XD-XF panel alignment

[gerg 10,871]

I'm having a shit of a time getting the panel gaps and crease lines good on both sides of my wags.

 

Driver's side doors are all good ie: close nicely and not too much force on the seals, gap to the sill is pretty even all along. Then I go and bolt the guard on, and when I line it up with the driver's door there's a massive gap to the plenum up top. Gap to the bonnet is not as bad but not great either.

 

Passenger side has the doors also closing nicely, sill gap is also good but bolting the guard on has the crease or "swage" line too high by at least 5mm. Sure you could bring the door up to meet it but that fucks your door gaps and you have to adjust your catches all over again. Also the window frame would hit the pillar the more you lift it.

 

Long story short, I was wondering if my car is deformed like the guy out of the Goonies or if it's just a box Falcon thing to have a generally shitty panel fit.

 

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[hendrixhc 10,918]

I had a similar experience lining mine up.

Get the guard right and the doors are out. line up the doors guards are out.

I lined up the swage lines perfectly and the tops and bottoms of the doors dont line up to great.

I think this is why the "masters" of our craft add welds to the door edges to get gaps correct.

I also noticed when doing the body work on the rear wheel arches that the profiles look the same but when i used a prfileing gauge they were quite dissimilar.

I guess perfection will come depending on patience and desire to modify.

[CHESTNUTXE 7,300]

yep me too,always the drivers side front panel.

[gerg 10,871]

Cheers guys so it's not just my rig being way off. I have heard about this shape having not real good panel gaps from new, would only get worse with time, etc. Bit of door hinge wear adds to the fun as well

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[ando76 4,354]

Oh it's a pain on most cars.  Doing it with new hinges (no slop) is a must. Then you get it all right and fit new door rubbers and it all goes to the shit again. 

Patience is the key and if you have already painted your panels you will have to live with the non Lexus ball bearing gap thing. 

XL-XP are shocking at that plenum/ guard junction. I feel your pain. 

[gerg 10,871]

If there's one consolation, the colour will be the same Satellite Brown, so being pretty dark, the gaps won't show as much as if it were white or yellow.

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[blu xe 825]

I've had some with really nice gaps and others that were really bad. Luck of the draw. Start at the back and work forward. If your chasing nice gaps on any older ford or whatever car for that matter it needs to happen prior to paint. As Ando said rubbers fitted and door hinges bushed to eliminate droop. Really nice gaps will require levering, smacking them with mallets and hammers, or adding metal by welding or grinding edges back and rewelding to suit. If you aren't that keen its a happy medium I'm afraid. One that really shits me is the dog leg to back door. I don't think I've had one yet that doesn't have a way to tight gap. 

[hendrixhc 10,918]

I also had to exercise the window frames on the doors to get a nice shape and fit as well.

 

[bear351c 10,270]

On 12/11/2017 at 9:41 PM, blu xe said:

 Luck of the draw. 

 One that really shits me is the dog leg to back door. 

Yeah,  this ^ ^ ^  XA,B,C dog leg fitment is appauling.  But, hey...it was the Seventies.  Who knows what the guys on the line where smoking.. 

[gerg 10,871]

Yeah,  this ^ ^ ^  XA,B,C dog leg fitment is appauling.  But, hey...it was the Seventies.  Who knows what the guys on the line where smoking.. 

Yeah i can see dramas with the coupe already, the top of the front guard is hard against the pillar but the door gap is still massive. No wonder the window trims were so wide... They need to be to cover the fuckups.

Thank goodness there are no dog-leg problems with coupes/utes

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[bear351c 10,270]

Nothing that can't be fixed with a grinder and some bog........ 

[bear351c 10,270]

I remember Paul (MntlXD) trying 3 or 4 boot lids, 'til he found one that 'fitted'. That was 5 years after the XB..!!