It's been awhile since I worked on a hinge pillar, but I'm still of the mind that a 2x4 and a sledge hammer would move the pillar in place. If your concerned about how far to move it, take a straight edge across from the other door/pillar for comparison. Your mockup looks good and would do the trick, but then you have to contend with cleaning up tack welds and possible damage to the metal around the hinge pocket. The 1/2" gap your refering to, is that between the cab corner and the door? Pic's would help out a lot.
I went hunting for pics of the door mounted on the truck, but can't find good
ones - however, I took your advice and did the measurement. To my surprise, the pillars seemed to have VERY close to the same spacing...
This got me looking at the hinge socket closer. Have a look, it makes sense now.
First - the good drivers side with a straight edge across the pillar.
<Driver Side 1> <Driver Side 2> Nice and straight... now have a look at the damaged passenger side...
<Passenger 1> <Passenger 2> <Passenger 3> The recessed portion of the hinge socket is what did the bending... ugh... I'm thinking with the outer cowl off I'll perhaps hammer it out from the inside...
