gcthree

It seems that today, even the most common variety sedan features door and panel gaps measured in, seemingly, micro measurements. The panel fit on a 928 is just enormous...almost (dare I say it) like a piece of Detroit iron from past decades.

The fuel filler door is about the worst...(shameless advert for bacon).

But the design is such that your eye averts the gaps.

77tony

Has your car been resprayed and the doors taken off and then rehung ? Is the gap on the rear of the door(s) a little narrower than the front ? Looks like you will need to shim the door(s) forward a bit. Jerry Feather has 928 specific shim kits for this. T

Gunmetal

That filler cap must have been a friday job, mines not that bad

1988 s4 Auto ROW black/black West Australia

jtrygstad

Regarding gaps, aesthetics notwithstanding, my 89 always sounds like the door is ajar. I installed a new rubber door seal which helped somewhat, but mine still has that sound like the driver's door isn't full latched. So, yes, the door opening can be much larger than the door. Hence, gaps.

Bilal928S4

Sometimes if the car has had an accident and it was fixed there can be alignment issues of doors and panels. Like mentioned before there are shims available to get the correct fit of the door.

Nicole

In the early 1970ies, when the 928 was designed, there was no computer aided design, and no robots that assembled the bodies.

77tony

Jerry Feather's shim kit. T

17prospective buyer

This is one of the things that i always thought brought the looks down, you can tell the era from the panel gaps. Not knocking Porsche, that was the standard at the time. Even the 968 which was regarded as a modern technology refresh still was assembled under the same standards.

I think body kits on 928's all look like crap... the one thing i would do to improve the looks is try to get the windows flush, it'd really update the look i think. Just look at G35 coupes and 350Z's. The hatch quarter window trim to me is really bloated for a sports car. It sticks out at me everytime i see a rear shot of a 928.

19psi

When I bought my '82 I used a metal ruler and caliper to check every gap. Each side is a mirror image at multiple reference points. The doors, hatch and hood are centered to perfection. I've never owned a car with better fit and finish.
As far as the width of the gaps, yep they're wide compared to a Japanese car. Not sure what that has to do with anything as it's the way the car was designed and is supposed to be.

Shopping around for an S4 has been quite the opposite experience. Many have doors that are not centered perfectly. First place I look is the gap between the bottom of the doors and the rocker...always seems to be a a wider gap at one end that closes up towards the other. Don't think it's hinge wear either as the wider side may be at front of one car and the rear of another. Rub strips also align nicely.

I highly doubt each one that I've looked at has been racked up at some point. I'm thinking quality control may have become a bit more relaxed later on.

Chalkboss

Now you have me wanting to go around my S4 checking gaps. As if I don't have more important things to do!

OTR18WHEELER

A little off the main subject of the 928 here, but in the early '90s I worked at a GM dealership body shop. This TwerkWeed brings in a late model burgandy Monte Carlo SS, just shy of totaled. I dont know what he hit but every panel from the front bumper cover to the rear quarter panel on the passenger side had to be replaced...bumper cover, fender, door skin, quarter panel. Lucky me I get the job (all R&R and paint and decals. The Owner only had three complaints, the hood gap to the front facia was off 1 mm from corner to corner, the seam seal on the door skin (inner door jamb edge) looked smoother than the driver side door, the quarter glass rubber trim did not lay perfectly flat against the panel on the upper rear corner (you could barely put a fingernail under it). No one else would've ever noticed any of this, but the guy was a real A$$ beacause his car wasn't totaled to begin with.
Moral of the story is, his car looked better than before he crashed it, and I lost my A$$ with all the rework over stupid shyite, dont bitch about gaps.

The Forgotten On

My drivers side door sticks out a little and doesn't fit as flush against the car as my passenger door, so I get a ridiculously loud wind whistle that is higher pitched than an angry wife

I think the door got hit at one point because it has 3 holes in it (slide hammer?) and has filler coming through the holes along with tonnes of filler on the door itself.

I think I may need a new drivers door, it sits out over 1/8 of an inch from the body.

That is the only time to complain about gaps, when they start to cause problems. Otherwise don't worry about them, it will give you much less to pay attention to. Unless you are OCD....

Jerry Feather

Great Pictures, Tony, of the shims. I made these a few years ago when there was a thread about some guy's door had a wider gap in front than in back, and the word was that there was no such thing as shims to correct this. I had a bunch of aircraft aluminum sheet material in 2024-T3 in various thicknesses, up to about .080, and worked these up in my machine shop. Making them was fun, so I made a small bunch of them and sent some to the guy with the problem. Since then I have offered these to anyone in need and have sent out a few when requested.

A typical set of these consists of the smallest ones shown not including the .050 ones. With a set of four one can mix and match them to create a combination (or singles) for a variety of adjustment up to the total thickness. I included the .050 ones in the set I sent you, Tony, just because they were handy at the time and I thought they might be useful rather than using the .020 and .032 in combination in case about .050 was what you needed for Peachy.

Again, I send these out gratis for someone in need and the cost to mail them is just about equal to the cost of a glass of Mad Dog 20-20, so I usually wait until we might get together for a drink to have the postage covered.

The other sets I have recently sent out have been used to lift the back of the 928 doors which a couple of guys have found to be dragging on the door sill.

Anyone else, let me know if you need any.

gcthree

What did I start?!?

The gaps on my car are absolutely consistent and even around every panel, though significantly wider than today's razor-thin gaps. The point of the (now errant) discussion was that in this day and age, panel gaps are shockingly tight and is generally regarded as evidence of a quality build. I seem to think that Ferdinand Piech, upon taking the helm of VW, was one of the drivers of this movement. Bob Lutz drove it at GM.

Just goes to show that our expectations have been altered dramatically over the years. In the 70's, there still was a good chance that your car wouldn't start every day. Today, you couldn't imagine it not.

rdisney

I had the same issue. One day I noticed the wind noise more with the window open. While driving I moved my hand around all the seams I could reach. The noise would change most as I placed my hand around the mirror. I filled the seams between the mirror post and flag with clear silicone and most of the noise was gone.

Ron