818C Hardtop / Door Clearance

[SnyderJD]

Struggling a bit. I spent another day with the body, aligning, tweaking etc. still no luck. I have an early hardtop. I have the sides clamps in place, and the under side of the sail pressed against the bottom of the frame. The door does not clear the bracket on the a-pillar. I get I need to lower the side sail. I have the hard top mounted at its highest point which causes issues with the fender clearance. I cannot seem to figure how to twist, tweak or move the sail in a way that doesn't remove the sail from the underside of the frame.

How are others handling this with the hardtop?

[lance corsi]

My hardtop is set at its most forward allowable position. I believe I ended up with about 1/4” gap between the bottom of the hardtop and the top of the side sail just behind the side window. The contour of the door kinda sets your hardtop height because you want the door contour to continue with the door shut and blend into the hardtop as close to flush as you can get.

[aquillen]

On my coupe, the top - front edge of door skins [a] (and the doors's front vertical aluminum block off plate [b], and the front vertical steel door plate [c]) all hit the steel frame of the A pillars about the time the back of the door was a foot away from going closed. With the side sails placed where the manual says, and then moving one forward about 1/4 inch due to differences, and then in order to keep the sail back edge to coupe front edge (the point where they meet at the back top edge of the door) lined up nicely I ended up grinding and trimming [a-b-c] until they cleared that window frame steel. One or the other had to go and I rather didn't want to reduce the strength of the pillar.

I stuck some Volvo mirrors on. They needed to be moved back for the same problem you have. I made 1/4" thick steel plates, curved to fit the skin shape. They're "flat on top", curved to follow the skin down and that curved fit helps the plates and door skins have some flex resistance, although not rock stiff. About 2" wide and 4-1/2" long. Bonded to the inside of the skin with body repair bonder epoxy. The plates are drilled and tapped for a couple 1/4-28 flat heads so the mirrors' own mount plates can be screwed down from above onto the top of the skins. (I made special plates for the bottoms of the mirrors themselves to adapt my mirrors as they had some sort of OEM mount scheme that I couldn't use). The reinforced skin mounts flex just a very little bit if you lean on the mirrors, but I'm pretty sure this is stiff enough to not have mirror vibration on the highway or gross failure (unless of course they get slammed).

No pix at the moment but could get some if you need.

[lance corsi]

Are you using front door or rear door hinges? I used the rear hinges and everything seems good. Otherwise I’d say either something got welded together wrong or the door frame could be wrong. It’s hard to say without seeing it.

[lance corsi]

Just reread your description of your problem. I had the same. Just cut your upper door skin to clear and reform your aluminum vertical block off plate to accommodate for same clearance. You could grind a wee bit of the bottom side of offending a-pillar without significant weakening. I’m talking less than 1/8”.

[lance corsi]

You’ll love working with the windows!

[SnyderJD]

@aquillen This sound exactly like the issue I am dealing with. I dont know that I can remove enough material from the (A,B,C) to get the clearance. I feel like there is something simple I am missing.

@ Lance, I am not sure which hinges. It came as a donor package as I didnt have room at he time to strip down a donor of my own. I have also thought abut skipping the windows for the short term. HA

[SnyderJD]

Resting on side sail, no gap, door hits a pillar frame with top in highest most fwd position


Just over 5/8 from frame

[aquillen]

Went out there and looked, I actually took some off both the door skin parts a-b-c and about 1/8" off the left pillar, which I forgot doing. The right pillar I didn't have to grind but a-b-c did. The whole top seemed just a bit off symmetrical (can anyone believe that ???? - ha).

I used rear door hinges, think they came from a 98 Forester for some reason.

A few minutes ago wife and I took the top off and flipped it over on my workbench. Will grind the edge thinner along the window frame to help the aftermarket 1/4" wide window bulb seal fit better. Run wiring for the amenities and frills that go up in there (consol, lamps, backup camera-mirror, etc.), add 3/16 glass to bottom of passenger side pillar to match fit of other side and allow good weatherstrip seal there, install headliner, bond in some bolt plates along the back and sides to fasten to sails without the hot rod hinge clips. Gonna investigate whether some water drains need to be figured out for the hood air intake - I suspect water going in there either stacks up or runs down the pillars and get inside the cabin maybe. This one won't going to be a convertible-coupe quick swapper.

[SnyderJD]

Are you using front door or rear door hinges? I used the rear hinges and everything seems good. Otherwise I’d say either something got welded together wrong or the door frame could be wrong. It’s hard to say without seeing it.

Lance, Do you know if there is a way to identify easily whether they are front or rear? What would the noticeable difference be with mounting. Im fairly confident in the source for my donor package, but mistakes happen some times.

I am thinking I have a a mixed pair? I have a set (RUL/RLL) and a (NFA/NFB)

[SnyderJD]

I was going through some build threads last night. I found In Hindsights build thread he added a spacer to the rear mounting point on the front fenders in post 805 https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/show...l=1#post239576

I tried quickly and at first glance, it seems like it "may' solve some of my clearance issues with the A-Pillar. have others done the same? My test fit below.