Door Gap Questions and Advice needed

[dennisO]

Hi All,

From reading previous posts, I believe the door gaps should be ~3-4mm. However, my 1970 911 Coupe has door gaps (~8mm) between the rear of the door and the front of the rear fender. The gap is fairly uniform from top of the door to the bottom. The gaps are about the same (~8mm) on the driver and passenger side of the car. I do not know if the doors have ever been removed from the car, so I don't know if shims are in place or missing. The tub does not look like it has ever been a bad accident, but I did find bondo from minor dings and minor dents. The coupe needs new floors, rockers, and front suspension pan, as the most of the bottom is pretty rusty. Passenger door gap picture below.

Questions:
Does ~8mm doors gaps indicate the body is way out of alignment and needs to be put on a Celette bench?

Can a rusty bottom be causing or aggregating the door gaps issue?

I have not removed the door hinges yet (need to buy special tool), but are there generally shims under the door hinges?

How best to fix the gap issue? I hope the answer is not bondo.


Thanks in advance,

Dennis

[Dpmulvan]

You really don't need a special tool to remove door hinges.

[dennisO]

I don't have the tool to remove the hinge bolts. They have a special head.

[962porsche]

Porsche makes the door gap to the QTR panels (fenders are only on the front ) bigger on top then on the bottom edge of the door to the QTR this is done for a reason ! so if your finding the gap is bigger on the top it's how it should be and don't screw around with it .
if you do people will think your car is bent of been repaired wrong .
the gap to the bottom of the door to the rocker panel should be about 4MM and the same from the front edge of the door to the fenders . the bottom of the door to QTR should start out at about 4MM and open to about 6mm .
more Porsche have been ruined by people making the gaps at the door to QTR even from top to bottom . any one that knows Porsches knows how the gap should be and know why they are made that way .
also bondo is a brand name and not the name of filler . the name of the product is called plastic body filler .

[dennisO]

962porsche,

Thanks for the info. The gaps look way too big, so something is not right. I'll check the gaps at the bottom. Maybe I'll get lucky and all it will need are some shims.


Dennis

[962porsche]

most of the time their is one shim on the top hinge to the body .
you do not have to remove the hinge to see if it in place or not as all you have to look for is the tab that sticks out between the hinge and body .
the tab sticks out and sits against the hinge it's self . so look for a thin piece of sheet metal sitting against the part of the hinge facing to the in side of the car .

the socket you need is called a multi points .

[dennisO]

962Porsche,

I checked as you suggested, and there are no shims installed. If shims are ~1mm, then I still have a pretty large gap (~7mm). I'll try installing a couple and see how it measures out.

Thanks for the help.

Dennis

[jgilliam914]

You can find the multi point tool at any O'Reillys or similar

[dennisO]

Thanks for the info. i would not have thought O'reillys had this tool.

[962porsche]

they are very common on euro cars .

[turbo owner]

Originally Posted by dennisO

Thanks for the info. i would not have thought O'reillys had this tool.

I must be getting old, I remember when O'reillys had a hand full of stores in Springfield now look at them. I wish I had listened to what I was told and bought their stock 25 years ago.