Lance I was working on this on the weekend - not perfect yet but reached the same conclusion as you have. (In my pic I cracked the door's top whuch I will fiberglass later in a form that matches the curve of the windshield side frame without any gap). Anyway...
The pivot point is as high as possible and as forward as possible, and the hunge bar should be tilted around 45 degrees.
I had to tape the door skin on and keep moving it up and down to see what touched what... Till I got it kind of okay - I marked and tacked a few points for the hings but didn't finish it and moved on to other things.
In my pic, the hinge & the door frame & a metal panel that holds thelatch are all welded into one piece.
The latch and the hinge bar should be placed (separately) where they work best, then after that welded to wherever they land on the door frame