Terry, and few questions?. Are you trying to fit these with the frt. fenders removed?. If you are, the door might be adjusted in too far and causing your concern. If the frt. fender is installed, make sure it is lined up and adjusted where it is going to be when the car is completed. You need to continue to shim the frame out to compensate for your adjustment. It is very common to find shims- actually special, extra thick type washers under them to adjust the very problem you are experiencing. We use a little roll of butyl to hold the washers in place while we are installing the frames You also need to check, even though it is very obvious, you have the correct window frames. '48,9 and '50 are a different style than the later ones. If you look, early style had a short "tongue" where they mount to the door, and the '51 and up had a longer mounting,. I expect the change was to add vertical strength to the window frames. It is very, very common to find the lower, division bar mounting bracket, broken. These take a tremendous amount of unintended abuse because of their design. We always find we need to restore, repair the division bar channel, especially at the very bottom, because they crack and start to split right where the metal had been folded and then the bottom mounting bracket riveted on. We weld these on the back side, not in the groove where the division bar actually goes- back side, in the groove. This also applies to all the other step-down division bars, but not as common since they are a closed cars. Hardtops are the same as CV. I hope this helps.

Thanks Doug, it helps a lot. The vent frames are from my convertible,which is a 1950, and are the ones I'm trying to install in the '51. These are not pitted like the '51's Same part number stamped on the vent frame but I never thought to lay them side by side. I'll switch them around and see how it goes. Terry

I have ran into some vent frames with this issue that have been bent. Typically I guess from the door laying on the ground. The frame it self should have a slight concave curve towards the interior which helps clear the rubber better. It may help just to add more shims to the bottom bolt and less to the upper one to compensate

As I started to work on the Hudson today, my elderly (older than I am ,anyway) stopped in telling me his heater didn't work so I spent some time removing the heater blower motor, which is shot, from his Toyota. Tomorrow I'll remove and compare the two styles of vent frames. I think these frames are pot metal so I did not want to try to bend them but I could see that happening over a longer period of time if they were lying on the ground with the weight of the door on them. BTW, the doors and fenders aligned real nice, but the hood gave me some trouble... I had to loosen the strut that runs under the hood near the cowl to keep the hood from laying too "flat"...and of course, exposing a small area that was not painted....Oh well, I have extra paint. Terry