The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Doors Excessively Small Door gap?

I need some help with fitting my passenger side door into its opening. I am in the process of replacing inner cowl and outer cowl and have already replaced the rocker and floor panel. Unfortunately after I was done with the floor and rocker I cut the bracing that was in place and had not yet tacked the hinges pillar to the floor. The pillar is currently attached with a couple set screws so I can move it if needed, also the outer cowl is in place with a set screw and vice grips as well. I took measurements of the drivers door opening and set the pillar based on those measurements. Anyways the door fits pretty darn tight and the belt line looks pretty good and I think the door is evenly spaced but it just seems way to tight, especially at the lower part of the cowl to door gap. I did look at old pictures before I took everything apart and it appears that the front of the door gap was decent but back of the door was probably binding.
As I stated the drivers side opening dimensions were used to base the passenger side opening off of but I think it needs more clearance. I tried pushing the hinge pillar further forward but it doesn't seem to buy me much. Any thoughts on how best to approach this? Im just winging it and looking for a more thought out approach.
Thanks!

Neither the FAM or Shop Manual specify the gap at the rear of the door. They do call for 1/8" +/-1/16" gap at the hinge post. As long as the door closes without rubbing, and the gap is even, you're probably OK. I can't tell from you picture, but it looks like your hinge side gap is pretty small, especially at the top of your patch panel. I would concentrate on getting that correct first, then deal with the rear gap, adjusting so it doesn't rub.

You could knock on the hinge pillar with a BFH. Next would be pushing on the opening a bit with a porta power. Find a different door that fits better.

Or cut the bottom jamb, spread a touch, then add filler. But that would also require cutting floor and other stuff. Invasive surgery.

You could also get a block of wood or block of metal, and with a hammer, beat the corner edge back some to manufacture gap.

Last night I ended up unfastening the hinge pillar and moving it back a very small amount. After re-adjusting the door there is 1/16th to an 1/8th inch gap along the front and about 1/16+ in the rear gap. Its still close but think it is good enough to move forward with tacking down the inner and outer cowl panels. Oh, one interesting item I found when crawling underneath to clamp down the hinge pillar, I noticed the door was about 1/4 inch lower than the rocker panel bottom edge. The door is lifted high enough so the upper gap in the opening is small but the door still extends beyond the lower part of the rocker panel. Well it appears the rocker panel is a 1/4 in shorter than the original that I have on the drivers side, what a piece of crap! I only needed to replace the front 6 or 7 inches of the original but decided at the time to do the whole thing. Definitely going to pay more attention to the aftermarket parts in the future and only replace what is absolutely necessary.

Did you make sure the hinge bolt to floor dimension is the same on both sides? That's the critical thing. If you're low on the hinge pillar, you'll have trouble lining up the reveal with the body front and back. The low hinge pillar would make you angle the door up in the back to match the reveal at the lock pillar and throw everything out of whack. I would double check that before welding in the hinge pillar.

The best way to describe building a truck is to start with the doors and build the rest of the truck around it.
You did the right thing by not welding everything solid. You may need to grind some welds where the hinge pillar meets the rocker panel and the floor so you can move the hinge pillar forward to get 1/8" gap front and back.
If you can't or don't want to do that, you can cheat by grinding the holes in the door hinges to allow you to move the front edge of the door proud of the outer cowl by 1/16" This will allow you to clear the door seal and have an 1/8th" gap at the rear. The Manual actually calls for "flush to 1/16th" proud of the outer cowl."