This is a pic of my driver door UNLATCHED. There is no adjustment left in hinges. I have had the hinges machined so there is no slack in door hinges. How can I align the door so I don't have to slam the door...the p***enger door closes like a new truck.
Mounting heights, and body shims may be your friends! Check out the gap widths, and try to "square" the cab opening to fit the door?
Normally I say you need new hinge pins. But it sounds like you took care of that issue. Shim the lower hinge between the hinge and the hinge pillar. Or possibly remove one from the upper hinge. Kind of a trial and error thing. You might have the door on and off a number of times.
Shims under body mounts, trial and error to get aligned. At least with pickup cab, not too many mounts.
Sometimes, after years of weight hanging on the hinges, the lower hinge may need to be heated up and bent to allow the door to fit into the opening properly. I would only try this method AFTER making sure the cab mounts are good / solid. Also, might be possible to "elongate" the mounting holes on the door-side of the lower hinge. This could allow the back of the door to be raised up a bit. This misalignment needs to be corrected, because you're putting a lot of un-natural abuse on the latch and striker each time you force the door to close. Stu
how are the gaps on the front of the door? check that before shimming the hinges. hard to see , but it does appear the gap in the rear is a bit wider at the bottom than towards the top. i'm thinking a shim right under the door post , leaving the firewall bolted down. had the same problem with the car in my avatar...a small shim there brought the back of the door up really hard to be exact without seeing it in person and studying it a bit
Put shims under the cab at the "A pillar" body mount, take out shims at the firewall body mount and tighten it down. Should lift the back of the door at the "B pillar".
I elongated the mounting holes already as much as possible on lower hinge and there is no room to get a shim in behind hinge,,the truck is a '41 Int'l. The door seemed to be hanging almost right when I painted the truck. The lower strike plate was missing when I got the truck,,,noticed that after painting the truck so door alignment has been a problem for many years. I have not tried shimming the cab,,since there were no shims originally. Won't shimming affect the windshield opening as I have a hinged windshield frame.
I have a 38 IH and my door hinges can be shimmed at the front where they bolt to the cowl. I also had to bend them a little where they entered the cowl. I took them off and worked them over in the vice. A hammer is my favorite tool though. My doors fit worse than yours at one time. Good luck
open the door a tad more, stick some sort of jack under it and jack it up. usually have to go up a little higher than its suppose to be then it relaxes back to perfect. the sheetmetal has just relaxed over the years. I have to do it all the time.
Without actually seeing the truck there are too many variables to consider but I'd get the gaps right on the front and then figure out how I was going to approach getting the rear to line up. That could include Sliddnmatt's method or it could take some shimming of the cab or you might end up taking a porta-power to the door opening to move the A pillar forward at the top hinge a tad to raise the back of the door. I ran into similar issues with the cab on my 48 after it had been through an accident and the A pillar got tweaked slightly.
Snap On used to sell a tool to put in between the door hinge halves...It looks like the door has settled at the rear and needs lifted up ...if that is the case, the tool would be placed in between the lower hinge halves...then try to close the door slightly until it bends the hinge enough to latch properly. This is an old method that has been used for many years...you may want to remove the striker from the door jamb while trying to line up the character line of the door with the line on cab. when the door is aligned correctly, you can re install the striker, and the door will close easily. Good luck!
Shimming the cab is good advice. Try that before shimming the door as I said. Careful about using a jack or the old 2x4 trick. Kind of a last resort. And certainly don't pry against the very edge of the door...you'll damage it. If you need to pry, only put force against the boxed section, preferably at the corner, by using a spacer between the door and your pry bar.
That Snap On tool is the best ! My best friend is a 30+ year body man , he used that on my 79 'Z28 for me (long heavy door) got it right back in line . But if you need to do an overall adjustment you need to set the gap at the latch side first as the fenders are moveable and the cab is a fixed position , if you start with the fender you may never get it there . I have also seen some body men place a 2x4 under the door and push it towards closed and it would "lift" the door on the latch side , caveman version of the Snap On tool .
Anyone know someone good in Houston who can adjust the doors on my 58 Chevy Apache truck? I'm done trying and tired of slamming them..
I have actually seen photos in my shop manuals that show a guy using a 2X4 for leverage to lift the rear of a door. Put some towels or a blanket on the door sill and using a 2X4, lift the bottom edge of the door.....a LITTLE at a time while slowly closing the door.
55 thru 59 Chevy truck doors are the hardest ever to adjust. Do you have new repop wheather strip installed?
I've come across this same problem with almost every 32-34 Ford cab that has been out of service for an extended period of time. The problem is that the cab itself is racked. I'm not sure as to what stage of completion your at but a sure fire fix is to build & weld a tripod type structure and mount (weld/bolt) it to the floor of the truck. Then take a porta power against a piece of heavy box tubing going across the A pillars near the top. You'll be amazed on how the doors line up after a couple pulls. It helps to undue any fasteners in the rocker area then retighten/weld them back up after things are in alignment. On 32-34 cabs the subframe's riveted tabs at the rockers are usually torn or the rivets are missing due to the cab being racked.
Now you tell me... Actually they aren't that bad once you get the hang of it, it just took me about 8 months and several dozen off and on cycles to 'get it'. In the end, after I was positive I had it and they STILL didn't line up, I saw the light and ordered hinge pins. And as it turns out, the old door hinge pins when cut down to about an inch, had 2 3/8" washers welded on and a cross cut into the other end, turn into the non available "Hood Hinge Pin" repair kit when paired with a set of bushings from off the shelf @FLAPS.
This is door problem is a common problem with many of these old cars. After you install new door pins either over size or bushing's. If this does not alien the door. do this. As stated in an other post. Put a small block of wood between the lower hinges and force the door to close. This will bend the hinge back in its original gap. This p*** door on this Willys probably had some one hanging on the door when it was open. I used over size pins and did just as I explained. This is the result.
On my 1948 Chevy panel truck with four doors total I did almost all of the above after putting in new pins. Took roughly two hours + for each door. But finally got the gaps right and the belt line. I think the cussing helped the most.
I don't really cuss. I might say dad burn it or My Stars a few times. It just sorta sounds different when I say it with blood running from body parts. I am not exagerating about 2 hours or more and endless removal and reinstalling all those doors. I finally used 3/8" grade 8 bolts ground down to fit tight as pins.
It does have new weather strippers but they don't seem to interfere. The block of wood jammed in the door frame and applying pressure made a noticeable difference but I am starting to think I need to adjust cab with a porta power...never used one but my neighbour had a guy use one on his 46 ford and his doors close like a new truck. The door hung poorly when i brought it home, I even swapped the drivers door during the build hoping that may make a difference as the original door had a big crease. The door would not even latch when I brought it home.
On that truck you fit the doors to the cab and then fit the fenders to the doors. Too many guys try to fit the doors between the fender edge and the cab and never get it right.
On many vehicles when new on the ***embly line I believe the front clip was added last. Makes sense then.
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