Body / Glass: Tweeking a twisted hardtop door into submission

[Jeff T.]

Good afternoon,

A couple of years ago, I discovered that I original right door on my 62 Lark hardtop was too rusty to fix, it's steel seemed to evaporate when I tried to weld large patches onto it. I got the idea to make a new right door using a reasonably solid sedan door by removing all the specialized hardtop parts from the original door and cutting the sedan door down to where it needed to be before I welded it together.

After welding and reassembly everything seemed to fit OK and then time passed.

This past weekend I was working to adjust the door a bit better in the door frame, I got the upper rear of the door near to where it needs to be but I noticed what I did not see when I constructed the door. the rear lower corner enters the door frame earlier and reaches it's stopping point while the upper rear corner is still about an inch or so from fulling fitting in the hardtop door frame.

I got a spare ratchet strap and ran the strap from the upper inner rear corner of the door near the lock button and hooked the other end to one of the left side seat belt eyelets and winched the door shut.

I've been checking it every couple of days and it might be slowly bending to fit or it might be wishful thinking on my part.

If slow and steady over time doesn't work, what would I need to make to manhandle the door to fit.

Or do I declare victory and get another door, eventually

[Studebakercenteroforegon]

Grab the door and twist it to fit. I knew a great body man (now departed) that could be downright violent with doors, hoods, trunk lids, etc. He could make them fit very well.

[Crider]

you can wrap a block of wood in a rag and place in the jamb at the bottom corner of the door and then shove in on the top corner

[wdills]

I adjusted the fit of mine as Crider suggested. Slow overtime pressure is not going to work any better than sudden force. Either way you have to move the metal beyond where to want it to be for it to relax back into the desired location.

[clarkwd]

What dills said. No bending occurs until an item is stressed beyond the yield point.

[IndStudenut]

as CRider said... a use a 2x4 or small 4x4 block wrapped with something to protect the paint and put it just above the lip on the rocker in the corner of the door opening. (this is if the bottom of the door meets its stopping point and the top of the door sticks out). Hold steady pressure to keep the block in place and push abruptly at the top outer edge of the door. Then remove the block and check fit. You need to move the door beyond were it needs to go so when it springs back it will be were it needs to be. I usually start with moderate force and increase as needed till you get it where you want. You will need to do it several times to get it were you want. If the top meets first then you will need to put the block the opposite. I learned that method right off the bat when I started doing body work years ago. Just make sure you push on the outer edge of the door were it over laps the inner door shell. Don't want to push toward the center or you will end up with a dent you have to fix.