Owner built on a budget;

[Hray]

A little digression, back to the trial fit of doors, hinges and other stuff. I might help if I would have explained some of my reasons for doing some of this stuff, then others can either follow or we hope learn from my mistakes.

The main reason I fit the doors and other stuff to the body is that I wanted to make sure I knew how stuff actually went together, and to discover if possible where the manufacturer goofed and forgot to tap something. But, mainly all my bolts are all messed up and not in the right bags if in bags at all. I figured that by putting it together and then upon tear down I could tag and bag my bolts and stuff.

My after thought of possible leaving the doors on the sand and prep is mostly a bad one for the most part. I could work the insides and jambs. but, a person does not want to really attempt to block sand the doors, hood, deck lid or other stuff untill the car is totally assembled. There are times I may have to bono an entire fender and door or quarter panel. I want all the transitions from fenders, to doors, to fenders, and hood to fenders to be straight and flat. This can only be done with the car assembled. Or at least that is the only way I have ever done it. Once dialed in about 95 percent perfect then I can take off the doors, hood, deck lid and do the last small blocking with it off the car.

There is only so much that can be done with adjustments, most likely I will have to build up some surfaces to match others.

Plus, I wanted to get pretty much all the pieces bolted together if possible, or at least identified so I can see if I am missing anything. It might be different if I had bought the kit myself and knew I had all the parts and they were all bagged and tagged.

To door hinge, got one prototype made tonite, got it bolted on to the door and body and only tack welded together to make sure it will work.

I am hoping the factory hinges only get a person in the ball park, then some shims, and other type of adjusting and maybe slight modification are needed to fine tune the fit to the car. So with the drivers door bolted on I pulled about 6 different measurements as to how it fit the cowl, and rear latch assembly. I made a hinge and got it bolted to the passenger side. Almost every measurement is the same only a couple are about a sixteenth off. I am hoping this is close enough to be in the ball park and that I can adjust and modify much like I would the factory hinge.

My body is sitting on the other car, I will bolt this hinge and door on that car to see how well it works, if successful I will build my other three.

I will share the method of attack to building this later and provide pictures once I know it worked.

Ray