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Old 29th May 2016, 15:08
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Jaguartvr Jaguartvr is offline
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Default The door/bonnet gap

As you can see from the picture the alignment looks pretty good, it looks good but you can't open the door

Two problems, as you open the door the leading edge of the door (LED) hits the inside of the trailing edge of bonnet (TEB) To stop the LED hitting the TEB I have worked out the best way is to "thin" the TEB and also taper it. Before doing this I found that when opening the door, the face of the door would hit the TEB, you obviously can't remove any of the front surface of the door so it has to be removed from TEB.
I noted where it was catching and ground away at the TEB with a mini belt sander.
as you can see I have ground away about 25mm from the bottom of the TEB tapering up to about 8mm at the top. At this time you start thinking "is this right?"
I then marked lines across the gap and measured how much I needed to add to LED.
I then drilled pilot holes in the edge and fitted some drywall screws, screwed them in until they protruded to the measurements on the door and then nipped off the ends with a disc cutter.
I then placed a plastic L trim behind the screws to give me a need edge and back filled with isopon GRP filler
i did this in two stages as it was easier to get round the bend.
Then mark the gap on the new filler and run along the edge to get the approximate profile.
Then rehang the door skin.

I then turned my attention to the trimmed TEB, the edge is much too thick so I again attached it with the mini belt sander.
From this thickness

To this

The thickness is the white line, the grey is the taper.

Refit bonnet and this is the result

Obviously I now have to neaten it all up and get the gap the same all along but the door now opens and closes without catching anywhere even with the door fully open.
The GRP filler with the drywall screws seems to have given a really strong bond which I don't think should crack in the future.
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