1967 door fit

[John H.]

Re: 1967 door fit

John.
Did they do that on a painted car with w/s or before painting?

Gene -

That "correction" was done in the Body Shop as part of the door-fitting operation prior to paint, and was also done on finished units on the Final Line.

[Brawley M.]

Re: 1967 door fit

Update:The w/s is not interfering with the fit of the top of the door to the recessed area on the roof of my coupe. There are no shims present on the upper hinge. Should I try the "knee in the door" alignment option? If so, am I understanding correctly that my knee should be just below the window towards the rear aspect of the door? I currently have the door panels off, so perhaps you could give me some landmarks as to exact knee placement? Also, what do you rest your foot on when your knee is that far above the ground? Thanks, Brawley

[Wayne W.]

Re: 1967 door fit

Yep, just below where you want the bending. You on your own with the contortions.

[Paul Y.]

Re: 1967 door fit

Brawley, I would try putting a shim each on the rear two bolts of the top hinge. Taping them on would be a good way to hold them to the hinge. It will bring the door in a bit. If you use 1/8 shims you will want to put 1/16 shims in the middle bolts so the door won't get stressed. If you put 1/16 shims in the back you won't need to bother with middle bolt shims. My 63 coupe came in a little bit more when I did that to it. Shimming the bottom hinge out will also bring the top in a little. I would use full shims on the bottom. Did the door ever fit or are you starting from an unknown? I'm doing the same thing right now on my 63. I'll not be giving up until I get it as mine fit real well before I removed them to paint. Paul

[Joe R.]

Re: 1967 door fit

Brawley,

It's not the W/S at the top of the door that usually giving the problem. It's the W/S at the pillar post just below the vent window. You may notice that the W/S there is really smashed.

If you use your knee or a 2X4 to bend the door in at the top, you will run the risk of destroying the paint, cracking the fiberglass or worse.

Door fitting was done before paint and a finished product, especially fiberglass doesn't take well to stress after 40+ years.

Preparation before the removal of coupe doors usually prevents this problem you are having. Taking a door off the hinges and hearing the shims fall is not how you want to begin a restoration project.

Indexing shims to hinges and then labeling the shims for later installation is the way to begin the restoration. Then after restoration, painting etc. if the doors don't fit you can point at the weatherstrip and begin to order weatherstrip from another vendor. Or as one member suggests, trim the weatherstrip until it fits (better).

Find a restoration shop in your area that is willing to first hand look at your Corvette and advise. If there is not one in your area, then put it in the trailer and find one.

You are not the first Corvette owner to run into this problem and you won't be the last. Fitting doors on a coupe is a huge problem. I've learned the hard way as well as many other NCRS members.

JR

[Brawley M.]

Re: 1967 door fit

Joe Ray,
I bought my coupe as a basket case project car on ebay back in 2005. The transport delivered the car with the doors off and the shims were in separate glass mason jars (and a pound of rust on the floor of transport). Anyways, the group that sold me the car (they're from Yankee land)claimed the car was in great shape, and they were booted off ebay after too many neg feedbacks. Over the last 4.5 yrs, I have replaced or refurbished everything (new frame,susp, engine, trans, rear end,etc) on this car and converted it from a 327 auto to a 427/3x2 4 spd.. My car is a true 1967, but it will never be a numbers matching car, and I never intended to pass it off as such. As everyone is so focused on originality and numbers correct engines,trans,etc. I do admit I feel like an imposter on this great site most of the time. But I restored my car for the pure love of it, and I just want to make it as good as I can given what I had to start with. In retropsect, I should have bought the best car I could afford instead of being seduced by the false economics of a fixer upper. I will take your advice and not crank on the door. Thanks, Brawley

[Joe R.]

Re: 1967 door fit

Brawley,

Everyone on this board has been in your shoes one time or another. I know I have bought them in boxes before. Everyone understands and respects your position as most of us (all of us) learned to crawl before we ever walked. Most of us have some scars to prove our position.

I know I can speak for everybody on this NCRS board saying that we would like to see your 1967 at a meet sometime in the future. We all have our drivers and most of us are as proud of those project cars we lifted from the grave as we are the Duntov car's in our collections.

We are also willing to help get those damn doors to fit. Please keep us informed.

JR

[Brawley M.]

Re: 1967 door fit

Thanks for being in my corner Joe Ray, I really appreciate it-will update progress as I go. Brawley

[Scott S.]

Re: 1967 door fit

I found the section in Adams (p. 38) explaining the problems with coupe doors. Do I understand correctly that the roof panels were too small all the way into 1967 when they discovered the source of the problem, and did not correct it because it was too close to the 1968 model debut to justify the expense of fixing the problem?

I can't tell for sure from the story whether Noland is just referring to the end of 1963 production (therefore all 1963 coupes have this door problem) or whether he is referring to the end of Midyear body style production (1967), in which case ALL midyear coupe bodies and doors have this problem.

[John H.]

Re: 1967 door fit

I found the section in Adams (p. 38) explaining the problems with coupe doors. Do I understand correctly that the roof panels were too small all the way into 1967 when they discovered the source of the problem, and did not correct it because it was too close to the 1968 model debut to justify the expense of fixing the problem?

I can't tell for sure from the story whether Noland is just referring to the end of 1963 production (therefore all 1963 coupes have this door problem) or whether he is referring to the end of Midyear body style production (1967), in which case ALL midyear coupe bodies and doors have this problem.

Scott -

The roof panel mold problem was known in 1964, and was there from the beginning of 1963 production; no funding was available to build a new set of molds, so the issue remained until the end of 1967 production. "Reefing" the coupe door on the Final Line to improve flushness to the edge of the roof was a standard practice for all five years.

[Domenic T.]

Re: 1967 door fit

The first time I did my 67 (1971) I did the knee thing and shimmed the doors and wow it fit perfect, Perfect till I painted it and put the W/S on.

The top did not meet the roof after I put the W/S on so I used the knee till I was blue in the face. It helped but I wasn't satisfied.

I made the mistake of gettind original W/S that only lasted about 9 mos before it started to crack.

This go around on my frame off I did it different as I think I bent as much as should be done the first time because when I removed the W/S the door tops mooved toward the roof. I left it that way so it is pre loaded for the new W/S.

I put shims between the door and roof to keep the space that made it fit perfectly then used a filler on the roof and got the fit where I wanted it.
Then I indicated my shims by drilling 1/8" holes thru the entire hinge, shims, and door so I can indicate them with 1/8" pins after removing the doors to put the new W/S on.

I am painting and will put the new W/S on and am in the prayer mode now that it will be the fit I had.


DOM

[Timothy B.]

Re: 1967 door fit

When I fit my 63 doors I remember having the same problem. I remember the drivers side had factory filling on the roof panel to match the height of the door so am I correct that this problem being discussed was the height of the roof panel compared to the door.

I also used NOS weatherstrip and could not close the door without slamming.

[Domenic T.]

Re: 1967 door fit

When I fit my 63 doors I remember having the same problem. I remember the drivers side had factory filling on the roof panel to match the height of the door so am I correct that this problem being discussed was the height of the roof panel compared to the door.

I also used NOS weatherstrip and could not close the door without slamming.

Tim,
Thats the problem I found with mine when I had the correct gap.

By the way, I just put W/S on my airplane door and had the same problem.

My son gave me a lube that was for O-rings and it said it was also for W/S.
The door closed much better and the W/S seemed to take a set and conform to the frame.

It really made things work and fit. It seemed to let the W/S slide to fit.

DOM

[Michael H.]

Re: 1967 door fit

I found the section in Adams (p. 38) explaining the problems with coupe doors. Do I understand correctly that the roof panels were too small all the way into 1967 when they discovered the source of the problem, and did not correct it because it was too close to the 1968 model debut to justify the expense of fixing the problem?

.

It was my understanding (not from the Adams book) that the problem was discovered at some time during the 63 model run. It was corrected on the new roof panel for the new 64 model.

[Dan H.]

Re: 1967 door fit

I remember my 63 Coupe's doors. They had a kink in the rear verticle post from being bent inwards, Bubba tech!