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I bought a fiberfab car from a guy and the doors don't fit right. When the doors are closed the lower part of the door sticks out about 1/2"
I belive the guy put it together himself by looking at his notes in the kit book he gave me. Anyway to fix this problem,I was told their kits sometimes were just like that.

fred
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Fred, if you can stick a couple photos up, we may be able to help you. Several folks here gave me things to try, mostly centering on the hinges and their placement.
Gotta see what you're dealing with to make a good guess. Meanwhile, there's a CMC build manual -- and several others -- in the library section of the site to show you what you're dealing with.
Things you need to look at:

1) check that the body is in alignment with the subframe. If you notice that the back end is drooping down, it will force the doors out of alignment.

2) Has the body been Primed or Gel-Coated? If so, try doing a little sanding at the hinges. If you have thick gel, and thick primer, you will have edges that don't match.

3) How old is the body and doors? I talked with a body guy who said that fiberglass with "relax" overtime. If this is the case use body filler.

I had a door doing the same thing. I tried and tried, and finally layered body filler to ease the gap. It worked perfectly. Funny enough, I was watching Chip Foose who said that you can do as much body work as you want, but you will never achieve a 100 Point car until you use a little filler in the gaps.

Good luck, I feel your pain.
I'm not the expert at this by any stretch of the imagination. I haven't got mine sorted out yet, either, but I've fiddled with everything short of a die-grinder -- and that's next.
Pictures of my headache are below. (I feel your pain.)
That said, it looks to me like the up and down alignment on your passenger door is okay, but that the hinges themselves may be in too tight. I'm assuming that the door won't latch and that that's as far as it closes. That would be a filler candidate.
The driver's door looks like there's too much material under the top hinge and that it isn't close enough to the "A" pillar as a result.
If your car is like mine in that respect, the alignment of the fiberglass to the frame member is suspect, and you'll have to plane the areas under all four hinges to be parallel to that pillar on both sides of the car for the doors to align.
As Todd says, adding material on the passenger's side and subtracting it from the driver's side has to be done in relation to the framework the rest of the body is attached to. The allen-head bolts that pass through the hinge plates and into the car go through an unknown thickness of fiberglass and into metal box tubing at what should be right angles.
Are there diagrams in those notes to show whether the pillars are threaded deeply, or just a single cut with a tap and die? Mine are not backed up at all with nuts. They are simply threaded into the box tubing, and that isn't very thick at all.
Do you have a magnetic one-foot level? It would be most helpful if you did.


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  • dirvers door sill one 042006
  • pass door sill one 042006
  • drivers door gap top two
I went through this with the Fiberfab I just finished.
Before you adjust doors or do anything permanent, make sure the supports that go from the upright post (underneath, behind where the door closes) to the subframe that carries the back of the body.
The fiberfab kits came with a 1" threaded bar to be welded inplace to cary the rear of the body.
go to "Photos" at the top of this page and find Jogyver. In his photos look for an illustration named "rear frame.JPG".
This will give you the Idea of what needs to be there. His is a good design as it's cantileverd. I just put bars in mine from the upright at door to subframe near top shock mount.
Before you weld something in there to carry the load, you have to jack the back of the car (body) up (with at least the rear 2 body mounts loosened)until the door gap at the rear of the door is good and the top of the door matches the top of the body.
If you make this brace adjustable, you can use it like a jack to get the sag out of the rear body section.
I used 1/4" or 5/16" spacer (fender washers) under those 2 body mount points to help pinch the rear body section back in place.

After that's in place you can start adjusting doors.
I ended up sinking the hinges into body (and shortened the spacers they sit on) to get the doors to fit the contour of the body.
You'll notice that moving one corner, throws everything else out of whack.
When you finally get them to fit the countour of the body, look at the door gaps. I used popsicle sticks as guage. The gaps on my doors were compromised to get doors to fit the body contour. My doors were nice fiberglass and bodywork panels wise, but the gaps were Way big. and One door sill had to be reworked for fit. It's time for fiberglass work or Bondo now to create even door gaps.
When you're OK with the door gaps, and need to remove doors for paint or anything it could be a problem to get them back to where they were.
I ended up drilling 3/16 holes through hinges into their atachment post and used pins in these holes to re-install my doors after paint.

Greg B

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  • 028
From your photos it looks like the rear of car has sagged some. Raising it will fix the larger gap at the top and if door is hitting at bottom it will go in further. The outer door skin can be separated from the inner support frame and the inner frame ground a bit and then re-fiberglassed. This can be done without needing to paint the car (perhaps just the jamb will need touch up). My CMC came with doors mounted at the "factory" and they stick out in the same place about 1/4".
The left door looks like a classic case of rear body sag. take the left rear wheel off and look at the panel that comes down on the inside of the fenderwell. There should be a few rivets there. If their holes have elongated, or if the have popped out the rear of the body will sag, causing an increase in the gap on the top of the door. There are many fixes to this problem. They range from drilling out the rigvets, lifting the rear to the correct door gap, and drilling new holes for riverts. Some people use a pice of flat stock under the rivets to spread the load a little more along the entire piece. Others do some extravagant engineering to provide additional support.
The right door looks like the striker needs to be moved inward a little. Loosen the screws and see if it will move a little.
I jacked up the body a bit and the doors started to correct inward so I am convinced its body sag thanks for the info guys,does anyone know a good bodyman that can fix this? I had the interior done at vintage last year and ask him about it but he didnt want to mess with it.So if anyone can help thanks!
Fred

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  • SPEEDSTER 003
  • SPEEDSTER 006
  • SPEEDSTER 018
greetings
This topic of fixing the falling rear of the CMC has been covered, do a search here or at speedstershop.com. I fixed my CMC with the guidance of some friends at the later site. The task felt risky but with it was done in a couple of hours. Basically it consists of supporting the car, drill off the pop rivets, jack up to the correct place by observing the door sill, drill through the frame in the rivet holes, put some adhesive between body & frame, and pass / tighten the screws through. Use good wide fender washers with pressure washers to distribute the grip. I think I used 3/8" screws... Guess this has been posted in better detail by Greg and others than by me, but you get the idea... you can do it.
~jJ~
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