SRV8 door fitting

[pevans]

Just wondering for those with SRV8's and a good memory if anyone has any tips on door fitting and alignment. I am now getting my car ready for painting, so trying to do what prep I can rather than just have the doors just about fit in the holes !
I have a few points Im working on :
- What is a sensible gap to go for round the door and the surround ? 3-5mm Im guessing ?

- I am finding the alignment of the face of the door to the face of the body varies greatly. The challenge is where to be high and where to be low. Im assuming very little can be taken off the face of the door without going through the gel coat. Is is the norm for the paint shop to have to fill the face of the door to build it out to get alignment? e.g. the door curve at the top front of the door seems quite a way out from the curve of the body.

- Any tips on how you pre-align everything then take it all apart to paint it and then hope to get it all aligns back again ! The hinges sadly were not the strongest or most stable and adjustment is quite a pig of a job even without anything painted!

[Chris1]

When I did my SR the doors and the shuts were
not that fantastic but I did manage to get them
somewhere near and was able to get them to open
and latch shut.The door gaps were also reasonable.
Chang Lim at Thunder Road cars did the paint job so
he did do some extra work on building up the doors for a
good finish, this was over twenty years ago and I think
the paint job he done is still as good .
It will be a case of a fair bit of messing about to get it to
look right ,
I'm sorry I can't give you much advice, just time and patience.
Good luck.
Chris.

[pevans]

I have one door fitting much better now after about 6 hrs work ! Even the latch is smooth at the moment !
As you say Im thinking the door needs to sit flush or lower so it can be built up by the spay shop where it sits low to the body.
Im peoples experience how thick is the gel coat in terms of how much you can take it down, Im guessing very little ?

[pevans]

Oh and one more question. do you sand down the flashing around the inside rim of the doors where the outer skin meets the inner or is it best to leave a little and fill? I will try to post a picture.

[Bigblock]

I have one door fitting much better now after about 6 hrs work ! Even the latch is smooth at the moment !
As you say Im thinking the door needs to sit flush or lower so it can be built up by the spay shop where it sits low to the body.
Im peoples experience how thick is the gel coat in terms of how much you can take it down, Im guessing very little ?

A little tip from toooooo many years of doing this, will try and condense it into a few lines as explaining can take forever.

When fitting the doors try and let them sit a little proud if anything, build up the body to these. Most good body men, will know this anyway.
Reason being is that when making up the difference on the body you won’t notice too much a slightly wider door aperture return, whereas is if you excessively fill onto the door to make it up or drastically sand it down to level it onto the body it will look terrible when you open the door, especially on the trailing edge to B post. I have seen some where the body shop has sunk the door to suit and then filled it. Remember when you open the door you will see the trailing edge of the door instantly, last thing you want is a door edge going from 5mm to 15mm and back down again, try and get this edge as parallel as best.
Front edge of the door, A post isn't as important as when you open this door this edge will be facing the wing and will be more difficult to see, so you can get away with some discrepancy here.
Obviously with the trailing edge and to an extent the leading edge, and you shouldn’t have to tell the body shop bloke, but be prepared to for some abuse if you do, not to sand these too much, they are sitting proud for a reason.

Everybody is different and everybody will have its own problem, espc with these GRP kit cars.
Pay real attention to door gaps, pale colour cars will show up poor door gaps, dark colours you can get away with. I have been doing restos for the best part of 40 odd years, so any questions just ask, might save a bit of a problem further along.

Cheers

[pevans]

Thanks BigBlock, that all makes complete sense actually.
I currently have the back edge sitting a little proud where the latch is but the main mismatch on both doors is the curve at the top front of both doors as the curve is nothing like the curve of the body but I have the inner tip of the door sitting slightly high to the dash top if anything. Like you say building out the front edge isnt such a problem.
I have done a gauge to do the door gaps but want to settle on the door position first and your notes are a great help. Thanks

[Bigblock]

Thanks BigBlock, that all makes complete sense actually.
I currently have the back edge sitting a little proud where the latch is but the main mismatch on both doors is the curve at the top front of both doors as the curve is nothing like the curve of the body but I have the inner tip of the door sitting slightly high to the dash top if anything. Like you say building out the front edge isnt such a problem.
I have done a gauge to do the door gaps but want to settle on the door position first and your notes are a great help. Thanks

No probs, if it wasn't for the current situation I would pop down, any excuse to get out in the Cob for a run, I am only in Berks

[pevans]

Thanks, the lock down is pretty frustrating when you want to get to look at other cars or get other to look at what you are doing !
I have been working on the drivers door this evening and have a fun balance of high areas and low areas....and the odd spot where it manages to line up ! Hopefully a reasonable starting point for the body shop.