My doors are on and the look undisturbed from the factory. THey line up nicely and i would like to make sure they get back to this same position after i take them off for painting. The plate on the hinge is really thick. Does anyone know where to drill them for an alignment pin later? How about the hinge to the door? do i drill them too?
I saw this done on Horse Power TV show Muscle Car. They drilled a small hole through the hinge and plate. I believe the car was project Lime Light a green Camaro. Hope this helps.
Steven
I asked my buddy who’s a body man about this once. His response was “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen. If you know how to align panels you don’t need to drill holes in everything.”
Agreed, aligning panels is really not that hard.
Randy Goodling
CCOA #95
I don’t think I would do it either, but from the counterpoint perspective I can see the value of employing such a technique.
Aligning doors isn’t hard, but it does take some time to get it right. For someone who does that for a living, it probably saves a lot of time, but I wouldn’t do it to my car.
Lots of good body shops do this. What is not being said is when the holes are drilled. The right time to do it is when you do a dry fit of the panels after they have been stripped and primered, and before paint. Some people don’t dry fit panels before paint, some do. I like to make sure that everything lines up exactly the way I want before paint goes on the car. I find that sometimes you have to bend the leading edge of the hood or trunk lid to get the alignment back. These areas are frequently pushed in a little when some one pushes hard on the edge to move the car around.
The hole is usually 1/8" and in a place that will not be easily visible. For example under a fender washer. The advantage is it will get the panel close enough to avoid touching paint during reassembly. If the holes are not lining up it also tells you that there are other problems.
Just for reference, the order of adjustment is doors first. Adjust to align with the rear quarter, rocker panel, and A pillar. Hood second. Adjust back edge of hood to align with cowl. Fenders last. Adjust and shim fenders to line up with hood and doors.
To add to Bill’s excellent elaboration, I’d consider using Drip Chek or some sort of seam sealer to plug up these holes if you decided to go that way, especially if the final painting would follow this step.
Good point Bob. Not every one lives in Arid Zona.
Thanks folks, as always a lot has been weighed here. Im going to do it since I DONT do this for a living and recall years ago how much a PIA it was. Figuring out ways to make this easiier is half the fun anyway.
I suggest you “build” the doors before you put them on after paint. The weight of the glass & related will affect the doors alignment. I made 2 stands to hold doors on bench. Clamped down and the painted side away from me. I install all components of the door. IE: latch & related, glass & vents(67&8) as this adds up in weight and will save hours later.