59 VW Bug door alignment

[ebluvw]

Need some expert advice. I'm in the process of doing a ground up restoration on my 59 Bug. I've removed the body off the pan and installed new pans and working on the heater channels. I did brace the body before I removed it. The issue I'm having is the passenger door where it meets the front pillar is not straight (see photo). I first thought it was the hinge but after I replaced the hinge nothing changed. I have not secured the passenger A pillar as yet because I wanted to make sure the door is aligned before I tack the pillar to the heater channel. I think I can shim it and it would be fine, but my biggest concern is the door not fitting flush with rear panel.

[pierre2]

I don't have anything to add at this point.... but I am going to have the exact same issue looks like so will be following along intently...

[viiking]

Were the door gaps ok before you changed the heater channels?

Re the hinges. The hinges themselves are really strong but the reinforcement piece that holds the door to the hinge is just folded sheet metal. Sometimes the hinges are replaced but the reinforcement piece has been twisted out of shape due to rough handling like banging on hinge pins with a big hammer or hanging the door in a vice and banging away.
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1968 1500 RHD Lotus White Beetle since birth. In the hospital for major surgery
1966 Lancia Flavia Pininfarina Coupe - in the waiting room
Discharged: 1983 Vanagon, 1974 1800 Microbus,1968 Low Light,1968 Type 3

[vwoldbug]

I think I would check with the body and paint section . Also there is a good writeup on the Samba about body adjustments. Is the body still bolted to the chassis.

[ebluvw]

The door gap was the same when I bought it. Also, the heater channel is not attached to the A pillar yet.

[mukluk]

This might be of help to make sure the door opening is within spec: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=867962

It may be necessary to loosen the body to pan bolts then adjust the body via a spreader bar, jacking under chassis, or tightening/loosening the six body mount bolts to get the door opening size and shape where it needs to be. It's also quite possible you may need to shim the upper door hinge away from the A pillar a little bit to get the front gap even.

You may also find this helpful: https://web.archive.org/web/20160703035457/http://www.hotvws.com/content.php?contentID=73
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1960 Ragtop w/Semaphores "Inga"

[viiking]

After reading the HotVW's article re removing the rubber body pads.

Has anyone done this and does it make a difference to the ride without the rubber?
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1968 1500 RHD Lotus White Beetle since birth. In the hospital for major surgery
1966 Lancia Flavia Pininfarina Coupe - in the waiting room
Discharged: 1983 Vanagon, 1974 1800 Microbus,1968 Low Light,1968 Type 3

[mukluk]

^^That was one item in the article I personally didn't care much for. I would expect installing metal bushings in place of the rubber body mount pads would increase NVH some, and possibly in the long term increase the risk of cracking due to body and chassis flex.
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1960 Ragtop w/Semaphores "Inga"

[VWFIXER]

Too much too soon.

The smart way to do this, as the circumstances are as follows.

Get your door and surrounding pillars wedged with paint sticks and tacked with with a bridge that you will have to cut off and clean up later. The idea here is to get as much of the original metal in place and not moving. So you can attend to fitting and welding lower repair sections. You may have to be real attentive to support points holding body off the floor. I’d start from the upper hinge bolted and adjusted naturally. The door frame should be symmetrical with door on all four floor edges. Long panels are more forgiving than hard corners and body seams. Measure twice, cut and weld once. A good secure temp hold fixture is Philips self tapping screws.

The support points should mirror each other and on level concrete. An 1/8 of an inch of crud holding a corner higher than the rest can make the job much harder.

The new panels should have little oddities where they fit the old panels. Those are markers. Commonly assumed to be flaws. Good luck. Don’t run long beads you may have to grind off later. Just make good tacks and screw it together until you see it coming together. Save all the long welds for when in back together. Trust me.
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[far rider]

So I’m also struggling with door alignment. I checked out the Hot VW reference mentioned in this post. Particularly the 2 front body bolts that connect to the front beam. I loosened the pan bolts and removed the rubber pads but the body did not drop - it was as if the pads were still there. Can’t see how to tighten the body down given the bolt receptacle stands high and the hole depth is fixed. Basically I want to tighten the body down at those two points to see if helps door alignment. Only thing I can think of now is to make my own washers. Any tips would be appreciated. TIA
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67 zenith blue sunroof

Contentment; when what you have is what you want.

[EVfun]