Quote:
Originally Posted by Low Elco
No need for a torch. it's pretty common to have to splay them open a bit. Bad part is you've hard welded in your back cab corner. Lotsa times you have to "tulip" them open at the front. Slice with your zip wheel along all the ridges at the front top side of the corner, anywhere it touches on a vertical plane. tip the petals back until your front drops where you want it. tack it all in and hang your door. Line everything door wise up with the door jamb and case and lower body line. See where you're at. Lotsa times you have to slice the rear curve of the upper rocker as well. Tack and move rocker till you line up with door bottom and cab corner. View all patch panels as a close approximation. If you're halfway where you want it, start tacking. weld up the gape in your tulip.
Gap Welding Tip: Lay your gun down until you're aiming your wire on a very shallow angle at the face of the cut, not perpendicular to the panel. This will throw the heat into the meat of the panel, not just the edge. Pop your trigger to build material. I've welded up BIG gaps this way.
Hot Tip: while you have your door in, go to the top and lay a standard Sharpie against the cab and trace onto the door. Your gaps should be pretty close, but where you're tight, you'll leave a mark. take the door off and slice right down the mark favoring the door side. Then weld the door edge back solid. Wha-la, nice door gaps.
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Thank you very much for the time you spent teaching a novice. All of what you said helped and made sense to me. My one major question at this point is what to do with the inner rocker panel height because without the outer rocker on, the inner rocker touches the door bottom. I see what you mean by already having hard tacked in the cab corner. I already have to replace the door bottoms on both sides of the truck because they are roached. Should i just tack my outer rocker in place as low as i can using the tulip method as described knowing that it won't allow me to close the door and then fix that problem when i cut the doors up? I could just shorten the inside of the door "cup" area at the bottom to make up for the problem with the "too high inner rocker". The other option is to somehow lower the inner rocker a half inch before even messing with the outer rocker fitment. Basically, there's no way to make the rocker fit with any method until i address the height of the inner rocker since that's what the outer rocker sits on. The only way around this problem i see is shortening the inside of the door cup
What you think?