912 door replacment

[snowman]

I need help. I have a 69 912 that the neighbor backed into the drivers door. The door is totaled, ie bent into the seat area. Shop replaced the door, but it dosen't fit. They are on the second door, it still dosen't fit, but in a differen' t way than the first door.

I have advised from several people that all Porsche doors are custom fit to the car, ie you have to lead the body to fit the door. Is this true? If so is there a factory manuel to back it up? They are telling me that the car is at fault, ie both doors don't fit because the car is damaged. But both doors don't fit in DIFFEREN'T ways, seems they would be the same if the car were at fault.

In any case the shop is trying to screw me. I had a perfactly fitting door, pictures to prove it, and now I don't. I suspect that they do not know what they are doing.

PLease HELP!!!!

[Atlee]

I don't know if it helps, but there is a good description of door fitting and adjustment in the "orange" book for the 912..
If you don't have it, Performance Parts has it for $19.16,
Cat# 901293.

[Atlee]

Sorry, cat# 901273

[WFBowen]

snowman:
The early 901 series doors like those on your '69 were definitely custom fitted to each chassis at the factory. Lead was used at various points of the car, especially where there were welds, but kept to an absolute minimum - the mark of an expert panel man who knows how to "tweak" the doorskin and then file it down flush with the mating panels. Check this factory photo around the door edges - it's been filed/ground in numerous areas and this car isn't even in the final body finishing area yet.
I've seen a couple of 901 doors re-skinned by an expert body man & even on perfect, chassis-matching doorframes, doing it right (i.e. where everything is aligned to specs) is a lengthly, time-consuming job for even an expert. If you were to order a factory replacement doorskin, what you'd get is a piece of pre-shaped sheetmetal with substantial excess material - a starting point for a well-trained metal worker - kinda like when you were a kid and ordered one of those balsa airplane kits only to open the box and find a bunch of stock wood pieces with attached plans on how to shape the parts!
Good luck,
Bill.