Heater Channel Problems

[silas]

well, after spending a good day trimming and fitting the passengers side heater channel in place, i decided to weld it in.

one of the many concerns i had was that the holes in the pan match up to the mount holes in the hc. they all did. the a pillar fit was tight and the hc fit well at the rear crossmember. it looked like it fit well at the b pillar too, so i went ahead and welded it in.

i then went to start to fab up some peices for the lower 2\"s from the rear crossmember to the b pillar. thats when i noticed that the outside edge of the b pillar and the outside edge of the heater channel didnt line up.

now, i'm pretty certain that when the door is mounted and closed, the bottom of the door will not seat flush with the rear 1/4 panel and the gap will be off. bad news. there is nothing i hate more than a poor door gap. (well there is, but we wont get into that ).

i probably havent described this too well, so i took some pics. sorry for the blurriness.





in this last pic i highlighted the b pillar and hc area that should meet up. the gap is close to 3/16 of an inch.



i will probably end up hanging the door to see how it fits. part of the \"iron fortress\" (brace) that i welded in to keep the door gaps correct is in the way, but i think i can get around that.

so, can someone confirm that this area must line up and be true? better yet, if anyone has a pic of this area that they can post so i can reference, that would be great.

thanks in advance.
 

[Matt]

I just went through all of my pictures to see what I have.  The only thing close is a good shot of the A piller, it shows there that those two points needs to line up. I'd start with installing the striker, hang the door and figure it out from there. Any chance your \"iron fortress\" isn't as strong as you think it is?

[Matt]

I found a pic of James' car with the race seats installed. This is the best reference photo I have. Looks like they line up nicely.

[James Buchan]

NOW THAT WAS A GOOD PARTY!!!!!

[silas]

hey matt, thanks for the search and the pic. huge help. it does look like they do line up and seat flush.

i'm 99.9% sure that the iron fortress has served it's purpose well. i made sure to take plenty of measurements before welding it in and taking out the old h/c's. from a pillar to b pillar on ds & ps, high and low. from ds b pillar to ps b pillar high & low and ds a pillar to ps a pillar. i have checked and re-checked all these measurements throughout the surgery and they remain true.

i guess i will carefully cut out the hc and reposition it. if the holes in the pan and the holes in the hc dont line up bang on, i guess i can elongate the pan holes.

thanks again for the help.  

[nivag]

Silas here is a 'in progress shot I took. Hope this helps...

Samba pic

 

[silas]

Silas here is a 'in progress shot I took. Hope this helps...

Samba pic

hey gav, thanks man.

i was actually at tods new shop last week shootin the s#!t and got a good look at your project. it's coming along nicely. you must be excited.

it was good to talk with tod and check your car out at the same time. it gave me some good ideas about what lies ahead for me.

thanks again for the pic.

after many more measurements, it seems like matt was correct and the b pillar looks like it has flexed inward a bit.