Door to quarter gap and striker issue.

[cwylie]

So I have been messing with this door for a while now and I think I have it aligned about as good as I am going to be able to. I have a gap at the top that Im not sure if its normal or not but its not near as prominent on the passenger side. How would you go about fixing this?

My second issuse is after I got the door aligned I had issues with the striker. It seemed no matter how much I move it around the door would not close smoothly. Finally I added a washer behind it and it seemed to fix all my issues. It looks like the striker could have been pushed in slightly at some point as the vent is not perfectly straight. Should it be? If so do you think trying to pull the striker out a little with a slide hammer would work?

[thumper877]

The only way to fix that is weld rods to the door and grind them to the gap u want socks because it looks like u already have paint on the car

[jlcustomz]

Strikers can typically have washers behind them. If it works correct now, you're good there.

Older car gaps are never perfect from the factory & can vary for many different reasons. Rear of door to jamb gap can vary stating with fitment aligning the front of the door to how the front fender is aligned. If everything else is as good as you can get it, quit there on mechanically aligning & go to adjusting the actual gaps by grinding & filling methods.

If you are unable to do welding on the edge of the door panel, then the 2nd best method is to use a durable filler such as USC all metal on the door jamb area. You will need to get back to bare metal for it to adhere properly, but less intrusive & more diy for most than welding.
While thick filler near the edge of a surface could give a little bit of a ghost shadow in the future, it probably wouldn't be any worse or even as bad what could later show up from an amateur trying to weld on the edge of a panel & get it back smooth & straight.

[Sinnister69]

That looks like a camaro
I have little brackets that i clamp to the rocker panel and i set my door on it. It creates a perfect door to rocker gap. Then i can slide the door back and forth getting the door to quarter gap perfect. Then i just bolt the hinges down. I will post pics but for some reason i csnt with the forum app

[CampbellshotrodsAZ]

I would tend to agree with the above assessments. If the lower gap is parallel, then there is nothing more you can do adjustment-wise to that upper rear corner, so now you're just dealing with imperfect 60's panel gaps and alignment. Too bad it appears to be jambed already. The best solution is to take 1/8" steel rod and weld it front and back onto the top edge of the door, and make your own gap. My procedures have become more stringent with each car I build now, but basically I pretty much use welding rod on every car I do anymore, to ensure the gaps are 100% perfect. That's become an important factor for me in a car build.