Heres a shot of the gaps.. I make the decision when I did my C-1 car to paint the nose before I test fit it.. My thought was to line the nose up only as good as GM could have.. all this does is make people not appreciate all your hard works and makes you look like your not good at panel alignment.. For 30 years the bar has been set too high with restored cars and people EXPECT lazer straight... its too late to change public opinion so take my word for it.. don't bother.. TEST FIT THE WHOLE CAR!

I think I have this particular car at or slightly beyond GM spec.. I'll take that

Drivers side.. mostly front fender manipulation.. this side is sweet

I think the biggest lesson with car reto is that you have to man up and do the drudgery before you can enjoy the jewelry.. The inside of the doors was largely ignored.. The vents needed line up but the screws were rusty or broken. the window channels needs clean and lube plus detents and weathertrip installed. the latches and locks needed tweaking and rethreading. The Soff Seal weatherstrip needed to enjoy its new home in my trash barrel in place of the way better latex covered OEM version. The rubber bumpers and stickers and a new RS molding needed install. The door panels needed to be dressed with chrome and emblems and cut back to fit into the upper channel properly.( Mike Rossi is working with Al Knoch on remedying many of these repro interior parts issues btw ) The inside of the door was soaked in 3M rustfighter for the future and a new chrome vent window long screw was installled straight.It took a 1/2 hour just to retap the door lock knobs so they screwed down onto the threaded lock rods all the way
Taking the hour to polish out the dry laquer in the door jambs did wonders!

Once you finish killing the old striker and the door is done.. swap out the new one.. More on the welting shown in this pic later..

Stripped and aligned the door closed both detents with my pinky.. Once you start adding all this puffier than original doors panels, welting and weathertrip you have to give her effort to close.. But like my C-1 from a few years ago.. it all eventually settled in and the door closes like it should.

Funny story; had the door stripped near bare yet when you closed it it would still bounce open like something was in the way.. crazy.. but found that the interior light switch ( yes that little thing in the front jamb ) was never adjusted for height.. These need to be put in a vice and adjusted to the open area available when the door is closed.. for some reason these ones were made so tough that they refused to collapse and dented the door where they make contact... never saw that before.. anywhoo.. fix it and couldn't believe that little switches resisted such leverage

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Tom McGinnity,

PS. yes I chipped the door in at least 3 spots..

nothing that can't be fixed and hidden

I did not chip the driver door.. amazing

The door lines look KILLER!

P.S. Pass rear seat belts need to be swapped if you haven't already noticed.

No I did not.. thank you very much!

Tom, I think you have saved yourself a fair bit of time by having done a resto on another similar car. What the general reader of this post might not understand is that with the increase in people manufacturing spare parts for these classic cars, few have taken the time to make the parts fit and look correct. Huge money is wasted per car restored on incorrect fitting or incorrect looking repro parts.
You've had experience and know to stay away from certain suppliers for specific parts. I'm sure that the average joe rebuilding a car runs into so many disappointments with incorrect parts, that it lowers the overall resto standard. Careful reading of the threads here points people paying attention to certain suppliers for specific parts. It truly does make a big difference in saving time, patience and cash. I see it with this car. The calipers were modified because someone tried to make them fit under non correct DG rims, so they ground metal off them to make it work.Sub assemblies need to come apart fully before you can start to rebuild, or that one rusty bolt will make the door not shut properly. With every step you mention there is a lesson to be had. Thank you so much for being step by step, in detail, and thorough. Posts like these and the ones Phil used to do are wonderful. I was in the habit of printing them out and saving them until I got to that section of the car, then reread them and started out on my own.
A huge help and makes the car look way better when completed.

Phil should send the car to Tom that way it will get done! BTW..we both use the same glass cleaner

Thanks David.. very kind. It does take a long time to post this stuff and to remember to stop and snap a shot once in a while.. ( I try to snap a pic every time I shoot to the fridge for a beverage.. saves time )

Phil! Nice glass cleaner.. but I'm retiring after this one.. Its tough getting motivated on a car that ain't mine

The great news of Saturday was that Herb my neighbor and 45 year GM veteran came over and kicked as s on getting the car running right finally.. These guys that worked these cars for a living are a gift to the hobby.. I wish I had his skills

No Christmas card for the fellow that put this dash together.. thats all I'll say to that

Around here we call it " restoration in a can " which means just painting something on the outside won't make it new on the inside

It takes all day but replacing, cleaning, polishing and orienting everything correctly really really does make the difference..

Details few will ever see but the feeling of it being done correctly is very satisfying... They forgot to put the diode haness inside the dash.. thats pretty much what prompted the redo.. all set now