Yet Another Door fit post

[Jeff33Ford]

I tried all the ideas short of cutting the door up to get the twist out of it. It has over an 1" of twist and it seems to be in an area that just will not budge that much.
I tried the spacers on the support brace. I used an old lugnut that is 3/4" thick and still about 5/8" gap remains. You can see in the picture that I twist the support bar at least 15-20 degrees.
The passenger door worked out with no issue. A little twist but was able to get it out, again using the forum as a guideline.
I sent an email to tech support at FFR and waiting to hear back.
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Moving on to mounting some other body parts. So far no big issues with them. But at least making some progress slowly but surely.

[33fromSD]

Not sure what you all tried so I may be giving advice you already know. See post 182 - 185 in my build thread (link below), that may help (or you may have tried it, not sure).

I'm 99% sure the issues people have, are in the metal framing and not the door shells themselves. The metal work being off causes the door shells to twist. When people call FFR they tend to blame the door shells.

Good luck

Jim

[Jeff33Ford]

Not sure what you all tried so I may be giving advice you already know. See post 182 - 185 in my build thread (link below), that may help (or you may have tried it, not sure).

I'm 99% sure the issues people have, are in the metal framing and not the door shells themselves. The metal work being off causes the door shells to twist. When people call FFR they tend to blame the door shells.

Good luck

Jim

Thanks Jim. I did see your post. When I was fitting the door with no metal in it at all it was twisted the same as the picture I posted with all the bolts loose in the door and hinges. From the post I read I thought I would be able to pull it in using the metal frame. Just for kicks I will remove all the metal again just to see how much difference there may be. Also check if I did not twist that support frame trying to get it aligned.

[Mastertech5]

You can twist the front of the door by loosening the three bolts on the latch and moving the door on the big support bar as the bottom two holes in the bar are slotted. I bent my bars as 33fromSD suggested and that helped. I then bent the rear also so it laid flat on the rear bracket. Much better but not perfect. One guy with a Mark IV split his door on the bottom and reglassed the outer skin to the inner spreading it about 1/2 inch in the front to get the lower front to be flush with the body. More than I'd be willing to do.

[33fromSD]

There is quite a bit of finessing that goes into getting the doors right.

Above all, once you get it set where you want, do not rely on the carriage bolts alone, drill two or three 5/16" or 3/8" holes into the brackets (where the main door beam and the hinge bracket are bolterd together) and put matching grade 8 HW in to lock the adjustments. This way even if the carriage bolt HW loosens up, your hinge and door adjustments will not move. Some people relying only on the carriage bolts have had issues with this.

Works great for reassembly after paint too.

Good luck

Jim

[Jeff33Ford]

You can twist the front of the door by loosening the three bolts on the latch and moving the door on the big support bar as the bottom two holes in the bar are slotted. I bent my bars as 33fromSD suggested and that helped. I then bent the rear also so it laid flat on the rear bracket. Much better but not perfect. One guy with a Mark IV split his door on the bottom and reglassed the outer skin to the inner spreading it about 1/2 inch in the front to get the lower front to be flush with the body. More than I'd be willing to do.

This is also what FFR support suggested. I even elongated holes to try this. It simply will not twist enough to correct the issue. It takes a lot of force to even push it in. It is bad enough that the inside panel where you mount the trim panel warps. In other words it totally distorts the inside panel of the door. I do not see how the door will stay in place over time with this much force on it. I have not given up. Reevaluate and try again this weekend.

Thanks everyone!!
Jeff

[33fromSD]

Keep in mind once you get the doors to fit properly, the thick aluminum finished door panel will not fit as it is. There needs to be signifcant bending done to it to fit and it's hard to bend cuase it's 1/8" thick. The area on inside of the door where that finihed panel fits is not flat and not meant to be flat so hopefully you're not using that panel as a guide to determine your shell is twisted.

These things are trial and error. My first question is does the door shell completely gutted (just the shell no metal work) fit properly? If yes, it's the metal, not the shell.

This is where I started digging into the metal work. When I just held up the gutted door shell there was no twist, it fit great, I mounted the metal work and there was a twist, so at least on mine (guessing your's too) it was not the door shell. If you eliminate the door shell, then next thing to do is slowly start adding the metal work piece by piece (not completely tightening HW) and hold it in the opening until you find the piece causing the twist.

The metal work is not a great design, but you can tweak it to fit way better than it does.

Now if you come back and say the gutted door shell themselves are twisted in the opening than explain that to FFR (and the steps you took to prove that) and they will most likely replace your door shells. The reason they are throwing suggestions at you about adjusting this and elongating this hole or that hole is because they know the metal work is not right, but that's not to say they couldn't have bad batches of door shells come out of the factory, it happens.

Too bad I'm not closer, I'd come and help.

Jim

[Jeff33Ford]

Keep in mind once you get the doors to fit properly, the thick aluminum finished door panel will not fit as it is. There needs to be signifcant bending done to it to fit and it's hard to bend cuase it's 1/8" thick. The area on inside of the door where that finihed panel fits is not flat and not meant to be flat so hopefully you're not using that panel as a guide to determine your shell is twisted.

No I can see the door inside fiberglass flex/bow when I twist the door to the correct position

These things are trial and error. My first question is does the door shell completely gutted (just the shell no metal work) fit properly? If yes, it's the metal, not the shell.

With nothing in the door it is twisted over an inch out.

I relayed all this to FFR. Wait and see. It really is not the fact that it cannot be fixed. I would just rather work with something close. I will not use it as is. It is just too much force applied. Last resort is to cut up the door and put it back together correctly.

And Thanks for the offer Jim. All your suggestions are very helpful as it is!

[Cudajeff]

I had the exact same problem with my driver’s side door. It took me about two weeks of trial and error and some cracked fiberglass but I got it to work. I tried so many different things that I’m not exactly sure what the combination of fixes was that worked but if you wanna message me, we can discuss it in detail. Jeff

[Jeff33Ford]

After a lot of conversations and trying all the ideas the door would not line up. It just took too much force to bend. So I cut the inside panel in all four corners. I could then easily twist to the correct position. You can see the gaps it created in the cuts. One of them was offset by almost a 1/4". I added all the metal and confirmed alignment then fiber glassed in new position. After it dried, tried the door and it lines up perfect. So just have to fiberglass it from the inside and clean it all this up. More than expected but at least it worked.
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[Mastertech5]

Good job. Necessity is the mother of invention.