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Mon Aug 19, 2024 4:11 pm

I spent almost this whole past weekend adjusting, grinding hinges, shimming hinges and I am at a loss. I have the top and the front gaps perfect. The in and out is perfect. Body line is perfect. The door shuts with one finger but I can’t seem to fix this gap.

Its raised up as far as it can go. I ground the bottom hinge to bring the bottom forward and can get the gap pretty close but then the other gaps are off and the body lines don’t match up.

I’m thinking at this point I need to cut a relief cut behind the B pillar and tap the panel to increase the gap.

Before I do that I just want to make sure I’m not missing anything. I replaced the A pillar and as far as I can tell it’s dead nut. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Mon Aug 19, 2024 5:22 pm

Sitting on the saw horses doesn't help. It introduces all sorts of stresses that don't exist when it sits on the pan.

Can you set the body back on the pan, tighten up the bolts and recheck the alignment? By jacking up different parts of the body, you might find a solution.

I had the same issue when my body was on saw horses, even with significant body bracing. It wasn't until I put the chassis and body back that I got the door gaps better.

Potentially the A pillar replacement might have been an issue.

The problem with your method (IMO) is that whatever you do you may get the alignment right on the saw horses but then when you join the body with the pan that all those adjustments go out the window again especially when you tighten the body bolts. I would NOT cut anything yet until you exhaust all the other options.

Mon Aug 19, 2024 6:58 pm

I second that. When the body is bolted down to the pan, and the rubber shims are introduced (front and rear), that is when you want to look at door gap and consider making adjustments.

Mon Aug 19, 2024 7:31 pm

Ok that makes sense now that I think about it. Even though the body should be rigid there is still slop, so in other words I bolt down the body then shim at the front and rear body mounts to achieve the proper gaps correct ?

Mon Aug 19, 2024 8:29 pm

The body is not so rigid. It bends and twists a fair bit. When you tighten down the front and rear body bolts against the rubber pads there is a fair bit of flex.
You will be surprised at how much the door gap changes when you start tightening.

When tightening you have to do the door gaps simultaneously as any adjustment to one side inevitably affects the other side. This is particularly true if you tighten one side less than the other, which you may have to,
to get everything right.

Remember that most people don’t know the history of any accident damage that the car has suffered. The body could be twisted or shortened by previous accidents.

There’s a diagram of the dimensions for the door openings somewhere here in the SAMBA. I’ll try and find it. You need to have all these correct before you start grinding or shimming the door hinges.

The other thing to consider is that whilst the door hinges are extremely robust, the attachment point of the hinges in the door are quite weak as it is only thin sheet metal. VW actually had a recommended fix for doors which involved rolling up a towel and jamming it in the A pillar to actually bend the hinge attachments (not the hinge itself) to try to align the door.

Mon Aug 19, 2024 8:31 pm

Mon Aug 19, 2024 8:33 pm

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=549781&start=0

Have a read through this thread.

Wed Aug 21, 2024 1:52 pm

viiking wrote: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=549781&start=0

Have a read through this thread.

This has been very helpful, thanks so much