Model A door alignment

any close up pics of doors on 30/31 coupes. Im in the process of aligning the doors and im curious about the gap on the bottom of the door. Im having a hard time getting the bottom of the door to sit flat, its sticking out a little bit. Any ideas? or is it common for the door to not sit exactly flush.

thanks
Mike

 

Mike door aligniment on model A's is done by shimming the body mounts. At least that is what the restorers books tells me. I know it worked on mine.

 

i think you are talking about the bottom of the doors sticking out from the body. if you look at models A's you will see a lot of them do. on every one i have built i broke the spot welds from where the inner structure and outer skin join , twisted the door into alignment and rewelded. if it is a small gap, you might be able to twist it without breaking the welds..

 

Interesting.
I thought the coupe bodies were so stiff that generally speaking there wasn't too much of an issue with door/body alignment.

Different story with the roadsters.
I got my 32 roadster shimmed just right and after paint, it was off again....

 

36-3WINDOW Thats exactly what i was talking about... the door sticks out from the body on the bottom by about 1/2 inch. i will look at the inner door closely and see what you are talking about with the inner and outer door skin.

thanks

 

I bent the door to match the frame. Usually doesn't take alot of twisting.

 

Here's a list of articles from a really good Model A resto site, covering roadster and closed car stock alignment:
http://www.abarnyard.com/workshop/workshop.shtml

 

thanks for the site...my body lines and reveals are all perfect. The bottom of the door is just sticking out. ill take a look and see if bending the doors slightly will solve the problem.

mike

 

Good info Thanks

 

I'm such a great Guy. I just walk out to the garage in the rain in my P.J.'s for ya.

Both my doors stick out about a 1/4" and that's with weatherstripping too. But they're the doors on that came on the body. I remember loosening the hinges a playing with them a bit. Even though there really is any adjustment there, on my buddies roadster the did tweak the doors. This is probaly a sin in the bodywork trade. We put a 4x4 between the body and the top of the door and pushed in the bottom, we might of just got lucky but it worked.

 

Done the same thing myself. Took the last one to a guy around here with a great rep as a body man and damned if he didn't grab a 2X4 too.

Take care of worn hinges and alignment problems first before you result to this 2X4 tweaking.

 

Yup, thats how it is done in many cases, along with shimming the body,cussing,cutting etc. Remember, these things are one step removed from a Buggy! they werent designed to fit the way we like them. An old boy once told me"we didnt care if it sealed out the wind, hell we were happy if it slowed the wind down!"

 

Yep 2X4 is almost an official door alignment tool.
You also need a short piece of it or 2X2 to put up under a door jamb so you lift push or jamb against the inner door frame aind not the fragile outer skin door edge.
Never pry against the door skin or a drip rail or outer roof panel because they WILL bend on you long before the inner frame bends enough to correct any warp.
Use a combination of wood blocks if necessary to only apply pressure against inner structures.
Figure the door sticks out at the bottom from years of having over coats bags, skirts, shotguns, etc caught in the jamb when the door was slammed, so you need to jamb the door open enough so you can push it back in.
sometimes you'll find the lower rear sticks out and the upper forward, by the windshield pillar is sticking out a bit, If the car has three hinges like a closed model A, and the door fits right at the middle hinge, the upper and lower hinges may be bent, one in the other out, or the mounting sheet metal area around them tweeked. Doors mount like a tripod on the spread of the hinges being two legs and the latch the third. move one hinge in or out it affects the far corner away from it.
My driver's door on my truck sticks out some at the bottom, even though I straightened it when I built it, because I've slammed the door on the seat belt buckle too many times.... I'm gonna fix that some day...

 

Well i went out to the garage. grabbed a 2x4 and sure enough my door is perfectly flush with the body...never would of thought of that on my own.

Thanks again