C3 75 convertible door/window adjustment

[John H.]

Re: C3 75 convertible door/window adjustment

Ed -

Yes, there was some degree of variation in the routing process, as there was in any manual operation. However, there was more variation in the door inner-to-outer panel relationship.

I still remember one of my trouble-shooting trips to A.O. Smith-Ionia in '68 or '69 in response to fit issues at St. Louis (A.O. Smith built the doors for all C2's and C3's in Ionia and shipped them to St. Louis). We had supplied them with a rotary assembly fixture that held six doors, and each of the six fixtures had about 8-10 clamping details on it to precisely locate both the inner and outer panels with respect to each other so the finished door assembly met drawing specifications; I arrived unannounced (as I always did), went to check out the operation (which was in the basement), and found that they had removed half of the clamps from each station on the fixture "to make it easier" for the operator assembling the doors. Fortunately, they hadn't thrown the clamp details away (they were in a box in an adjacent room), so I got a couple of my tool engineers out there the next day to re-install all the clamps with the "master" setup door. The same thing may have occurred later in the C3 run if nobody was "watching the store" at A.O. Smith.

[Ed Jennings]

Re: C3 75 convertible door/window adjustment

John, I haven't taken any measurements on my "good" door for comparison, but I am beginning to suspect the inner/outer door relationship on that door may be less than optimum. If it was off by 1/8-3/16" that would explain most of my difficulties. Wonder how difficult it would be to unbond the door skin and reposition it slightly?

[Stephen W.]

Re: C3 75 convertible door/window adjustment

careful... What you gain up front you loose in the rear. Also if only part of the gap on the front edge is off ( good gap from rocker to midbody line but gets wide at top) then you will not accomplish what you want even if you are successful in breaking it loose from the steel frame. As long as your willing to get involved with refinishing I would think you would have greater success with extending the fender edge.
Can you raise the door up without loosing the lines?

[Ed Jennings]

Re: C3 75 convertible door/window adjustment

On that side, I'm too close at the rear, by about 1/8". I'm too wide at the front (mostly at the top), by about 3/16". Maybe the better part of valor is to extend the fender edge a bit. I'm going to have to do a little spot refinishing there anyway due to some edge chips resulting from playing with the door. Height of the door is about where it needs to be, both front and rear.