Hack Weld Solder Sculpt: Mind the gap

Xavier removing the door handle and lock cylinder

While the engine is out at the machine shop, I returned to the body, starting with the doors. Since I'm already thinking about the repaint, I need to start working some odd and damaged things that I've noticed along the way, not the least of which is the way the doors hang. See the pictures and you'll notice what concerns me: the gaps between the panels on this car need adjustment, but neither door is even close to being aligned. The body lines dodge all over when going through the doors and it bugs me. I need to consider several things when approaching potential solutions:

The driver's door is not the original
The car had both quarter panels replaced in an earlier restoration
The doors appear to have never aligned right in the pictures depicting the older resto results

That seam is kinda janky, door creaks as well

What, me worry?

Gotta admit, in the back of my mind I'm thinking that it is within the realm of possibility that the body wasn't braced when the past owners cut out and installed the new quarter panel sheet metal. And if that hunch is correct, the body could have flexed during the process, and the doors may never hang right. It's all speculation regardless. Even if true, we can't let that stop us. So Xavier and I decided to work with what we got. The strategy we decided on is to start at the rearmost doorseam- the one we can't really do much about (unless we cut out and reinstall the quarters, which ain't gonna happen), and when we have that seam looking good, adjust and re-hang the fender up front to get the front seam looking good. We acknowledged that we may need to rework some sheetmetal on the door skin to get our body lines sorted. Did I mention we're making this up as we go? Being that we are bone noobs at bodywork, if anyone out there has expertise, or would like to lend a hand, we're pretty receptive!

Permission to treat the witness as hostile, your excellence?

The piece in my hand is supposed to be attached

There are secondary reasons we decided to dismantle the doors, one of which is the presence of a big dent on the interior of the driver's door which will need attention, and some klunky action on some of the windows. We set out to remove the glass, regulator, door latch, and wing window assembly from the passenger door. Got some surprises when doing this! First surprise was that the window wasn't really attached, only gravity was holding it in, so when I pulled up, it just came out. Glad for good grip, since I didn't fling the window across the freakin room. Surprise #2 was the wing window assembly (isn't that the part Ralph Nader got all bothered about back in the day?)- When removing the assembly I discovered that on of the pop metal mounting tabs was sheared off. So the entire wing window assembly was attached with a single bolt. When reassembling the door, we'll endeavor to, you know, attach things and stuff. Third surprise was the rust under the rearview mirror mount, which I took care of with a grinder

Removing window trim

Not sure we actually had to remove every last mechanism from the door, but since we've never done it, it sure was interesting to learn how all of it goes together. And I'll tell you, the door weighs considerably less now that it's just a sheet metal shell. This should make all the fitment adjustments a whole lot easier. We can just prep and paint the thing too, without having to mask, also a plus. On the driver's side we'll probably just remove the glass, handles, and the trim.