Hi All,
Ok, here's the scoop, in aligning the replacement rocker panel: I put the
door back on, rigged the door gap spacer with a modified bar clamp (pushes
out instead of clamping in) to keep the bulkhead in place (no floors or
sills yet...), the tub is bolted back onto the back half of the old frame as
a jig for the new floors- also to give me something to fasten the bulkhead
to since the floors are gone (grin) and have the door gap spaced and aligned
such that the door sits nice and flush, the body lines all line up, door top
is level to the top of the rear wing and I took the advice of the article in
the latest 'Spitfire and GT6' mag to remember the space at the bottom. The
door now latches cleanly without the heave upwards on the striker that I
remembered.
Here's the question: before I tack that bad boy in place- what sort of gap
should there be between the front of the door and the trailing edge of the
front part of the rocker panel? There's about a half an inch when I align it
to the scribe marks I made from the old rotten one and it fits up snugly
with the A post and filler panel. ( www.bigolbear.com/doorgap.htm ) I didn't
take any pics of the old one before I tore down the tub, I do know my doors
both bound along the closing edge before, indicating the bulkhead was
sagging back from the bad floors, sills and rockers... It may be that that
gap is correct since it appears that the leading edge of the door goes into
it when the door is opened, but I want to be sure before I spark up the
mig...
Thanks in advance for any and all advice, if anyone has any links to pics of
close-ups of that section, it would help a lot!
"Any drive you don't return from on a tow truck was a good one..."
Jon
'77 (mostly) 1500 "Ol' Yeller"
FM66043 7U
www.bigolbear.com
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