818 - doors are a pain to mount

[ben1272]

I think the 818 door design is my least favorite part of the overall car's design. I AM HAVING FITS putting them on, taking them off, scratching them up, putting them on, cursing, taking them off, cursing at door card fitment, putting them on, lamenting all the scratches in the gelcoat, trying to adjust the gap, now they dont open easy, adjust the gaps again, now they open easy but rub.....ugh.

I think the thing that bothers me most is that if I place the door shell so that there is a nice uniform gap (.125" or so) the door is going to be higher than the body. If I flush the body there is no gap.

Some seem to have done a real nice job with this, so I am sure it is me. That said I dont think I should be having so much trouble with these. It is demoralizing and I keep avoiding them.....instead looking for other things to do.

<vent over>

I hope improving the door design is on FFR's punch list for next gen improvements.

[Hindsight]

Doors were a bit frustrating for me too but I'm not sure I understand your point about the doors being higher than the body. The part of the body that is adjacent to the doors is the engine cover. The engine cover returns can be cut/sanded down so that the engine cover is as high or as low as you want it to be. The idea is to get your doors fit so they are working and looking nice, then fit the engine cover and adjust the engine cover height to match the height of the doors.

[RM1SepEx]

at a .125 gap my doors are too low ;-) my side sill to door to engine cover sucks, the side panel front upper edge isn't the same side to side either.

Just keep playing with it until it looks good, it won't be perfect w/o doing bodywork

[ben1272]

Thanks for the commiseration....I'm sure I'll get there, just frustrated in the process. I have said before that this project has me in a weird state: I have never been so enthused and demoralized about a project at the same time! Step by step I am knocking the obstacles down, but not always enjoying the process!

I get your point about adjusting the rear deck up or down, but I set its height so that it best matched the side panels, so I dont feel like I have much adjustability here....I'll look again though.

Thanks for the ideas.

[Hindsight]

My experience has been that the engine cover will never nicely match the side panels. It's just not possible without hacking it way, way down and it would be impossible for the door to align with it at that point. I initially did the same thing as you: cut the returns way down on the engine cover to make it flush with the side sails. I cut about 1/4" to 5/16" off. But it was then SO much lower than the door that I had to glue the pieces back on the engine cover to raise it back up again. Even if the door had zero gap and was literally resting on the side sail, the engine cover would still be lower than the door top, if the engine cover is trimmed to match the side sail. Having the door match the engine cover, but engine cover not perfectly following the side sail contour is far less of an eye-sore than door-engine cover misalignment IMHO.

[ben1272]

do you have a spy cam in my garage? You guessed it: I trimmed the side sails to match the engine cover and also to clear a small thickness of rubber foam tape that i will be running along the panel outline. I think I prefer the back of the door being higher than the rear deck as the door card adds additional thickness and height anyways. Also, 98% sure I will be converting to the coupe in the near future and may not even use the engine cover for more than my initial inspection.....but I might get adventurous and swap them back on some day.

If I dont get my butt in gear I wont be getting the car registered and inspected this year! I keep chasing the little jobs like these.....gotta just get er done and revisit later!

[turbomacncheese]

I'm curious....why go with the coupe top instead of the soft top, since you already have a topless car?

[walt555]

I'm curious....why go with the coupe top instead of the soft top, since you already have a topless car?

I can't speakfor everyone else but i like the look and security of a hard top.

[Blwalker105]

Thanks for the commiseration....I'm sure I'll get there, just frustrated in the process. I have said before that this project has me in a weird state: I have never been so enthused and demoralized about a project at the same time! Step by step I am knocking the obstacles down, but not always enjoying the process!

Ben, you got that just right. This is a difficult kit for the detail-oriented individual, especially with regards to the body.

[ben1272]

I like the coupe look better.....but could imagine a nice targa top.....

[ehansen007]

Try the 33 doors! Then the trunk, then the hood...lower cowl....