I'm sure this has been asked over and over, but does anyone know of good instructions whether video or written on proper body alignment and door gap setting? I have completed my chassis and putting the body back on. This is an original steel body on a Socal type chassis. The roof and quarters have been replaced and it has a 4" chop. I'm attaching two pictures showing the left top front corner gap of the door, and the top rear of that same door. Tight in the front and a huge gap at the back. I know I will not be able to get clean gaps so once it is "as close as possible" I will likely need to have some metal added to tighten things up. Questions are, 1) Is there a good way to move the top leading edge of the door back? The door part of the hinge is riveted to the door so I can't shim it without drilling out the rivets and creating a new way to attach it. 2) Is there any good instructional material on proper shimming to align the body, or where would I need to add shims to improve the gaps in the attached pictures? I appreciate any help possible. Thank you!!
Mine were screwed in, which I thought was how it was originally done. so many variables. How did it fit prior to removal off the last chassis ? Is the chassis flat and square ? Is it recently chopped ? And done correctly ? etc, etc…. They can be a real pain to get right. Mine were a perfect fit, and when it got painted, instead of popping off the hinge pin, the painter took the hinges off. Took me a day on each door, (by myself), to get them back to almost perfect. Maybe, Stand further back when taking your photos, so we can see the whole door, as there may be more going on than what you are showing, and side angles. The theory that many subscribe to is to shim the body to get the door gaps correct ! And some have said the front hole in the firewall is for door adjustment. I will add, - adjustments on the hinges also.
Like mention above , door hing where screws, Originally there is only 2 adjustment for doors , One @ bottom of fire wall ""L""leg , The other @ rear last subrail bolt .. Gapes lines also will depend on when chopped ,if time was taken to get good lines ,,, If not, Modified adjustments will need to else where other then the 2 Stock body adjustments .
Strategic shims for the body The lower foot of the cowl. Tweeking the hinges. Ive had bodies out of square and used port-o-powers to align em. Jacked A posts foward. B posts over, stuck a knee in the door and twist em, straighten bent hinges, blocks of wood and hammers.
the bit with the hook in is the adjustment location as far as I can discern. Others with more knowledge will correct me if I have got it wrong .
First make sure ALL bolts are snugged down before adding shims. Including the cowl band at the firewall. Also should have your welting in there because that will affect the fit too. Does your car have an original firewall? Is a gasket on it under the cowl band? I think the beltline is more important than worrying about the gaps above the beltline. Can't cut the beltline to fix it, but you can add a bit of steel to the door edge to tighten a gap, or grind and weld to widen. A chopped top will really throw all the stock alignment out the window, especially above the beltline. I don't think I've ever seen a '32 5-window that was chopped that didn't need a lot of work to the front post gaps. Just the nature of the game. Gonna have to do some welding, after the beltline down is solidified.
A big thank you for all the replies to my question. In trying to answer I will say that I purchased this body and chassis already chopped from a H.A.M.B. member (m. ralph) in 2022, and he has a number of posts on this site. Sadly, Ralph passed away last year. He loved 32 Fords and I'm glad I got to know him even a little bit just over the phone. Several things; I did have to have the chassis straightened as it had about a 1/2" twist in it. All done right on laser table. I'm sure the chopping of the top has led to a lot of needed tweaks and additional welding etc. to get it right. I did get the passenger side to fit better yesterday by taking the top body hinge out and using a "big hammer" on it. I'll need to play with the body shims until I get it as close as possible then finish by adding material where needed. There was a lot of work to do to get the windshield fitting correctly as the "A" pillars needed a lot of mods after being shortened. Due to way they dropped the top the bottom of my windshield frame was about 5/8" wider than stock which required a new piece to be made to fit right. I'm just going to have to go through the same process to get my doors correct. I'm attaching pictures of both doors as suggested by "clem" in one of the responses. Also, it does have the stock firewall with the seal intact. I had to fill 44 holes to save it though. Thank you again, I appreciate all of you.
I recommend finding a place with a proven flat table, maybe a granite countertop, that you can lay the windshield frame on to make sure it's flat. We can bend metal all day long, but we can't bend the glass. After all the work it sounds like you needed to do, it would be good insurance before the glass man takes it. A few months ago I did some gapping work on my Dad's excellent condition never-chopped, never-channelled '32 five-window. Even stock bodies need a little work to be perfected.
Just sayin' I have a little book for important thoughts. This, is now in it. And thanks to cmusser for asking
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