Door gaps on GT6 mk3

[Adrian Saunders]

Good afternoon all, I’m refitting doors, drop glass and quarter-lights etc on my GT6 mk3 and I was wondering just what gaps to expect/go for. Are they always the same all around or different across the bottom compared to ends? Are both ends always the same? I’ve seen many with comparatively huge gaps to the bonnet and also not parallel.  I assume that the rear gap is quite important as the latch Mech needs to fit around the striker plate. 

[Colin Lindsay]

They should be the same all the way round; I know some cars have a poorly-fitted bonnet so a large gap where the door hinges are, and sometimes pattern sills don't fit as neatly as the originals so gaps can be larger than optimal but it should be a neat uniform spacing all round. Heralds are 3/8; no idea if that's the same for the GT6.

[dougbgt6]

Adrian,

There is some adjustment on the bonnet on the front hinge bracket. This enables you to adjust the door/bonnet gap. Up or down to  make a more equal gap and forward and back to narrow or enlarge.

Doug

[chrishawley]

The only documented dimension for panel gap of GT6/Spit is 3/16th inch for bonnet trailing edge to scuttle and trailing edge front wings to doors.

On my GT6 I set the bonnet to scuttle dimension first and having the little rubber buffers on the trailing edge is a big help here. I then set the gap to 3/16th between the lower trailing lip of the wing to the upper edge of the sill (much time spent adjusting the rubber cones, their strikers and the bonnet catches. Then proceeded to doors. And a bit more adjustment of the bonnet, then the doors again etc etc.

If moving the doors causes the latch to foul on the striker plate then gaskets can be fitted under the striker and 0, 1 or 2 were fitted OE. I made some out of aluminium 0.5, 1, and 2mm and trial-and-errored till i got a clean shut.

The gap door lower edge to sill is not that critical since this gap is not in eyeline. But what is crucial is that the doors aren't doing 'elephant's ears' in this area (i.e. the door lower edge is sticking out beyond the line of the sill. It should all be flush when the car is viewed rear to front. This IS in the eyeline. This, of course, involves twisting (adjusting) the door around the hinge to door mountings although the hinge to scuttle mountings can be shimmed or skimmed if need be.

Hope that's a bit of help, but can provide even more detail if needed.

Took me a 40 hours all in to finally get the alignment acceptable on my GT6.

[Paul H]

Did you have to “modify” the doors in any way ?

Paul 

[chrishawley]

On 22/06/2020 at 10:45, Paul H said:

Did you have to “modify” the doors in any way ?

Paul 

Not the doors as such. But I used new (reproduction) hinges and these were a problem in that the proper range of adjustment was limited by a) hinges too thick (skimmed) and b) holes not drilled precisely (opened up to allow that extra bit of movement). Gets me wondering how many 'door fit' problems are actually 'hinge fit' problems.

 

Cheers
C

[Adrian Saunders]

8 hours ago, chrishawley said:

Not the doors as such. But I used new (reproduction) hinges and these were a problem in that the proper range of adjustment was limited by a) hinges too thick (skimmed) and b) holes not drilled precisely (opened up to allow that extra bit of movement). Gets me wondering how many 'door fit' problems are actually 'hinge fit' problems.

 

Cheers
C

I’ve used socket head cap screws instead of hex heads to allow extra adjustment.