ChrisJ

It's a bit of a chew separating this at the front as I found out when I removed the floor. Don't forget that the floor bolts through to the chassis in the corner and behind the front of the A post is the L shaped bracket that slides in between the chassis and the floor. The A post get's welded to that so you'll have to have it all separated if you're just after jacking that A post.

No. Im jacking the A post by itself. The floor doesn't move as I'm moving everything above it and it's also not welded to it yet. You'll see on the inside of the A post behind where the door hinges attach that the support is shaped to sit over the lower a post panel. It was sitting perfectly on top but my A post repair wanted to go up and it was this that was stopping it. That's when I decided to jack the lot and discovered that it made the door go up (obviously) but then I was able to adjust the hinges and get it to line up properly as I had a bit more movement once jacked. Forgive my wonderful drawing but it shows the direction of travel where I'm jacking it. I've still got some A post left below the floor but I'll just trim that up. The common theme I kept coming across was people saying fit everything around the door and I've got the door somewhere near now. Can't be wrong on 3 sides can it! The shut line across the bottom of the door to the sill is even from front to back and my door to bonnet gap is reasonably straight. All achieved with a little bit of jacking. Give it a go in little increments. I also removed the door striker whilst I did it so the door wasn't fixed at the B post by being pulled down or anything. If it shuts perfect but then get's caught on the striker, then adjust the striker. With a grinder if necessary. lol. Most important thing is that the door shuts and looks right when it's shut. I can just give mine a push from fully open and it closes itself now. I also bought new door hinges as there was play in my pins. Tried new pins but they were a right faff to fit so I sacked it off and just bought hinges.

May have sussed what the original problem with the door fit was. If you look at the first picture in my original post you can see that the top of the door is a mile away from the rear wing but the bottom was touching. I need to repair the lower A post but since bodywork and fabricating is a bit baptism of fire for me here, I just bought the repair panel. Seems like a good quality one, a cream coloured panel from RimmerBrothers. Anyway, wouldn't it hell as like fit. Wanted to go up by 30mm but the top of it was being stopped by the shaped inner A post strengthener (Behind where the door hinges bolt in). I experimented with a jack and found that by jacking it up, not only did the panel fit perfect, but the door moved up by the same amount. Left the jack in, adjusted the door hinges and what do ya know, the door fits almost perfect now. The profile/contour is correct and follows that of the wing, the bonnet and the sill. What I deduce from this is that during the past restoration that it's had, it's been welded up in the wrong place. I've got pictures of it painted on a trailer with sills on but no doors and no windscreen or frame in. Knowing what i know now, seems like you would have a job on doing this work with only half a car.

Funny you mention that. I spoke to a Triumph restoration guy looking for a few pointers. One of which was that he said the early cars need another 10mm adding to the new replacement floor panels as they aren't long enough. Are you confirming this? The image you've posted shows the sill leaning. As in the bit that the door closes into isnt flat and leans away from the car. Is that right? Makes sense for water run off. I'd look at the other side of the car but since this side was bodged up a bit, i've discounted anything on the car as a correct reference point. Thanks Chris

Thanks for the words of encouragement. Little update. All the old shan cut out. The rabbit hole went rather deep. There's a bit of fabrication to do at the lower A post extending to the front following on from the sill strengthener and the same carry on at the lower rear wing/arch. So far we've got new floor, inner and outer sills, A post transition and the lower rear wing repair panel clamped or self drilling screws into place. Managed to straighten out where the lower wing was going inwards where it met the sill (See pictures in my first post). This seems to be a common problem I've seen browsing the for sale sites looking at other peoples cars. Alot of fettling still deciphering what may have been done wrong in the past. Still couldn't make the door fit the hole properly but had a consistent gap along the bottom of the sill and up the bonnet. So after a bit of grinding at both sides of the door and chipping off a bit of weld that I hadn't noticed, finally got the door to go inside the opening pretty well. Since I've come this far now, I intend to have it bang on when I'm done. To that end there's a 2mm lip on the bottom of the door to the sill which i will get to fit in perfectly flush. Either by altering the doorskin (last option) or the first thing to try is bending a slightly shorter flange on the outer sill where it meets the inner and this should push it out to meet the bottom of the door. Slow progress but nevertheless I appear to be getting somewhere. Pictures attached showing gaps I've got so far.

Ordered new floor, inner sill, strengthener, outer sill and a couple of other repair panels. Floor was an absolute mission to get out. All the corners bodged up and full of filler over rubbish welding. Looked like a reasonable repair until you get all the paint and the filler off. welds were all over, bits of metal here and there and pop rivets galore.. Spent a good few hours picking through it to get it off whilst trying to save anything decent. Filler also inside the outer sill over all the shan patching that's been done in the past. Corner of the battery box where the top of the outer sill meets looks a bit messy too. Filler had even been built up on flat repair panel to make it look like it had the shape in it and then painted over. Opted to replace the full floor in one which was a bit of a challenge but managed to get it wriggled into position and under all of the flanges. Not welded in yet though. Hung the new outer sill on with the door and still theres something not right with that original door shut line. Im absolutely convinced that the rear wing has been fitted pushed in too far. Perhaps the B post isn't set right? Dunno. There's something. A bit disheartened if I'm honest and a bit in over my head perhaps. Bodywork isn't my forte. May have to relent and get a professionals eye on it. Even though I've done the right thing by replacing all the knackered stuff that was bodged and hidden, no point in welding all the new stuff back up to end up with the same problem I initially had.

Saga continues. More excavation revealed this beauty. Some quality bodgery gone on here.

are we not talking about this lower transition piece?

This was plan A. Unpick it to see if there was 5-8mm or so of outward movement on the sill and lower wing. Been denied the easy fix now so it's all off. That lower wing section is going the journey too. Put a repair panel in and hopefully with it all been new, should get somewhere with the alignment. B post where the door striker goes looks and feels ok. The lower B post transition is a bit like a farmers field so that could very well be getting replaced too.

Well, this escalated quite quickly. Sanded the lower rear wing, along the sill and the lower B post. and It was a full wing that's been put on. Unfortunately I've uncovered some rather questionable craftsmanship. Once I'd got all of the catty off the top of the welds and seams (everything was coated in it), it revealed that at some point it has had a sill and an A post transition which although seem to be correct panels, have been poorly fitted with gaps filled with sloppy welding and more catty. The underside edge where it meets the inner sill although looked intact, after filler removal revealed it to look like a lace curtain. No point in even attempting to unpick the welds as there would be nothing left. Grinder it is then! Only wanted to adjust my door gap. Have a look at the pictures, Bit of questionable graft on show. I particularly like the horizontal cut behind the front of the sill, left passenger footwell. Not sure what the ambition was there. Going to need some panels. Are RimmerBrothers alright? I see they sell "Genuine" and aftermarket sills. £20 difference. From every video I've watched it doesn't seem to matter where you buy your panel from, there's always a fanny on with fitting. lol

Thanks for the reply. Next step, get the DA on it and expose the welds to see what's going on?

Morning. I've recently acquired a '68 Mk1 GT6 in pretty decent rust free shape. Looking at the paperwork it's had plenty of bits and bobs over the years as a couple of people have worked on the restoration. Notably, I have a receipt dated 2005 for amongst other things 2 rear wings and a drivers door skin. No mention of a passenger door skin although this could have been done at a later date The issue I'm having is with the alignment of the passenger door. I have a gap at the top but tight at the bottom. I can't adjust it anywhere. Even with all bolts removed from the hinges, rubbers pulled out of the way and the door just sat in the opening, It can't be turned at all to make it line up. You can see in the picture that the door has been catching in the past. I suspect that the rear wing has been positioned incorrectly as where it meets the sill it curves inwards. There's no mention of a new sill being fitted which puzzles me as to how you could position the wing incorrectly. From looking at it, if the bottom of that wing pulled out, that should open the gap up to about the same as what is currently at the top and then i would be able to adjust the whole lot. I'm not a bodyshop guy so i'm after a bit of a pointer as to what might be the root cause and how best to tackle it Thanks very much Chris