[seth grundstad]

Hello, my father and I are having difficulties fitting in the door on my 65 coupe. Our main problem is when we tryed to latch the door, it pulled the door up leaving a huge gap between the bottom of the door and the rocker pannel. What should the gap between the bottom of the door and the rocker pannel be? Another problem is that rear quarter pannel half window outer ledge sticks up quite a ways in relation to the inner ledge, and I am wondering if there is a specific measurement from the inner to the outer half window ledge? Is the outer ledge (part of the quarter pannel) supposed to be higher than the inner ledge (not part of the rear quarter pannel)? Do you have any advice for us? Would moving the latch be a mistake? THANK YOU!!!

[redrulz]

Has your car previously been played with? By this I mean has the rear quarter been replaced?
Remove the post, on the body, that the door latch latches into. Remove the door weatherstripping. Using the adjustment on the door hinges ( there are adjustments on both the A-pillar and door end of the hinges) move the door so that the vertical height is correct ( trough along top of door should align with trough in rear quarter ). This should leave a gap of 1/8" to 3/16" between the door and the rocker.
Move door fore or aft to have a 1/8" to 3/16" gap between the rear quarter and the back edge of the door. At this point the gap at the front between the door and the front fender isn't too important as it is obtained by moving the fender afterwards.
Put the post back in place so that it aligns with the door latch.
Reinstall the weatherstripping.

This is a simplified set of instructions but hopefully has captured the process.
Good luck with it.

[seth grundstad]

Yes my car has previously had a rear quarter pannel put in, but they did a bad job so we are replacing it. Thank you and I forgot to mention that my car has been completly striped and the quarter pannel, rocker pannel, and door are all new pieces that we are trying to fit in togerther before we weld in the rocker and rear quarter pannel.

[drummingrocks]

If the quarter panel install is as bad as you say it is, then I wouldn't worry so much about getting the door to line up with the quarter. Worry more about aligning the door with the rocker, as you need to have this correct before you try to cut off the quarter.

It sounds like the door striker is too high. Open up the door, look in the doorjamb, and you'll find a small oblong piece with two large phillips screws securing it to the doorjamb.

This striker can be moved in and out, up and down to affect how the door sits when it's closed. Don't loosen the screws up too much; you want to move the striker a little bit at a time. Trust me, a little movement can go a VERY long way.