Fitting a door

[donald]

I need assistance in fitting a "new" passenger door on my 72 911T. The original door has significant damage and I decided to replace it. I have a door from a donor 72 911T that I am using.

The first step in fitting the door was to center it from front to back. The original door was fitted with a single shim on the bottom hinge. The replacement door needed a few more shims (which i made). So now the door is centered front to back.
The window trim/frame and the door stop/catch look nice. The door has a nice ping to it when I close it.

Now I need your help: the front of the door extends beyond the fender and I don't get a good fit. I loosened all 6 hinge bolts and pushed the hinges in as far as possible. I still can't get a flush fit where the door meets the fender.

What steps do I need to do to make sure I get the correct fit???

I want to make sure I get a good fit before I remove the fender for the restoration.

Thanks for your support.

[DaddyGlenn]

I haven't gotten to that point in my project yet but I remember reading somewhere here that the front fenders go on AFTER the doors so the gaps can be adjusted. So.... I think you will need to adjust the fender.

[962porsche]

1st you do know that the doors on the 911 bodied cars have a tighter gap at the bottom that on the top were it alines to the QTR panels . that is the way they have to be for reasons i will not get into at this time .
most of the time what you are dealing with is because the door check was broken on the door . and the person that owned the car that the door came off of was to dam cheap to replace the door check . when the door checks brake the door then opens all the way to the door shell and stops on the shell of the door bending the front edge of the door out . the door check is what stops the door from opening all the way some people call it a door stop .
but the true name is door check .
the down side is there is no ez way to fix the door . and to get it even with the back edge of the fender you really can't pull the fenders out . you can tell if the door is bent out by laying a straight edge across the face of the door from the front to back to see just how bad it's bent . most of the time you can't see it by eye balling it you need to lay a straight edge on the face of the door to tell .
a ward to the wize is when ever you buy a used door always check to see if the door is bent out like that . the door checks tend to brake on the older 911's and people just leave it because when the check brakes it does not hit the fender .
in my shop we send back about 1/2 the used 911 doors we order for that reason .
why they are so much of a PITA o repair is that the door skin is ok it's the shell thats bent .
by tring to get the bend out of the door you will in most cases damage the skin .
no you do not need to pull the fenders to change out door .

[donald]

I will have to get out a straight edge tomorrow.

If memory serves, the donor car had both door checks in place. This does not mean that the door check wasn't broken at some point in the past. I will have to rely on 962porsche expertise.

[donald]

I just put a straight edge on the door.
As far as I can tell, the door is straight for the first 16 inches from the leading edge.

So, my problem still exists. How do I get the door and fender to align?

OR, is the leading edge supposed to be curved towards the body?

Thanks In advance for any support I can get ! ! !

[962porsche]

because of were the door hits the A-piler ( about 7 inches back ) you need to check with a 4foot straight edge that like i stated runs from the front of the door to the back edge of the door .
if the straight edge has no space AT ALL under it then you should just be able to loosen the fender bolts on the back edge and the ones to the rockers and pull the fenders out . you will need to also cut away all the seam sealer to pull the fender out .

[donald]

Well, I confirmed that the door is straight. I used a 48 inch level. The donor door is the same as the currrent driver's door.

I will have to remove the fender, elimate the seam seal and remount the fender to get everything aligned.

Any idea how much "play" there is in the fender movement?

Thanks
Donald

[962porsche]

you do not have to remove the fender you just have to get to the bolts on the back edge and at the rockers and loosen them to pull the fender out .