Help / advise needed regarding door / rockerpanel fitment

[TobyB]

The twist issue was the factory replacement doors...

 

D.M, can you figure out if the problem's just

in the outer curve AFTER the door frame, or if that corner of the 

frame comes in too much?  

 

t

 

[HobieDog]

On 4/29/2023 at 8:01 AM, D.martijn said:

Both new and old rocker panels are straight when we compare it with a steel profile

 

 

 

 

 

 

@D.martijn, just wanted to mention that as I was doing an initial fitting of my replacement rockers last night I noticed they have a crown that matches (somewhat) the crown present in the door.  Interesting that you noted yours are flat. While this isn’t, of course, a cause of your issue, I think the difference between our replacement rockers was noteworthy.

 

I’ve already chopped off both rockers and so I can’t tell you what my originals were like.  

[D.martijn]

1 hour ago, HobieDog said:

@D.martijn, just wanted to mention that as I was doing an initial fitting of my replacement rockers last night I noticed they have a crown that matches (somewhat) the crown present in the door.  Interesting that you noted yours are flat. While this isn’t, of course, a cause of your issue, I think the difference between our replacement rockers was noteworthy.

 

I’ve already chopped off both rockers and so I can’t tell you what my originals were like.  

 

Thanks for the feedback, however I see that it's not clamped to the inner rocker, maybe that will straighten it out as well.
 

I haven't had much time to futher look in to the door, that will be for next week probably.

On a German forum I read that sometimes the hinges (part that screws on the door) was also bend to get the fit of the door right.

[D.martijn]

We finally had some time to dig into the front left door not fitting quite right.

I started with measuring the doors on the bench, both left and right doors are pretty much equal.

Measuring from the flat plane where the door card sits against to the door corners, internal hinge plate, all within 1mm from each other.

 

Being that the doors are the same, we mounted the front right door onto the car to check it's fitment.

 

And open, there is a lot more gap (the front section of the outer rocker is still missing tho!)

 

Test fitted the front right NOS wing, lines up beautifully with the door and NOS nose panel

 

 

Measuring the lower corner of the right door to the A pillar, we have almost 20mm

 

Doing this same measurement on the left side of the car it's obvious that it's a lot less. ~12mm

I did a little research before on a German 02 forum (it's about the hood not lining up with the door)
However in this thread there's someone saying that in the factory they bent the hinges to get a better fit
https://forum.bmw-02-club.de/index.php?topic=126931.0

 

 

We do have a couple of extra hinge parts and decided to test with those, Here you can clearly see the difference between top and bottom, it's quite a bit to be honest

 

I also noticed there was a slight bulge on the lower section of the A pillar however this doesn't impact the fitment of the door with the sill, I decided to make this flatter as well.

 

 

 

After a lot more fitting and adjusting and checking with the rocker and without, with the rocker trim.

Measuring, comparing the other side.....

This is the final fitment of the door.

 

The only thing that is now bothering us a little bit it the front section of the rocker trim. as you can see, the door goes still towards the inside of the car, However I don't know if this is meant to be like this? Could someone check their car and also measure like the second picture below? Unfortunately we didn't have the right side rocker trim with us in the workshop, we'll probably test fit this one tomorrow.

~5mm

 

I'm also interested in a couple of pictures showing how much of a gap there is when the door is open.

 

 

 

 

 

[tzei]

Not with my car just now so can’t give measurements but is there a bend in circled area or is it just picture lies a bit? I think it should be straight. Bulge & bend here might suggest some accidend at some point.

[D.martijn]

8 minutes ago, tzei said:

Not with my car just now so can’t give measurements but is there a bend in circled area or is it just picture lies a bit? I think it should be straight. Bulge & bend here might suggest some accidend at some point.

 

The inner and outer A pillar got replace they sit flush/flat. probably due to the angle of the picture