Door/B Pillar Alignment Issues

[Billhilly]

So I'm on to the 'good' side of my cab doing normal rust issues. A and B piller's fixed. New inner rocker in and starting on cab corner/cab supports. Starting to look at alignment of the door. On the left door I drilled out the spot welds below the waist line, and aligned that lower area of the b piller skin with the door bottom.
As you can see (i hope), if I align the top of this (right) door the body line match is good to middling from the top edge to about half way down. It then turns pretty ugly.
So if I drill out the spot welds from the bottom up to about half way, and try clamping/sqeezing the b piller skin inwards would seem like a reasonable idea?

Thanks guys.

(Other pics in build thread here - http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...=217490&page=5)

[ebfabman]

Either drill out all the spot welds that attach the rear cab panel to the b pillar and push the panel toward the b pillar or make a horizontal cut in the b pillar at the widest part near or at the character line then pull the b pillar in to match the door. You will end up with a very small pie shaped cut on the b pillar that you can fill back in and smooth out.

[Billhilly]

Hey Earl,

You're just the man I was looking for! Thank's for the input. I sit over here scratching my head, then go back inside and watch a bit of the DVD again. Then more scratching of head! I would hate to think what it would look like if I hadn't invested some money in those DVD's! I'll post up some more pics when I get it sorted. I figure with one side already done I am well on the way to being (relatively) rust free. Funny how with the interweb a video made in NC can end up down here in NZ helping out.
Have a good one.

[ebfabman]

Billhilly, Its great the cab repair dvd's are help to you. There was over 200 hours of repairs to the cab in the videos and over 100 of it was fairly typical rust. I couldn't get every issue in the videos or it would take two weeks to watch Some people have asked about the audio. The videos were made by a fabricator on a small budget and not a professional film maker with professional script writers. When the audio drops out, its where I said something wrong or something made no sense. Talk to yourself all day long while you work and tape it, you'll see what I mean...LOL...
Anyway, back to your truck. One thing I thought about is the above suggestion was considering you had the cab corner and outer rocker done. If not, try aligning the door to the upper b pillar area from the character line up by tilting the door in at the top, then move the bottom of the cab corner and outer rocker out to meet the lower section of the door. Also keep an eye on the door seal lip as you may need to adjust it when you're happy with the way everything else fits.
As I always tell everyone who purchases the cab repair dvd's, feel free to contact me if there is anything I can help with....eb

[Billhilly]

I definitley don't need anyone tapeing me all day long! Muttering away to myself. I wear a respirator quite a bit as well and figure thats a good thing too. You know when you've got to hold your tounge just the right way... I'm glad I've got most of my face covered!
I think that drilling the spot welds out all the way up will give me the most adjustability. Good to be able to talk (type) about it. Just clears the head as well.
This right side will certainly be easier than the left, and I only had to replace very small sections of the A and B pillers (thought everything is going to line up so great!). I sat the outer rocker up to see how things were looking and the back end looks half way close, but the front looks like it will sit at least a quarter inch away from the A piller/inner rocker bottom (to line up with the door bottom). Such is life. Some more massaging required!
Thanks for the offer of help. I ain't finished yet!

[Billhilly]

Should have put these up the other week.
That worked a treat drilling the spot welds out from the bottom up to about the middle. I thought I was going to run out of inwards 'travel' right at the character line, but it came to rest against the B piller in just the right place.
Thanks again Earl. Currently battling a outer rocker that has a massive bow outwards compared to the door skin. Where is my angle grinder.....

[Boog]

Sometimes you've gotta work your butt off to just move some metal a 1/4" huh Bill? It's lined up great now.

[Billhilly]

Originally Posted by Boog

Sometimes you've gotta work your butt off to just move some metal a 1/4" huh Bill? It's lined up great now.

You got that right Boog. But well worth the effort. Better than the factory? Better than it was anyway. Cab corners and cab supports are now in, outer rocker is the last piece of the puzzle. Wish me luck!

[ebfabman]

Looks like you got er licked now. Turning out nice. At this point make sure you are happy with the way the door fits everywhere else. If you have the door seal you may want to sort of mock fit it up and see how the door fits. Make the rocker "fit" the door and cab corner. Mock fit them with tacks and see if you can get the door seal along the rocker lip to "complete" the seal mock up. This is where you may need to "fabricate" a custom rocker to get everything to line up and fit good. Its not at all uncommon to have to use more than one rocker to get this area right. keep us posted.......