68 Coupe- Going Topless

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I picked up my doors today. They look exactly like the other set .They are perfect ,no dents or wobbles ,but i would swear they are made by the same manufacturer .
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The inner shell has a very light grain ,just like the last set .
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The one thing i can spot right off the top ,the door hinge plates in the door do not move ,no door adjustment :nonono: they don't even rattle .
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I will have to try to fix this or there will be no way to adjust the door . May take a couple of days to try to fit them ,just to much to do to be able to work on my projects right now .
 
Driver side door fits very good after a little knocking around of the edges to make them line up with the quarter . The gaps are just about perfect .
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The front fender fits up to the door great ,i have a good gap and the fender is just setting there .
Driver side will be no problem.
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Pass. side is the problem .It fits just the same as the Scott Drake door did . The gap is straight at the quarter and the rocker but wide .No adjustment left and i slotted the hinges nearly 1/4 inch to get them to move enough to get a decent gap .My original door fit very well on this side so it is the new doors .
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Then we get to the front of the door .The door is short at the top by 3/8 of an inch but good at the rocker .
The fender is all the way back ,can.t go any farther .I am either going to have to extend the door to meet the fender or extend the fender .
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The part of the door where the weather strip would go is to far back ,i can stick my hand in between the door and the jamb,no way the weather strip will seal . I don't see how they could do as good a job on the driver door and screw up the pass. side as bad as this .
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I don't have a good set of doors so i am going to have to some how make this door work . I will have to wait until i order my front fenders before i try to fix anything ,there is no telling how the new fenders will fit up to these doors . I guess i will go with new ford tooling ,i bought a set a while back and they fit pretty good ,i hope that i can make them fit up to these doors :nonono:
 
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Jim, I had the same problem with my new door shell on the 66. Drivers door. I made the rear of the door longer so I could close the seal gap at the front. I had to open the hinge adjustment slots on the piller slightly to the rear about an 1/8" but got pretty decent gaps and the weather strip should seal. Cant get my fingers in the gap at the front. Also, the hinge plates in the door should just be stuck with paint. and I had to open the holes just enough to get the full range out of the plates. All the doors are crap. I looked for a factory door at Carlisle but nothing much better than what I had and expensive. Once I got the new shell I resigned myself to making it work...painfull.
 
Jim, I had the same problem with my new door shell on the 66. Drivers door. I made the rear of the door longer so I could close the seal gap at the front. I had to open the hinge adjustment slots on the piller slightly to the rear about an 1/8" but got pretty decent gaps and the weather strip should seal. Cant get my fingers in the gap at the front. Also, the hinge plates in the door should just be stuck with paint. and I had to open the holes just enough to get the full range out of the plates. All the doors are crap. I looked for a factory door at Carlisle but nothing much better than what I had and expensive. Once I got the new shell I resigned myself to making it work...painfull.
The Dynacorn doors i used on my 66 conversion were a perfect fit right out of the box ,just as good as the originals. I compared the driver door to the pass door on these 67s and you can easily see the pass. side inner shell is cocked back towards the striker plate pulling the hinges back. I had to slot the holes in the front door post about 1/8 inch to get the hinges back far enough for a decent gap .This leaves the front inner shell to far back for the door seal in the front ,i will have to figure out something to make the seal touch. The driver door is just about perfect so the jig ,if they use one ,for the pass door must be off. I will just have to wait for the fenders to see what i will have to do .I think because the inner shell cocks back it pulls the top of the outer skin back as well and that is why it has a twist and are short at the top. I wish i would have had good original inner shells to re skin but the ones i have were rotted away at the bottoms.
 
I ordered right and left Ford tooling front fenders today ,i also ordered the rear valance with exhaust cut outs .Thought i better get them while the money is running good.
Stang - Aholics is sending pics of the door on the car to Dynacorn to see if there is some way they can fix this problem.
 
Jim, on behalf of all of us who plan to build something like yours in the near future, thank you for going through all this heartache for us. I hope Dynacorn will let us know when they get these concerns addressed.
While you're waiting for parts, I have a couple of pass side doors for a '67 and '68. I believe they're originals. If you want, I could send pics of 'em. Just tell me what to focus on. They're AZ cars so the rust is minimal, and usually just on the surface. The skins are parking lot killed, and one is smooshed like someone kicked it. Maybe you could skin one of 'em.
 
I am still waiting on front fenders . I decided to to get the nose section set up with headlights .It uses 69 outer lights ,trim rings and cans ,not a problem i have a bunch of them.
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You can use 67 -68 or 69-70 adjusters ,i used 67. they go in just like your original adjusters ,through the back side . I have them held in place with sheet metal screws for now but i will pop rivet them in with stainless rivets after painting .The retaining spring is 69 ,insert it through the hole and hook it on the lip of the fiberglass and pull ,it will click in place and stay
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Now all you have to do is set the light and can assembly in ,hook it on the adjusters and attach the spring. You will need one of these ,it is a headlight spring tool ,i made this one but you can buy them at any parts store .
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Reach in and hook the spring and pull it up until it will hook into the hole on the trim ring and you are done .
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My 67 turn signals set right in place .
Stang-Aholics is having new grills ,upper and lower, and the stainless head light rings made .Looks like i get the first set . They are going to be laser cut .I will be needing two of everything because i still need them for Johnny's car as well as my convert ,Um coupevert .They should be in soon .
 
well ,i picked up the front fenders ...not good ! I don't know what has happened to sheet metal parts in the last couple of years .They must not use a jig to get the proper shape,or the jig is just wrong . The driver side fender is to short at the top leaving a wide gap 3/4 of the way down .The top point at the windshield is bent down and there is a upward bow at about the last foot of the top of the fender
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I bent the top point at the windshield up and pushed the bow down .That made the fit better but not good .the top at the door is still wider than at the rocker so i will have to extend the fender to fit the door .the gap is about 1/4 inch ,my door gap is a bit tight at the rear of the door so i will open the gap a bit and see if i can close the front gap some ,but i will still have to straighten the line in the front .
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The pass side is almost the same as my original fender was ,may be a bit wider gap.Every thing lines up ,the hood to fender ,down the face of the door ,so i think this fender is good and the door is the problem here .When i get some time i will see if i can fit it a little better ,i will have to add to the length of the door because i know it is short .
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If you have even a decent fender ,hang on to it .These new pieces are only going to get worse .
These are Ford tooling and not worth what i payed for them .The rest of the fender seems to be good ,no dents ,fits up to the hood and the face matches the door ,but those end gaps are terrible .
 
Dang. Guess I better get out the hammer and dolly and straighten my bent ones. It'll be about the same amount of work either way, but I won't have spent the thou on new ones.
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Any suggestions on how to get that crease out without a ton of filler?
My talents lie in engines and drivetrain. My sheetmetal iron leaves things looking like golf balls. Of course, my only bodywork experience in the past has been on the stock car, and golf balls are aerodynamic, right?:rolleyes:
 
5 Hours . 5 hours of taking the door and fender on and of ,at least 30 times. I had to grind 1/4 inch off the fender where it goes under the front window trim ,it was that much to long and hit the body, that is why it would not close up the door gap .I had to grind the fender and door to get a straight gap ,but what a great fit now .
Had to weld the end of the door and the fender where i had to grind through .That face of the fender and door are nice and flush all the way down. The hood follows the top of the fender perfectly .The driver side is done . I am going to start the pass. side tomorrow ,to beat to attempt it today:drool:
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The pass. side is finished . It took a lot less time for this side even though it fit worse than the driver side did.
Pretty much the same fitting problem as the other side ,the top up to the windshield molding was 1/4 inch to long and the door gap was un even .It was a lot better on the top of the fender by the cowl ,just needing the turn up at the end by the molding lifted about 1/4 inch.
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the top of the fender follows the hood perfectly ,going to have great gaps and a good flush fit .
It is ready to be blasted and epoxy primed ,maybe next week .
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