I thought back to the start of this car. I had never done anything like rebuilding rusted out window boxes. At that time I knew that if I couldn't do it, the project was dead in the water. Out a little bit of money and time. Not that big a deal.
Flash forward to today. I had never gapped doors. I really wasn't sure that I could. Failure at this point would have put years, hours, and money out the window. I have to admit I was concerned.
I had decided the gaps need to be 3/16". I put tick marks about every inch measuring 7/32". This allowed for the weld proud to make the gap about 5/32" with plenty of material to remove when grinding out to 3/16".
The tick marks were connected with tape. The edge was ground to the tape in two inch intervals. At each two inch mark the door edge was clamped with Vice Grips to assure the now three separate sheet metal sections were squeezed together and a tack weld was made. Once all the tacks were in the welds were put in slowly, skipping around to even out the heat.
After some preliminary grinding the door was rehung. There needs to be some final grinding and clean up. However, I am very pleased with the results. I will get this door done, move on to the passenger door, and then the trunk lid.
