b pillar alignment S1 FHC

[ollieoscarsid]

Quick question on door window/B pillar alignment. How good were they from the factory? I’m fitting up my door frames all fits nicely, with a parallel gap when viewed from the side, but the door frame sticks out at the top by about 3/16”, it’s down on the seal nicely on the inside all the way round, if you adjust the top in further to make flush it puts a slight twist in the frame which makes the window bind more than I’m happy with. Looking at other cars, most seem to be like this to some degree. Thanks. Chris.

[abowie]

Hammer, drill, shims and die grinder were all required on my current resto to get the gap and parallel correct. Oh, and bad language.

As to the twist in your door frame you may need to bend it to shape if you can't adjust the twist out using the 2 bolts at the bottom of the frames and the screws on the tops of the doors.

[politeperson]

When you say your door frame sticks out 3/16th, do you mead your door frame or your window frame?

[Jeremy]

Hammer, drill, shims and die grinder were all required on my current resto to get the gap and parallel correct. Oh, and bad language.

all of the above

[ollieoscarsid]

When you say your door frame sticks out 3/16th, do you mead your door frame or your window frame?

Hoping the below may help. The door and chrome window frame fit beautifully when viewed from the side. If you look at the pic from the rear, you can see that the A post and B post are different angles, the chrome B post angles in more than the A post. The B post is adjustable to some degree, but you have to take into account the rear window hangs off this and also needs to sit correctly on its seal.
The door glass is flat, so I’m struggling to see how it’s possible to improve on its fit to both the A and B posts as you can’t twist the glass...I think later cars have a different arrangement here and fit better. Mines a 63 car and looking at lots of pics they all look like mine, so my current opinion is you have to live wit it. A tad frustrating as it’s taken a lot of work to get all the other gaps as good as they are. Thanks. Chris.

[rswaffie]

It might be a trick of the light, but in the middle picture, the bottom mounting of the 1/4light pillar looks a bit skewed. I had the same on my driver’s side and it caused alignment headaches until I replaced it.

[politeperson]

I understand exactly now. You are right.

The window frame does nor run parallel to the windscreen frame, roof and b post an the same time in my experience. No matter how you shim it as the rear quarter-light has to shut!

I can never get this to align perfectly either, without completely re-engineering everything.

I only started to notice this when I started building E types some years ago. I have since given up worrying about it. I think it is why the b - post seals are so wide- to cover the taper.

I reckon if you see one that is perfect, it is not a real E type! Or its has had too much money spent of it.

As Swiss Tony would say, Like a beautiful woman- the prettiest faces always have imperfections too.

[tinworm]

You can try a small adjustment to the bracket on the bottom of the rear leg of the door chrome frame.

best of luck Barrie

[paulsco]

I had similar problems trying to fit mine. I spent many hours trying to get this right.
A couple of points: from memory the bottom of your B post chrome looks further out than mine, I am assuming that is as far as you were able to adjust it in.

The window frame bottom fixings need adjusting as a pair or else you will get a twist in the window frame. There should be some adjustment at the top of the door where the frame bolts too. I had to make up some extended bottom brackets to enable me to push the bottom of the frame as near to the door skin as possible. A word of advice here is that the bottom of window when wound down will interfere with the door skin if it is too close. Yours doesn’t look too bad; you might get away with putting some extra spacers between the bottom brackets and the frame

Paul

[Jeremy]

It's some comfort to know that others have struggled with this area, just as I did. I had new (robey) doors. RHS window frame and B-pillar fitted like a dream, LHS was an abs nightmare, requiring multiple revisits over a period of weeks with hammers, mole wrenches, Dremel, etc, before I declared myself satisfied (or honourably defeated). For the nth time I wondered how on earth they got this done on the production line.

[Tom W]

Here’s some photos from my car, which I believe is original. It definitely wasn’t stripped when it was resprayed as there’s overspray on everything. When I got it, it still had the remains of the original genuine door seals fitted. I’ve had the doors off since, but not disturbed the fit of the frame relative to the door, so it should be pretty representative.

The RHS window frame is flush with the B-post at the top, and under flush at the bottom. On the LHS, the B-post is flush top and bottom. Both sides have a tapering relationship to the A-post. I think the LHS looks better fitted, and I’ve never really noticed the tapering relationship to the A post before.

[ollieoscarsid]

It might be a trick of the light, but in the middle picture, the bottom mounting of the 1/4light pillar looks a bit skewed. I had the same on my driver’s side and it caused alignment headaches until I replaced it.

It is a little bit in that pic, it’s where it naturally wants to sit with the screws loose. Pushes in easily enough and goes a very small way to curing the problem. I’m just a little reluctant to keep adjusting it at this stage for fear of paint damage.

[ollieoscarsid]

I understand exactly now. You are right.

The window frame does nor run parallel to the windscreen frame, roof and b post an the same time in my experience. No matter how you shim it as the rear quarter-light has to shut!

I can never get this to align perfectly either, without completely re-engineering everything.

I only started to notice this when I started building E types some years ago. I have since given up worrying about it. I think it is why the b - post seals are so wide- to cover the taper.

I reckon if you see one that is perfect, it is not a real E type! Or its has had too much money spent of it.

As Swiss Tony would say, Like a beautiful woman- the prettiest faces always have imperfections too.

Thanks James, all very helpful. I’ve come to the conclusion that’s it’s now about as good as it’s going to get. A tad frustrating as everything else is real nice.
A quick question that you may be able to answer.. the little lip seals that go around the outside of the chrome door window surround and the fwd edge of the b post, do they go with the lip (open edge) in or out? I’ve seen both, and some with the b post seal reversed so they kind of interlock. I’ve only fitted the door window frame outer seal so far, with the lip inwards which seems okay, but I’m a tad short of space above the frame (with no shims under the door top) and it sometimes wants to catch on the gutter chrome, so I’m wondering if it should be reversed? Thanks for your input. Chris.

[ollieoscarsid]

Here’s some photos from my car, which I believe is original. It definitely wasn’t stripped when it was resprayed as there’s overspray on everything. When I got it, it still had the remains of the original genuine door seals fitted. I’ve had the doors off since, but not disturbed the fit of the frame relative to the door, so it should be pretty representative.

The RHS window frame is flush with the B-post at the top, and under flush at the bottom. On the LHS, the B-post is flush top and bottom. Both sides have a tapering relationship to the A-post. I think the LHS looks better fitted, and I’ve never really noticed the tapering relationship to the A post before.


Some really helpful pics there Tom, thanks. It’s nice to know it’s an awkward area, as I thought I’d missed something earlier on in the rebuild, as my car had roof damage which took some dealing with. Out of interest, which way round are your outer window frame and fwd b post seals? I’ve seen various combinations. Thanks again. Chris.

[politeperson]

Chris,

The "door window frame" seal fitted the the b-post has the sealing strip on the inside of the car. It seals against the inside of the door window frame when the door is shut.

The "door window frame" seal fitted to the "door window frame" has the sealing strip oriented to the outside of the car.
It seals against the outside of the b- post when the door is shut.

I'll post you a picture later!