Adjusting a 32 Ford truck door

There is no adjustment at all in the hinges is there? I can't see how there could be any. The top corner of my door hits the cab yet the bottom has a least a half inch gap. Do I just try to adjust the door into the position I want by flexing with some blocks of wood or something?

 

you got it..floor jack to lift it up to line up the body line, block o wood wedged at top or bottom and some tweeking..most these trucks had hard lives!!!

 

I have had problems getting the doors on my 34 to fit. I had to use a protapower and push the door jams out and now I have the problem where the back top of the door hits and their is a small gap at the front bottom. I was planning on trying to bend the bottom hing and see if that would help. I am planning to heat the hing in front of the screws and tap it with a hammer to bend it a little at a time. This should change the angle and I hope it will do what I want. Through I would share this with you and hope it gives you some thing to work with.

 

Thanks for the help!

 

Just quick thought when you are bending higes you still have to keep the hinge pins in a straight line with each other or the door will bind and flex when you open or close it

 

Hi kevin- not rocket surgery but patience. you will need to first find any movement wheather its in the post or hinges, if the post is fairly solid and the hinges are solid then its time for some manual adjustment soooooooo, if the door is in a sag position with the rear of the door lower than the front when the door is first opened it will need to go up and this is where the floor jack comes in. with the door open to 90 degrees of the post if posible be carefull but you'll want to over adjust the door because it will hang a bit from the weight after a carefull jacking. blocks of wood so not to damage the door. once you have the door sqare in the opening you can bend the hinges a little to move the door back. do it cold and use different sizes of metal objects, a round screwdriver shaft at the front of the hinge(closest to the pin) willtwist the hinge on the post thus move the door back by trying to close the door. always watch what moves and take baby steps. you can bend the hinge back and not the post by putting something a little thicker at the back part of the hinge and again try to close the door and this will pull the hinge back at the pin this can also involve a drift or two on the pin. experience and physics-you can do it. hope this helps.

 

Very good info!

 

Generally on a 32 i make the doors fit the front jamb first, then i fit the rest of the cab, usually the cabs are diamond and the front of the cowl need pulling down to bring the doors up, i wouldnt mess with the hinges too much to make the doors fit.

you can put a porta power in the door opening to help tweak the cab into place too, then shimming is alot easier, those cabs went thru hell, check for stress cracks in the top corners of the door jambs.

jeff

 

More good info! Thanks Jeff.

 

Kevin, I'll be patienting waiting here by my computer for a detailed photo-documentary of your door fitting procedure.

Take your time, no hurry...........



.......tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap...........

 

Lol. Sorry I went to the lintmann school of building rods. He's a slacker and so am I.

However on a positive note I have a American autowire kit on order to start the 12 volt conversion. George Moir's delivered a nice box full of window channels, dove tails, and seals. Every day is one step closer to getting it safe enough to drive the streets of crazy Cowtown.

 

Every 32-34' Ford cab that I have come across was racked to some degree. In fact the little flange that is riveted in the rocker well is usually torn verifying this. I made a sturdy tripod out metal that I welded to the subrame. I then took a porta power from the top of the tripod to a sturdy steel beam going across the back of the A-pillars. I could do this with the doors on and its amazing on how well the feature line as well as the door gaps line up afterwards. A a side note you'll have to over tweak to get the results that you want. A feature that doesn't line up by 1/8" may have to be tweaked by 3/8" and by the time the cab springs back you've got your 1/8" off down to lining up perfect. I've done 3 cabs in this manner.

 

I had to heat and bend the hinge on this one. They never lubed the hinges on these old trucks and if the hinge wasn't bent from forcing it, the door probably was. They got damaged from forcing the rusty hinges and the only way that I know to fix it is to bend them back to where they are supposed to be. You have to study your doors and figure out what is wrong with your door. A 2X4 in the jamb and some serious shoving on the door can take some twist out of a door.

 

This thread is loaded with great info....sending back to the top for more input.

 

CAREFUL SHIMMING OF THE TWO BOLTS HOLDING YOUR COWL TO FRAME ON THAT SIDE CAN DO THE SAME ADJUSTING....
ADD A SHIM AT FRT OF THAT SIDES BOLTS COWL TO LOWER THE UPPER CORNER OF YOUR DOOR,AND VICE VERSA.
Yes bending the hinge and racking the opening also work in many cases......

 

choprod, you hit it on the money, shimming doors is all about fitting the cab to the
frame.

 

^ those last 2 posts hit the nail on the head. Assuming the doors are in good shape, the LAST thing I would do is mess with the doors with 2x4's or any other implement to tweak them. Attack this by adjusting the cab mounts to the frame.....add spacers/shims to tweak the cab to fit the doors. It doesn't take much.

 

Good info from everyone, tweeking door fit is'nt for the faint of heart. Just takes time and attention to detail. Deck lids on thirties vintage vehicles require similar patience.

 

My hinges were ripped out of the door on my '34 cab from sitting and rusting for years, and it took me a lot of time to get everything lined up. Lots of frustrating moments. I was channeling the body, so was able to tweak a little to get them where I was happy with it. I see a lot of them at shows where the body lines don't match up, unfortunately.

 

Thanks for all the input guys. On shift right now so cant make it out to the garage to try anything but looking forward to it in a few days. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

Titus, by this I take it that before the cab is put together you fit the door to the cowl first then assemble the rest of the cab around the doors. Im just making sure cause this is one of the next steps I need to get organized before I start.

 

Yep, thats the basics, on those trucks once you have the door fit nicely to the cowl you shouldnt have to mess with the hinges, if you do your working against yourself adjusting the wrong spot to make it work if that makes sense.

and a statement earlier said about not needing to use a porta power and adjust with just shims isnt totally true, the porta power would be for initial adjustment to "get it close" then id do the final with shims, using a porta power may not even be needed, if you have a decent cab shims would proably be enough but half the cabs i see have been thru hell and back.

again, look at all the 4 corners of the jams for stress cracks, if you find em dont weld em up right away, get the door fitting close then weld them up, if you weld them up first then try to fit the door you might be working against what you welded up, if that makes sense.

basically its one of the least fun jobs of a build but can make a huge difference on how the doors close and work and how they line up on a beltline, its the little details!

try adjusting the doors on a 4 door pheaton, they are real fun!

jeff

 

Mine is not a 34 Ford cab. But I adjusted the the hinge on my Terraplane coupe ( suicide doors) by heating (with the door on the car) just the half of the hinge on the door and leaning on the door to bring the front down to line up a side body reveal. I am still going to have to grind weld on the door edge to adjust the gap a little better. Not aperfect fit but I can live with it. Just a backyard builder here.

 

Thanks Titus I will heed your warnings. This thread will save me alot of greif.

 

This is what I'm up against. First two pics are the drivers door. Tight at the top against the cab yet a half inch gap at the bottom. The next 2 pics are the passenger door. A little tighter at the top than the bottom but more even than the drivers door.

 

The first order of business is to replace the door rubber stops. Top one is worn out and rock hard. Bottom one isn't as hard but hardly has been hit.

 

thats a simple twist of the door..i would block the top with a 2x2 or something and give the bottom a push..all it takes is for something to fall and get wedged in the bottom door jamb and for someone to slam the door once and this is what would happen..on most of these trucks the hinge areas are patched or broke, and patched again...all held together with sheet metal and a little inner structure..they bend very easy!!

 

I did put a block behind the upper corner and gave the door a twist which helped a lot. I also put in a new dovetail set and took the latch out to weld some cracks. After putting the latch back in I find I still need to really slam the door to get it to latch. If I hold the interior latch release handle so it engages a little bit I find I can close the door without so much of a slam. What is normal for these old trucks? Am I just used to a modern bear claw latch? I hate to slam it too hard for fear of busting the glass.

 

Bump for advice.

 

If the doors are adjusted right and the latches, strikers, dovetails and bumpers are right the doors should close without slamming them. But just to be safe that's why I always use tempered glass in my early Ford doors!