69 Door/rocker gap question

[richRTSE]

I just rebuilt the door hinges on my 500 clone project, now I'm trying to get the door aligned before replacing the quarter panel. The door is square in the opening, and I'm pretty happy with how the top of it lines up with the cowl (the doors on my last car always seemed low there), and the body lines match the quarterpanel. My question is about the gap between the bottom of the door and the rocker...that gap is 1/2" now. It looks huge to me!  Is that close to normal? The rest of the gaps are all 3/16"-1/4". And should I hang the fender (currently off car) back on the car, or can I completely align the door with out it?

Thanks, Rich   

[Patronus]

Were you able to use bushings on the lower hinge or just the upper? That does sounds about right tho'..

[richRTSE]

Yes, I was able to use bushings in the lower hinges. The kit I used was about 10 yrs old from YearOne that I had sitting around. The bushings and pin were the same size as the uppers, just had to drill out lower hinge. I also used a small sanding drum on a dremel tool to get the hole sized correctly, as the drill bit I used was smaller than the bushing. Door swings nice now, with no sagging.  

But that lower gap just looked too big for some reason...

[jaak]

I got a pretty nice gaps along the sides, body lines match up, top of the door/quarter match up good and I too have a wider gap along the bottom. Maybe all cars are this way 

Jason

[tan top]

 yeah  mine were slightly wider then 1/2 at the bottom ,  like whats been mentioned ,  its the door hight at the top is the thing to concentrate on !!  level with top of quarter & cowel 

[bill440rt]

Yep, the gap along the bottom was usually pretty big.
Get the door lined up nice with the top & vertical jamb on the 1/4. The bottom gap will usually fall into place, then. It's about 1/2" or so. 

[richRTSE]

Thanks for the replies guys, glad to hear thats normal.

[Charger-Bodie]

That is pretty normal. When I did my last car ,it needed rockers so i made sure to "creat" nice gaps by locating the rocker correctly.