I have resently had my firebird repainted. I striped it all and left it into the bodyshop. The original doors were rotten so I got two good second hand ones. I have been putting it together slowly over the past few weeks. I went hanging the passenger door on Saturday and ran into serious trouble. I hung the door but it was getting caught on the fender and needed to be lifted at the back. I removed one of the mounting bolts on the bottom hinge and was able to raise the door. The door is now lined up perfectly with the rear fender but the problem now is where the door meets the front fender. There is a large gap between the top of the door and the fender and so little of a gap on the bottom that the door almost catches the fender when it is being opened. I tried to line the door up with the line the runs down the side of the car. Again it is perfect at the back but at the front it is crap.The line on the fender is over quater of an inch higher than on the door. I tried to adjust the fender but there isn't much to work with there. It is like the fender is too high. I have tried everything but I can't get it right. I am sure that if the lines on the side of the car are off then it's going to look crap. Has anyone out there had this problem?. Below is a pucture of the car all striped down

Any help greatly appreciated.
Gerry,

 

Each door hinge has three bolt hole to attach it to the body. One hole on each hinge is exactly the size of the bolt, as a result one the door is installed "IT CANNOT BE ADJUSTED". The factory had a special jig to determine the location of these small "INDEX HOLES". This is fine as long as the original doors are being reused. But when doner doors from another vehicle are being used they typically will not locate properly on the body. In this situation drill the "INDEX HOLES" oversized to 3/8", this will normally provide enough adjustment both fore and aft to correctly position the door.

The fenders are not usually adjustable vertically.

 

What I did was to remove the bolts from these index holes and tried to line up the door using the remain 4 "adjustable bolts. I can get it to line up perfect between the door and rear fender. The problem is with aligning the door with the front fender. I have tied everything I can think off and can't get it to look right. I can't understand it.

 

can't help you on the door, but NICE WHEELS. i have been looking for a set of those for a long time. way cool. wish i could trade my "bandit" style snowflakes for your "knight rider" style wheels. PM me if interested. EDIT: heres a good picture. i am missing one of the center caps, but it looks like you are missing all of yours

 

ANDYZ28
I was thinking about what you were saying after I posted my reply and something wasn't adding up so I did what you were saying and took off the door and drilled the index holes 3/8. When I put back on the door and with a lot of work I was able to get the door to line up. Before I was trying to line up the door just using the outer two "movable bolts" on each hinge but this wasn't working. When lined it up using the top index hole and one movable bolt on the bottom hinge. I was able to get it. Thanks for your help.

XOPHERTONY

Sorry rims not for sale. I have three of the bowling ball hub caps (safely stored away) and on the look out for one more. Even if I was selling, I live in Ireland so shipping to the US would be more the wheels are worth.

 

ha check out my sig i can help you out


gholian

By looking at your pic looks like you have 14x7 kr rims i have a set of 15"rims and caps and 14 and 15" bowling ball caps so email me and we can work something out thanks<<dave