My '29 roadster had good door alignment (even gaps,easily opened and closed) BEFORE I unbolted the body from the frame to remove my splash aprons and running board brackets. Today I put the bolts back in, tightened everything up, and now my driver side door is right against the body, and the p***enger door has a wide gap and is hard to latch. Only change was removing the splash aprons, one or both of which must have been acting as shims in effect. Obviously something needs re-shimmed now. For those who have experience with roadster bodies, where should I look *first* for a fix on this? Which side is the culprit? Is there more than trial and error involved? Thanks for any help at all on this!
Here you go: http://www.abarnyard.com/workshop/door-2.htm Basically, start at the cowl, get it perfect and work your way back. It can be slow and tedious, just consider yourself lucky that you don't have rear doors too!
You should post some pictures if possible-depending on what's out of whack, there are a number of ways to shim doors six ways to Sunday.From your first description it sounds like the reveal line between the cowel and leading edge of the door(at the hinges) is tight on one side ,and too big on the other.It is possible to "throw" the hinge plates by shimming either the front or the back of the plate.Hard to explain but:Example;Drivers door has a 1/4 " gap you'd like to make 1/8 "-- if you loosen all the screws in the plate( on the cowel) and slide a small shim BEHIND the plate at the other end from the hinge pin barrel, then tighten the screws, it will **** the hinge toward the front of the car and lessen the gap.It doesn't take much for a shim; a small piece of cardboard or better flat plastic( I cut up Bondo spreaders). To OPEN the gap, shim the FRONT edge of the hinge and it will **** the hinge toward the rear of the car.Do the top AND bottom hinge to fine tune. Like I said, it doesn't take much of a shim to move things around- you have to mess with it a bit. Overlap on the rear quarter can be adjusted by shimming the body mount bolts at the cowel and first crossmember- shim the back bolt and the door goes up;shim the front and it goes down. This has worked for me- all the model A doors are a pain to get working right, they were pretty flimsy from the get go. Good luck with it- hope this helps. Mike from M***.
Thanks Mike, the gap I was refering to is the gap between the door handle side of the door, which swings out when opening the door and the body where door closes and latches against the jamb. Before splash apron removal, gaps and closing/latching were good, now driver door almost hits body outer surface when closed, p***. door has too wide a gap. I'll have to look again at door to cowl fit, it didn't seem too far off, whereas the difference at the jambs/latches jumped out at me. 34Fordtk, I used all the same stuff going back together, thanks.
Well, that's another one of the "six ways to Sunday" on A doors. I had a friend helping me with my first coupe build, and when I hung the doors, the top on the latch side was tight, and I could slide my fingers( which ain't dainty) behind the door on the bottom.It kind of freaked me out, and I said "Joe, how the hell did this happen?" He laughed, and put his knee against the bottom of the door and yanked the top out toward himself. I couldn't believe what I was seeing( I'd just painted the car!).He closed the door and it was as perfect as a model A can get.Sometimes you need to shim the strike so the latch works right.Look into the pocket where the latch catches with a flashlight and make sure the latch isn't just hooking the edge of the recess and not the little 90 degree catch- sometimes those need fine tuning also.I've actually made new ones out of angle iron because the stock pieces didn't have enough adjustment to work right.These too can be shimmed out to meet the latch more effectively.Lots of trial and error. Good luck! Mike
Thanks guys, okay, if this works (first time loading pics) here are some pics comparing my door gaps. I did find that I had forgotten to do final tightening up on a couple of bolts. The gaps are closer but still not matching from door to door. I might add that both doors open easily now and click nicely shut with little effort. Should I just leave well enough alone at this point, or try to get some additional adjustment?
If it Was perfect before, just put everything back including a shim the thickness of the aprons, without that thickness you are pulling the body down in relation to where the aprons weren't. Should be pretty easy.
Look at plenty of A roadsters and you'll see these problems are rampant. That includes the rear bottom of the doors often being 1/2" or more away from the body at the corner. They were cheap cars, the cheapest Ford made, and it takes some serious fiddling make them line up as well as what you have. These are not freakin' Packards, they are bottom of the line everyman cars. Enjoy it as such and you'll be alot happier. Besides what good is "Patina" with perfect fitting panels?
I did a LOT of these when I had my shop. Some a88h0les wandered in, with 2 'A' roadsters, one a '28 and the other, a '30. When I looked at the '28, the frame was 3/8" 'low' at the 'A' pillar line. I told the guy the car would have to be taken apart, and frame straightened. The guy looked and said, "All apart???" His 'well-informed' buddy said, "Yeah, I told you...This guy won't be happy unless he tears your car all the way down. He does this with everybody." ('Well-Informed' was removed, the car owner was told to go elsewhere. Period.) I could have slid the Bay Lift under it and pushed the sag back up. Then rechecked. (trammel levels, 4 stations) Then slide the big Bay lift again, and push/pull and check again... What am I, 'learning'? I already know. "This guy wants to tear everything apart..." Tearing everything apart, for a better world...
The Jalopy Journal
