The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Doors Gap Between Bottom of Door and Side of Rocker - 1952 3100

Does the FAM specify the acceptable gap between the bottom of the door and the side of the rocker panel, as a bare door (no rubber gasket)? Please see enclosed pic. Thanks

It looks to me like the bottom on the door needs to go in quite a bit or the door needs to be raised (See the circled portion of your picture). The door should be even or slightly proud (<1/16”) of the cowl and the B pillar, and the belt line needs to be aligned.

Thanks, Phil

I see two things (assuming that image is of the passenger door and the joint we see is between the lock side and the striker). One, the line along the bottom looks pretty uniform (good), your drip holes seem to be in good shape (great!). Since I can only see the bottom (view looking upward) it isn't easy to say. Your strikers will pull your locks inward when adjusted and this will take space out of the latch side of your doors...I see a bit of un-evenness on the lock side but not too much. The hinge side needs to stick outward a bit...that's so it won't rub against the body when the door is opened. Hope this helps.

One other note: please don't use the 11/16" thick (common) weatherstripping. The weatherstrip that is 7/16" (may be sold as 1/2" but isn't) is the best. The Filling Station has it. Steve and I worked with Steele to have this made as correctly as possible. The 11/16" thick stuff is very much too thick.

Also, before you finish everything and paint your doors a good way to keep the skin to inner piece joint from rusting is to get a can of oil based enamel (Rustoleum or any other type), remove your doors, pour about 2 or 3 tablespoonfuls into that seam (tilt it backwards so it doesn't run out the drip holes), tip your doors side to side to distribute and let it dry really well (a couple of days). Then rotate and repeat until you have treated the entire door perimeters. Water won't be harbored in the seam if you do this. Good luck.

Edit...I use lock and latch interchangeably. Actually what many folks refer to as latches are in the business called locks but over the last 50 years it has become very fuzzy as many people seem to prefer to call locks latches...I'm simply trying to communicate and I learned this stuff (sadly) 60 years ago...or a bit more. Good grief as Charlie Brown would say.

Thanks Jon... u are right on the money relative to your analysis (passendger door, etc). I have The Filling Stations thinner weatherstripping in my inventory (Jerry Kassis restored my hinges and vent windows and gives me advice from time to time). Relative to the cab, so far, I have replaced 11 pieces of metal (complete cab floor, partial kick board on both sides, all 3 side cowl pieces on both sides and of course, the 2 cab corners). The picture you have seen is after I put the doors on for the first time in maybe 18 months, after removing all the bracing from having the cab on a rotisserie for all these many months. Relative to the doos, I must admit that I am about to take the cab (with the doors) to a restoration shop to replace the bottoms of both doors (inner and outer) and to give me a good "first fit"). I do not trust that my own welding will be "clean anough" to make the outside skin surgery seemless. There is also a slight "oil canning" on the back of the cab, and the cab corners could use a little finnessing as I see a larger gap than I would like to see when applying a striaght edge to the transition from old metal to new cab corners. I have not welded back the 3 rear wall braces as I want to give the body shop the freedom to work that area for the oil can issue.

You might wonder why I would be confident of the 11 pieces that I have welded in so far and yet, I do not want to take on the doors. Well, none of what I have done so far is as blantantly visible as the sides of the doors AND, as you know, the door gaps need to be considered when messing with new dor bottoms.

Jon, I so much appreciate your response to my query. If you want to see pictures of what I have done so far, just let me know.

Pat

Hi Pat,
That is a very comprehensive approach to the cab and I think I've read/seen some of your posts over the past couple of years...at my age things sadly occasionally get muddled. As for the oil canning, that can be a challenge but there are different ways to tackle it and any good body man will have his own thoughts. Usually the back side of the cab doesn't get the abuse the top gets but I've seen it happen. Nonetheless that's tough metal and unlike the stuff used today it can be shrunk using a couple of different techniques. If it is slight I wouldn't worry too much. I've mentioned it here many times but one good way to join body pieces is to use a hand seamer on one piece and then join them using silver bearing solder. The advantage is it only takes about 400 degrees to melt the solder (much less chance of warpage), it is easy to move them if needed and the joint is just as strong as brazing. Plus...and a big plus in my opinion...finishing is easier. The solder will sand/smooth out the same as lead and it won't rust. Also you can use plain old J B Weld to do the same thing. I joined the top of my truck to one pillar after it cracked using J B Weld about 40 years ago and it is still fine.

Please feel free to send any images to my email account: jon_goodman@yahoo.com

Pat, on the oil canning on the rear of the cab, that might be taken care of by the 3 stretcher bars that you haven't reinstalled yet. I'd get those in before addressing any oil can issues. If the rear of the cab is pretty much even (no visible dents) then I don't think you'll have a problem once the stretcher bars are in. If you still have some oil canning, deal with that then by doing a bit of shrinking.
Robert (MPandC) was kind enough to walk me through on a Facetime call the procedure to get rid of it on my roof. What you need to do is cycle the oil can and observe where the perimeter of it is, then apply pressure around the perimeter with one hand and attempt to cycle the oil can with the other using the same amount of pressure. The spot where you have pressure around the perimeter that stops the oil canning is where you need to shrink the metal. Robert may be willing to do the same for you if you send him a PM.

On the door gap at the bottom, if you haven't changed the door shape and your rockers are in the right place, I wouldn't worry too much about it. It's on the bottom of the doors and the seal at the floor level (top of the rockers) will help seal the bottoms, even if the weatherstrip on the bottom doesn't reach the rockers. If the fit of the doors is good on front, rear and top, I'd say you're good to go.