[Ed in Maine]

I am at the critical stage of the restoration, trying to maintain good door fit. At the moment the hood is on with very good fit, the doors are hung with very good fit with new hinges. The curvature of the doors matches the body and the door gaps are very good on both sides. I have the door pillars completely assembled and braced in position. The turn buckles have been assembled and tweaked for a perfect door fit. I also have the heavy rear cross piece assembled to the rear of the quarter panels. The next step is assembly of the drip rail to the quarter panels and this is the problem. I can see that to complete this step, the quarter panels have to be pulled together. The drip rail at the top is 37 3/8 in. wide. The quarter panels just floating there are 38 in. wide. I can see that I will be putting a lot of stress on the door pillars to pull the quarter panels 5/8 in. for assembly. After I remove the braces on the door pillars, they will undoubtedly move inward screwing up the alignment with the doors. There are no adjustment points for the drip rail, it just bolts together



My question is what braces this whole assembly so that I can hold the position of the door pillars? Thank you for your help, Ed