how do you get doors to line up? I see shims in one of the vendors catalogues. Any suggestions? Like where do you start, rear brackets to frame location or just play with it????
Bob
more pix.
The left rear door scrapes the bottom, but it seems to fit ok concerning the gap.
Looks like a 1912; they break across the thinnest point at the rear of the curve of the rear doors. Check to see if the back half of the body is not broken.
Check: if you can lift the body up from under the rear section and the gaps closes then the woodwork is loose/broken and in need of a repair.
Robert it going to wind up doing it the best way that you can.
On my 21 Touring rebuild I started with the body to frame brackets at the rear.
After adjusting the frame to body brackets it started to line up fairly well.
Don't know if this is a ground up restoration but on my rebuild I found that it might have been a better fit if I had laid out the side body sections and fitted the wood and doors before I attached it on the frame rails. Maybe your 12 is put together a different way.
My opinion on my 21 Touring.
Try adding washers to the rear body brackets on top of the frame brackets. You basically need to do whatever you need to do until it looks right. Maybe the frame is bent?
RE: left rear door -
Try putting a shim between the body and the bottom hinge or a shim between the door and the bottom hinge or a combination of both. This will lift the bottom of the door and hopefully eliminate the scraping.
If you have ever shimmed door hinges in your home or kitchen cupboard hinges, you'll know what I'm writing about.
Start at the front with the radiator. Get it centered. Then the front bolts which hold the firewall. shim one side or the other until you get the hood to fit the firewall. Next the front doors. Unless you use new wood blocks which are cut to fit, you can cut pieces of an old tire and use as a shim between the wood block and the frame. raise or lower as needed to get the doors to fit from side to side and hinge to latch. In the pictures you have posted it looks like the closest body bolt to the door might need to be lowered (hard to tell without seeing the top of the door and top of the body where they meet) and at the least the rear of the body needs to be raised. Keep trying until you get things to fit the best you can. Sometimes the problem is caused by a bent or twisted frame or door.
I like to first check and straighten the frame. And be sure the springs are centered and the frame is level on the axles. Then start at the radiator and work back. The hood is the hardest part to fit correctly, because the radiator itself could be tilted to one side, then the firewall side to side and front to back needs to be adjusted followed by the front doors and if a sedan or touring, the back doors. Good luck.
Norm
Thanks for all the suggestions!
Robert
Royce hit it on the head you have to start with a flat level frame, then all you can do is start to shim the back body brackets to close the gap up.... As you shim be sure to get in and out of the car to help it settle in under weight being in the back seat area....
Robert, it is a bit pointless trying to get a good fit to the doors with the body off the frame. Any bend/flex when you bolt it down will result in changes to their alignment.
Royce is on the ball. If the frame is flat you have a good start. If not, you can compensate for a sag by placing washers between the body and the frame brackets. If the door gap is wider at the top, the back or front of the body needs to be set on washers to lift the ends to close those gaps. Shims behind the hinges should only be used to even the gaps up at the front and back of the door. Shims will not make the hole the door fits in have parallel sides.
Hope this helps.
Allan from down under.
RE: shims behind hinges
If the door is not parallel to the opening (i.e., the door is sagging), placing a shim behind either the top or bottom hinge (but not both hinges) will raise the opposite corner of the door. The direction is determined by which hinge is shimmed. If you shim the top hinge, the opposite lower corner of the door will be raised. If you shim the lower hinge, the opposite upper corner will be raised.
This is a common remedy for aligning cabinet doors, house and building passage doors, exterior doors, car doors, etc.
If I could find an automobile example online, I would used it. However, watch this - it's the same principle....
1639467%2C00.html,http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/video/0,,1639467,00.html