body panels and door alignment
 

Hey guys, I know there must be a thread on this topic, but I've searched and can't find it. So I'm in the process of disassembly prior to painting, and I want to keep all sheet metal and doors aligned as they are now when I reassemble the car. I know there is a technique using 1/8 in drill bits, but could someone point me in the right direction here. I don't want to just start drilling holes without clarification. Thanks, David

What I did (under advice) was drill straight through the door hinge into the body. This way when you put the hinge back on you can insert the drill bit as an indexing point. Sounds good in theory but it didn't work for me. I had a back up plan. I painted the door hinge in place, that way when it came off there was a 'ghost' impression of where it was located. I then masked that 'ghost' print off exactly. Then i painted the jamb, leaving the masking in place. When i took the masking off after painting the layout area for the hinge was clearly and perfectly marked. Worked like a charm, there was no need to use the drill bit (after i already drilled the hole).

I like it! I'll give that a try. Otherwise, it seems that drilling just one reference hole wouldn't be enough. To get the hinge in the correct place, it seems like at least two holes would need to be drilled. What about the other front sheet metal? Are you drilling holes or using the ghost technique? Thanks.

I did not do anything special for the fenders. I set my doors up and worked forward. Its pretty much a PIA and time consuming, but if youre patient it will work out (this was on my 77 T/A). One thing I did was to pull square measurements for the hood opening, I also made spreader bars out of wood to measure the distance between the fenders at the cowell area and at the front end. My first go round had everything aligned perfectly, all gaps looked great. When i put the hood on I found everything was way out of square!! That's when I went with the diagonal measurements and spreader boards. I am going through the same process now with the TATA I am restoring. Just set the dr door on sunday. One other thing I found helpful when re-installing the doors, take the strike bolt off of the jamb until the door is set and aligned.

One other thought, make sure you make a note of any shim placement. That will make putting things back together easier.

I have a bit of tweeking on the gaps before disassembly, but I can see the benefit of investing some time at this point getting everything just right. The key is being able to "index" things properly either using drill bits or your technique so they go back together the same way. David