Now the big one: getting the doors, hood and fenders to fit. We swear, when the car left the body shop eight years ago everything fit well but now it appeared that the car has morphed somewhat over time. The door gaps aft were tiny to non-existent and the fenders seemed now to be taller and at a funny angle. Most of the body lines didn't line up anymore either. First, we tackled the door gaps.





There is no adjustment in the hinge system that would allow them to be positioned further forward. All we could do was add shims behind them to move them further back but that, of course, would make the situation worse. At least shimming allowed us to get them to close, latch and be level.

We clearly had to move the hinges forward somehow. We tried hitting them with a BFH but they, and the a-pillar, were too sturdy. We thought about cutting them off and rewelding them on but thought we'd just bugger up the alignment of them doing that. Finally, we settled on cutting slots in them so they would more easily bend and, ultimately weld the slots up. It took a lot of chin rubbing and pacing back and forth but eventually we plucked up courage and were more than pleased when it seemed to work out better than expected.









We gained about 3mm of gap. We could have got more but we knew that opening the doors was going to be challenging even if we had 5-6mm of gap there, so were very happy with this. Next, fender fit!