Need to dolly the area up a bit where the window frame slides in, as it needs to be straight and that'll bring the "detent" up into place.

Original is nice and straight.

Reproduction dips down... SHOULD be an easy adjustment.

 

[HawkRod]

Lock pull hole on original door.
View attachment 1372817
Lock pull hole on reproduction hole. Will have to see how the chrome bezel and window sweeps sit to determine if it needs to be moved inboard and then welded up a tad.
View attachment 1372818
Original door skins of course spot welded to the interior shell. Nice wide overlap flange.
View attachment 1372819
Reproduction door skins MIG'd in place. Will need to be dressed/cleaned up before paint.
View attachment 1372820
Side by each for a full comparison. Then I have to test fit every original door piece before I deliver the car and door to Body by Biggs.

Upper hinge bolt hole is missing on the new door shell and it appears the one that they did punch is too close to the outside of the door. Threaded "bolt" plate that is behind said holes seems to be in the correct place... so it should all work out.
View attachment 1372822
Pattern off the door at the A pillar and windshield cowling area.
View attachment 1372823
Damn close on the reproduction.
View attachment 1372824
Need to dolly the area up a bit where the window frame slides in, as it needs to be straight and that'll bring the "detent" up into place.
View attachment 1372825
Original is nice and straight.
View attachment 1372826
Reproduction dips down... SHOULD be an easy adjustment.
View attachment 1372827

It's nice that you have the original door to compare the two. I feel bad for folks who don't have an original and potentially discover many of these errors later on.

It is wonderful that we even have this reproduction sheet metal, but it still goes to show that there is nothing like the original material.

 

[Hey-O]

It's nice that you have the original door to compare the two. I feel bad for folks who don't have an original and potentially discover many of these errors later on.

It is wonderful that we even have this reproduction sheet metal, but it still goes to show that there is nothing like the original material.

I have built a few cars, but I have seen more metal pieces of cars than most on this earth ever hope to. I have seen hundreds of doors, fenders with antenna holes off location to know that is flat out a mistake in production that someone just let go. We have shipped thousands of door, fenders, you name it, back to vendors or scrap them and back charge. That's just crap quality control and wrong. Like the hinge location, it's not brain surgery, it's quality control and if you don't like it, try to buy it somewhere else type of thinking. Not fair and sad!!

 

[dadsbee]

Cleaning up and radius'ng corners.

A tad closer to factory shape.

Test fit of the vent window A pillar attach bracket.

Test fit of the vent window A pillar attach bracket.

$32 for these POS reproduction ferrules. Pressed flat, not domed like the original on the pencil.

Making sure all the notches are in the correct place for the window sweeps.

Window sweep in place and ferrule loosely in the lock pull hole. It'd work, but I can make it a tad better I think.

Rear glass track test fit into place.

Unibit to hog the lock pull hole a tad inward on the door panel.

Now I can get the ferrule centered. That'll look fine once it all goes together and no need for any welding. Need to find an OE ferrule though, as these repros are junk.

 

[dadsbee]

Weird but the only mirror hole they put in the door exterior skin was for the remote control. I have to drill for the mirror mounting stud and screw

Control head actually fits through.

Interior has the hole for the allen screw access for the vent frame. Needs the hole for the mirror remote knob

Need to take a pattern off this for the mirror mount and transfer it to the new door.

New door with hole for mirror remote only

Hours of measuring, and comparing. No wonder it says "test fit everything before paint, painted items cannot be returned" on the box!

OE door height 23&15/32nds

Reproduction door 23&21/32nds. 3/16 taller than the OE. Probably meets original factory tolerances!

It'll fit, now I have to figure out hinge placement to make that a 100% true statement.

Door card and stainless trim test fit.

 

[dadsbee]

On the OE door the top hinge slots inner ends line up perfectly with the lower hinges outer edge of the slot.

You can see the misalignment of inner parts and punched holes, and the missing upper hinge slot all together.

Hinge hole slots marked for correction and existence!

Hopefully I've got adjustment needs covered.

Doors top edge to windshield cowl profile tweaked to the pattern I made yesterday.

New hinges test fit.

OE hinges coming off and new ones going onto the A pillar so they're ready for George to test fit the door for body and paint.

2 bolts inside and one outside on top and bottom hinges. Kick panel removed previously to access.

Both new hinges in place and lightly snugged.

Next up, test fitting the door latch.

 

[dadsbee]

Screws didn't line up on the new door, so it's pattern time again.

New door is close, just needs a lick off the opening beside the 1/2 circle/slot.

Fit check on the door key lock tumbler.

Amazing... something else fits! LOL

 

[1 Wild R/T]

Check the position of the lower body line from the fender to the door & the door to the quarter...

 

[Photon440]

Inner shell was obviously spot welded together, I wonder why they chose to mig weld the outer skin on?

 

[4406bbl]

Weird but the only mirror hole they put in the door exterior skin was for the remote control. I have to drill for the mirror mounting stud and screw
View attachment 1373363
Control head actually fits through.
View attachment 1373364
Interior has the hole for the allen screw access for the vent frame. Needs the hole for the mirror remote knob
View attachment 1373365
Need to take a pattern off this for the mirror mount and transfer it to the new door.
View attachment 1373366
New door with hole for mirror remote only
View attachment 1373367
Hours of measuring, and comparing. No wonder it says "test fit everything before paint, painted items cannot be returned" on the box!
View attachment 1373368
OE door height 23&15/32nds
View attachment 1373369
Reproduction door 23&21/32nds. 3/16 taller than the OE. Probably meets original factory tolerances!
View attachment 1373370
It'll fit, now I have to figure out hinge placement to make that a 100% true statement.
View attachment 1373372
Door card and stainless trim test fit.
View attachment 1373374

That extra height should fix the big door to rocker gap these cars have. If it is too tight you have to grind the door bottom until it fits...then weld it up, not my favorite fix but about the only way. Sometimes you have to do the front and back of the door too.

 

[BB BELLA]

I'm sure George is happy your addressing all these little issues and not passing it off to him to make it right! Your patience and diligence will make this thread a valuble resource for anyone trying to fit a repop!

 

[Richard Cranium]

Nearly all repro parts are never 100% correct.

 

[Hey-O]

Nearly all repro parts are never 100% correct.

New cars in the 60's where never right, there was no such thing as perfect. There was no need to worry about quality, people bought them anyway. Water leaks, wind noise and carburetor adjustments were a problem. Lead was a big deal and the guys doing it got 20 cents a hour more for a job that kept them busy. Bondo was corporately band from being in the building by the mid 80's because they couldn't be trusted not to use it. Door fitters got 20 cents an hour more also, to beat and hang on the door to make it fit. The first thing to be beat on was the door striker post. On a post car a guy would put a knee in the middle of the door and pull on the window frame one way or the other to close or open the gap at the roof, a huge wind noise area. I know for a fact, that a few early to mid 70's van coming out of Fenton had bondo on the insides on the wheel wells from calves stomping on them while they were being transported by a guy that would take an overnighter home to move calves and hay. A 16-count indictment at one point charged that some of the cars were damaged in accidents, but were given only cosmetic repairs - ignoring such problems as a bent frame, which might not be readily detected by buyers -and then sold as undamaged new cars. Chrysler countered that all damaged cars had been ''fully repaired.''

Chrysler was indicted on charges of fraud for disconnecting the odometers on at least 60,000 cars used by its executives and then selling the cars as new, without the accumulated miles showing. My boss was the poor bastard that was the first to be busted for this in 1987. He was always taking home a fifth Avenue as an overnighter and was busted the next morning coming to work for speeding, when asked if he knew how fast he was traveling, here we go folks, the magic sentence that started the whole thing, no officer, we don't connect them till they leave the plant!!! We cleaned up our act, no we didn't, we hooked up the clusters, we just replaced the whole cluster before shipping. Chrysler defended the odometer practice as a ''legitimate quality assurance program'' in which cars, selected at random, are driven by employees to test for defects. I used vans from the plant all the time to go on vacations, from one end of this country to the other all the time. To be honest, the long haulers were crushed. Have you ever driven a new van and when you're done you got to crush it, I have and you have no idea how much fun it is to drop a new van from 17 feet in the air off a fork truck or running the forks through the front taking everything under the hood out of the game. Talk about a good time, oh well as they say, and the rest is history. The stories are endless and I could write a book.

So while you are hanging that door, you have to remember that these cars were meant to be disposable, we made them live on.

 

[Islandkent]

Lots of work Wayne. But you will make her one again. Thanks for the updates.

 

[dadsbee]

Ground out the latch pocket a tad.

Fits perfect now. I just hope it's in the right location in general.

Cleaned this ugly up a bit and then remembered that area has a seal.

Seal covers it nicely.

Gave more thought to the windows rear channel/track fitment. Thought I'd better look at how it fit the OE door. Nice clear path for the window to slide in and out.

Put the track back in the reproduction door... glass ain't gonna go in there!

OE track mount slot location. (Original White car showing itself..)

Reproduction slot is over a 1/4" lower in the pocket.

No choice but to hog it out and will probably need to weld in the production slots lower edge some.

Now the glass can actually go in and out.

 

[dadsbee]

Doesn't look too bad with the bolt in and the track blocking the gaping hole.

Took a profile off the reproduction door to check body line. Spot on to the OE door.

Locating the remote mirror control head hole for drilling. 2.5" over from the Allen key hole and centered on the flat face

3/4" Unibit to the rescue.

I set the door up in place and took a shot to show how nice the profile matches the fender. Hard to hold and take a picture, but I didn't scratch anything... lol

Rear of door to quarter panel is a perfect match. Thank God something is correct...

Door handle and lock tumbler test fit.

Pattern off the OE door for the mirror mounting stud and screw.

Transfer to new door.

Holes drilled and mirror was put in place to check I got it right.

 

[dadsbee]

Time to trial fit the vent frame and door glass.

Almost forgot the lower track "foot" post from the old door.

Track foot post out of the OE door.

Where it goes.

Allen keyed socket head screw and it's attachment block.

Drops in here to hold the vent frame.

Vent frame and door glass going in as an assembly.

Top bolt hole punched too high up the door. Can't get a socket on the forkin bolt.

Another grind to fit, making sure I leave enough for the cover plug to hide it.

Perfect.