Thanks All! I'm still inching along on the driver door and driver rear cab corner. I am currently waiting for the door seal retainers that I ordered. After I install those I'll have everything temporality tacked so that I can check overall alignment of the door bottom and cab corner. The door skin is not wide enough but I will add 1/8" rod along the edge as I saw Greg Rogers did.

Greg Rogers, do you have a picture showing the placement of the door sea retainer at the bottom of the door that you can send me? I believe that you said you followed instruction received from mid-fifties?

Another question for all. I noticed a raised area inside the passenger door window channel on the front channel that does not exist on the driver door. See picture below. What role does this raised area serve and should there be one on the driver door?




Thanks again,
Jerry

 

I've made slow progress with the door bottom and cab corner installation and alignment, and hope that I can get more tips on how to proceed further. Many of you pointed out my obvious mistake of cutting both the cab corner and door bottom out at the same time. I won't do that again!

I attached a picture of both the door and cab corner patch panels mocked up. They are close but not enough for my satisfaction. It is hard to see in the picture but there are many small areas that don't align well around the door perimeter, door gap and between the cab corner and door edge.


I've adjusted and readjusted the doors in and out and back and forth as best that I can to get the door in the best position within the frame as possible. I also cut small 5/32" wooden shims and wedged them around the door parameter to assist in the process. Once I had it as close as possible, I drilled a 1/4" hole through the hinge arm and door hinge mount so that when I take the door off, I can use a 1/4" rod to align it back up.

No matter what I do there are areas that need adjusting.

One of significance is the front (hinge side) door gap where the patch panel is located. The door gap at the bottom of the patch panel is currently 1/2" wide and the top of the patch panel is 1/4", see picture. When I installed the door patch panel, I aligned the back (door handle side) edge of the patch panel with the back edge of the door. I knew that I would have to add material on one side of the door patch panel edge to get the proper gap because the only patch panel available are too short, but this seems excessive. I am considering moving/tilting the door patch panel bottom edge visually appears slightly lower than the bottom edge of the cowl, in reality they align. I think this will gain me some at the bottom gap and should not have too much impact along the back edge on the door handle side. As far as the rest I've read much about adding material by mig welding 1/8" rod along the edge but I don't think it will work in this case. I think that I will need to cut the patch panel front surface (face) and add material there but this scares me. I hate messing with the outer surface that all can see. Thoughts/tips on this challenge?



The other challenge that I have involves alignment of the surface of the door with the surrounding surface of the cab. There are many areas where the two align perfectly but also areas where the door surface is too far in our too far out. I am wondering if I can adjust these areas with a hammer and dolly to move the door edge in our out. My fear is that this may affect the outer surface/face of the door panel. Anybody have experience working this edge that can share the experience?

Thanks,
Jerry

 

These trucks were never perfect from the factory. Once you accept that, it gets easier. Unless you want to spend a ton of time working metal and covering it all in bondo. For the gap in the picture, I would cut a piece of 16 ga and weld it to the leading edge to fix that gap.

 

Update. I've worked on the driver rear cab corner and door inner and outer door patch panels for a very long time. It's almost been a year since I posted this post. The challenge all along has been to manipulate patch panels to actually fit. It seems that I've had to do everything three times before I get close to an acceptable outcome. I'm very close now on this driver side work. I ended up having to cut up the rear cab corner patch panel to get a close fit. For the outer door lower patch panel I tried different approaches to get the horizontal weld line to lay down instead of having a ridge. I thought of buying a fourth patch panel and starting over but decided to take the door to a body guy. He hammer/dollied the weld joint to close to an acceptable joint. I'm now at a point where I need to work on the door gap and getting the door edge to match up with the door frame. I'll get on line to find videos but whatever experience that you can share would be appreciated.


You can see that the door edge needs to come out a bit. I've adjusted the door hinges to what I think is the best position with respect to alignment at the top. I guess that maybe I could bend the door a little but this scares me a little.


You can see the work accomplished by the body guy. He said that the curve of the patch panel is different than that of the original door thus I kept ending up with a ridge along the weld line. I found this the same with the cab corner patch panel.


I want to get the gab closer in some spots either using 1/8" rod or 16 gauge steel. I also want to get the outer surface of the door edge to line up better with the surface of the door frame. I think that I can hammer dolly the edge some to move the door edge in our out?

Whatever knowledge that you can pass on would be appreciated.

I am still looking for a good patch outer patch panel for the passenger door. I'd like to buy Dennis Carpenter, but it appears that they are unable to produce them right now, not certain when the will. The only other that I can find is through Auto Metal Direct, but they buy from overseas and those are the ones that are too short horizontally.

Thanks,
Jerry

 

Depending on how fussy you are will guide the panel alignment. They were not great from the factory. Not sure when but a long time ago someone figured out that when going forward if the panel in front stuck out a bit more than the next panel it reduced the wind noise a lot. You will see that on a lot of older cars. The gaps on my truck are not even but when I look at others the differences are in the same location, so I accept that now. If I wanted perfect, I could do it but the labour hours don't warrant the results, at least for me.

 

Not sure if this answers your question on the front cab corner to door problem. You can put shims between the inside of the door and hinge to move the bottom of the door outwards. If it's the curva​​​​​ture of the door which is off then as you say you can bend it a little.
EDIT I see I already answered the same previously but it's still true