Door alignment problems Mercury 1950

oh and whats the condition of the door seals like?

 

,My Dad worked at a Ford plant from 1947-78,I used to have a picture of him helping put on the body of the first 49 Merc , he taught me the block of wood- hammer handle trick. You should first check for play in the hinges.

 

There is a small amount of information on this thread at or near post 104. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=331564&highlight=mercury+parts+list&page=6

There are a lot of variables that affect the door fit on the mid century Mercs. The biggest effect is corrosion and/or previous fixes for corrosion problems. The other is previous collision damage. The mod Mercs were sometimes used as bumper cars since they were a battle tank to begin with. Thunderbolt and Lightfoot comes to mind. All of the "fixes" have been mentioned previously and which one is used depends on the history of the car. FoMoCo didn't leave a lot of room for adjustments. Shimming body mounts will work in some cases and not in others same as shimming door hinges. Most of these old flat hinged cars don't have much allowance for shimming and that's when the door, body, or frame "Tweek" comes in. Many of these cars are or were at some time severly corroded in the rockers and inside the doors and all this has an effect. Folks that did repairs without insuring body component alignment, could have built problems in to solve at a later date. You do what you have to do to get the job done.

Just removing the rusted up screw from the door and A-pillars can be a major undertaking on some of these old cars. Sometimes you have to drill evry screw out to get the doors & hinges off.

 

Thanks for the link and the info.
I hope that I can start on the doors next weekend.
I will come back to this thread with the results......

 

Just for shitz and giggles here's what the Ford book has on that. I saw the wood with a jack under it in another old manual somewhere.

 

Haha, this is cool.
I specially like the handy little tool they are using to "bend and twist" the door.
They also mention the use of "asbestos paste" - never heard of that before, but sounds scary .

 

Many of the shop consumable items called out in the old manuals are considered hazardous today but there are usually materials available that will do almost as good a job without the hazards. Carbon tetrechloride as a solvent, mercury as a tinning solution, and asbestos for a heat barrier were all commonly used items back in the 50s. There common replacements work but not near as well.

 

First NICE Looking Merc. !
Second if you Give it to Me I will Take Good Care of It.!
Just Kidding, ha ha

Just my 3.5 cents

Live Learn & Die a Fool

 

Seven year old thread, hope he got it fixed by now.

 

Checking the body to frame mounts was my first thought as well! This should be the first step because after all they are over 70 years old and while replacing my exhaust system on my 50 Mercury Sport Sedan I discovered loose or missing bolts on some of my mounts and if some are tight or loose or just plain and simply rotted out or squashed down, how can the doors fit properly.
Also lift one end of the car using a jack and see how things change with alignment to make this point sink in.
This is clearly obvious with my 56 Continental when I placed it on a set of axle stands for long term storage. Placing Jack or axle stands directly under the front to take the weight off the front suspension, and at the end of the frame at the rear causes the gap to change on this 5400 pound car. I ended up placing axle/jack stands on each end of the leaf spring mounts and also the front for a total of 6 stands used.
Yes lots of work but if a tire goes flat that isn't good as well.
Picture what the body is going through with damaged body to frame mounts as well.
Oh and while we are checking the mounts, perhaps other problems will be discovered lmao.

 

Love the special tool to twist the doors. Mine are slightly proud at the bottom rear on the rear doors. Looks like I can make that tool out of scrap and a couple of g clamps with plenty of padding to protect the paint.