Fixing my door alignment the right way

[keithnorm]

I replaced the heater channels on my 64 during a body off resto almost 20 years ago now. And, ever since then the driver side door has been badly misaligned to the point that I usually don't even fully close it because it requires slamming it so hard to do so. I'm thinking of trying to fix my mistakes of the past. What I'm thinking to do is to brace up the door frame with a threaded rod mechanism of some sort that would allow adjusting the frame once the heater channel is cut out and holding it in place while the new one is welded in. I want to do this mostly "body on", perhaps using the approach from the bugme video on heater channel replacement, where the body just gets jacked up off the chassis a few inches, enough to get the old heater channel out and the new one put in place.

So, that's my plan. Is this silly? I've tried all of the "simple" ways to fix the door alignment already. Any other tips or advice? My main hope is that, once I get the heater channel cut out, I will be able to align the door pillars to perfection. Is that realistic?

Thanks

[grandpa pete]

In one of the old build threads they used a triangle brace that used hinge screws in the front and the door lock plate screws for the back ; THEN they welded piece from the bottom hinge to the bottom of the b pillar with an adjuster in the middle of the threaded rod ......if your door is jamming on the bottom of the b pillar this might work for you .....or .....you could put the adjustable post where you needed it once you had the opening secured with the hinge / door lock triangle .
_________________
63 two fold rag
66 sedan delivery Type 6

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=569619&highlight=sedan+delivery

[anthracitedub]

Maybe you could build your door fixture from a known straight beetle body... That way you could be close when you decide to tackle the job.

[keithnorm]

Found some pics of what I was thinking of doing.

[keithnorm]

I guess my larger dilemma/question is, this car is otherwise nice, drivable, totally fine.. this door thing is just sort of a lingering nuisance and especially considering that it was my fault to begin with the idea of fixing it is nice. But, we're talking about pretty major surgery and lots of time and effort so I need to be pretty confident that it's worth it and that I have a good chance of actually fixing the problem. So I guess I'm looking for some "what would you do?" type of perspectives.

[keithnorm]

Also, the door rubs the top of the heater channel near the b pillar. That's the main issue. It's as if the door is saggy, but it's not caused by that. I've shimmed the lower hinge but that didn't help. The door line once it is closed widens towards the bottom, causing me to believe the pillars are slightly obtusely out of square near the bottom.

[anthracitedub]

I would fix it... Ill shutting doors suck. I would get Gersons heater channels, pull the body, support it and use check fixtures made from an undamaged body to realign the door openings before fully welding the channels.

[far rider]

I feel your pain as i have a similar problem with my doors not shutting as perfectly as they did before major surgery. I used the turn buckle system and found it to be not exactly fool proof. Like you Ive made some adjustments but theyre still not spot on. Admittedly I'm an amateur just having fun.
Since the car is otherwise fine and you've been happy with it all this time why not consider turning it over to a professional to fix the doors at this point? Might be worth further aggravation.
Just another thought. Good luck
_________________
67 zenith blue sunroof

Contentment; when what you have is what you want.

[keithnorm]

Yeah, that's a good point. Maybe I'll try to find a VW shop in the area that does bodywork and price it out before diving into it myself.

[57BLITZ]

[[email protected]]

There was a shop in the early 90's in Virginia, I think, called VW Restorations, and Customs. One of the magazines did a write up about how they did channels. They left the body on, and tack welded square tubing from the tunnel to the base of the front/rear door jambs. Then triangulated a section off of that to the upper part of the door jambs. They then welded another section connecting the lower front/rear tubes to bridge the door opening. This would require body paintwork, and the removal of the rear jamb portion of the headliner, but it was what worked best for me. This way the door can be left on, adjusted, and checked for fit before final welding. The article used a floor jack under the front jamb of the old channel to get the door close before welding in the bracing. You could elaborate on the bracing by adding the turnbuckles to adjust the body after the tubing was welded in. To me, you need the body on the pan, and the actual door you will be using on the body to get everything all lined up.

[fluxcap]

What other "simple" tricks have you tried? This hotvws article may have some tips if you haven't looked at it yet.

Like shimming under the front and rear body mounts. Not totally sure how that could tweak the door gap since the heater channels are welded to the A and B pillars, but apparently it can help somewhat.

http://www.hotvws.com/content.php?contentID=73
_________________
Eric - 1966 camper bus

"It's like, how much more black could this be, and the answer is none.......none more black."

[keithnorm]

Well, you guys got me, I haven't yet tried the body mount trick yet. I'll give it a go this weekend and report back. I'll also try to get some measurements of the door frame to figure out if it is actually out of whack or what, so thanks for calling me out on my assumptions there

[demon1018]

you can heat and tweak the hinge where it mounts on the car...would be very hard to even tell.