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Karmann Ghia Door Fit
KGKenny - July 19th, 2015 at 10:49 PM

I've restored a 67 Karmann Ghia coupe with new heater channels, sills, lower front and rear guard sections. The body has not been off the floor pan. The doors now do not fit properly, binding on the leading edge and not closing flush. Does anyone have a similar experience or advice?


MR930 - July 20th, 2015 at 07:28 AM

Did you trial fit the doors before welding all the new panels in? Did you have ample bracing? Seems to me that it must have pulled during the welding stage. Might need to start cutting and welding again.


vw54 - July 20th, 2015 at 04:06 PM

have you have the hinges repaired and re bushed

without new bushed you will never line the doors up

should have been replaced before any metal work done


psimitar - July 20th, 2015 at 06:12 PM

Yar, you needed to make sure the hinges were in good order and had the door hung when fitting the new panels around the door aperture.

So no easy way around it, I'm afraid you're going to have to do some slice and dice once the hinges are free of slack :(


helbus - July 20th, 2015 at 07:33 PM

I restore cars like this, and trial fitting, refitting and doing it all again and again several times over during the welding process is very important. I can spend hours removing and refitting panels during the process of fitting rust repair sections, and the labour time increases, but the job finishes correctly.

So now if the door opening is a different size to the door shell, you have a problem that can only be rectified by cutting opening and rewelding as required.


OZ Towdster - July 21st, 2015 at 05:32 AM

Show us all some pictures to start with as it may be as simple as just changing the rubber blocks above the front suspension beam which will pull forward or push back the A pillars , yep sounds crazy but thats how VW designed it