Help on door alignment!

[Iceburgh]

Common problem....many doors are tweaked over time. Open the hinges up with heat or open the holes. Worst case bend the door frame using wood and elbow grease. Better now then with paint

[MARTINSR]

The first red flag on that door fit is the cowl panel being replaced, you REALLY need that door fitting well everywhere else and then make the cowl panel fit the door. Not clamp or weld the cowl panel in place and make the door fit it. Sure there is a bit of that too, but fitting the panel to the door makes a LOT more sense, as long as the door fits everywhere else correctly.

Ok, one of the big things with these doors is they get "sprung". That's when the door is opened too far. Was the cowl panel replaced because it was caved in by the door? That is REAL common on these trucks. If that's the case the hinges and or mounting area is bent.

One of the first things you want to do is open the door all the way. Look into the center of the hinge way at the back where the hinge pin is, use a flash light so you can see back in there. There's a hole at the back of that hinge, a hole in the hinge and in the mount that it bolts to. Most every car with these style hinges I know of has a bolt back there, a 55 Chevy car has two bolts back in there. I am not at home right now so at work we have a '55 car that I got a shot of. Check out the bolts way inside.



The hinge pin, where the door pivots is WAY up in there by those bolts. So moving that part of the hinge moves the door in and out WAY, WAY more than moving the hinge at the three bolts in the door jamb.

For some reason I have never seen one of these trucks with bolts up there, though they have the holes? Often when you look in there you will see that the holes don't even line up. Loosen the three bolts on the hinge to A pillar and move that portion in there with a large screw driver or something lining up the holes and put a bolt in it. This alone may get the door where it needs to be. If not, open the hole up with a file or rotary file so you can pry on the that portion moving the front of the hinge (thus moving the PIN) out and tighten up the bolt. When you do this you will see that it hardly moves the area where the three bolts go at all, and it won't make it funky or anything, just tighten those three bolts back up and wham, you are good to go.

But give that a try before you go off anywhere else, this is simply alignment and requires no mods.

Brian

[FarmerSid]

Thanks guy's! I got it fitting mint now!!!! All I did was bend the hinge a tad. Like was posted earlier, it only took a slight bend. I also enlarged the holes in the hinges a bit for a bit more adjustment horizontally and vertically. Talk about a relief!

MartinSr, those hinges are different than the AD style and have no bolts back there. Thanks for the help though. Your explanation on fitting the cowl to the door once the door is set properly is what I'm going to do now.

[OrrieG]

FWIW the TF trucks do have the back bolt.

[MARTINSR]

Originally Posted by FarmerSid

Thanks guy's! I got it fitting mint now!!!! All I did was bend the hinge a tad. Like was posted earlier, it only took a slight bend. I also enlarged the holes in the hinges a bit for a bit more adjustment horizontally and vertically. Talk about a relief!

MartinSr, those hinges are different than the AD style and have no bolts back there. Thanks for the help though. Your explanation on fitting the cowl to the door once the door is set properly is what I'm going to do now.

They are not different, as I said they have holes for bolts, I have never seen them use the bolt though. I added bolts to mine and adjusted it as I described. But glad it worked out for you.

Brian

[MARTINSR]

Brian

[kcooper04]

Originally Posted by msaintg

chuck the flat part up in a vice as close to the sharp bend as possible (with the hinge pin facing you). Grab the large curved portion with a large pipe wrench. Bend it toward you if you want to pull the door in and away from you if you want to push the door out. ONLY bend it a little (like 1/8"). It makes a huge difference.

I found some pics for you. The first pics shows how to move the door IN and the second pic shows how to move the door OUT

This absolutely works! Thanks for the post! I was going crazy with my door alignment until I bent the bottom hinge. Mine looked very much like the original individual that posted, but after bending the hinges, it worked out excellently.

[MARTINSR]

Originally Posted by FarmerSid

Thanks guy's! I got it fitting mint now!!!! All I did was bend the hinge a tad. Like was posted earlier, it only took a slight bend. I also enlarged the holes in the hinges a bit for a bit more adjustment horizontally and vertically. Talk about a relief!

MartinSr, those hinges are different than the AD style and have no bolts back there. Thanks for the help though. Your explanation on fitting the cowl to the door once the door is set properly is what I'm going to do now.

There are no bolts back there, but there is a hole! I just put a bolt in my lower one yesterday!

But that doesn't change the fact that it is a moot point, you bent the hinge and made it work, very cool that's all that matters!


Brian

[Jesse Z]

Now I want everyone who disparaged repop hinges to apologize!

I'm willing to bet that when these trucks were originally assembled at the factory the assemblymen had to do lots of similar bending/tweaking of hinges to make the doors fit before sending them out.

[MARTINSR]

Originally Posted by Jesse Z

Now I want everyone who disparaged repop hinges to apologize!

I'm willing to bet that when these trucks were originally assembled at the factory the assemblymen had to do lots of similar bending/tweaking of hinges to make the doors fit before sending them out.

You are right that bending to fit stuff DOES happen at the assembly plant. I won't apologize for my comments about re-pop parts, they are "similar" at best, and that is a fact.

But on the bending of things, it's funny as a tech I always thought it to be a little "hack" like. I just looked at it for years as a way to "fake" a fit because something wasn't right, maybe I didn't do something right or what ever, but something wasn't right so I had to tweek it to make the "wrong" work.

That way of thinking changed, it was flipped on it's end! It changed when I went on a tour in the NUMMI plant in Fremont California where Toyota was making Corollas (and a few other cars) around 2005. I was walking through the plant watching cars being built from every stage, very interesting stuff. It was cool because my 65 Buick Gran Sport was built in that building when it was GM. Anyway, the doors on these cars were removed after the car was painted assembled. They were removed and went down different paths until they met up with the car again and were installed. The crew was fitting the doors as I walked by I couldn't believe my eyes! They were using tools just like I did at the shop to bend the hinges and strikers fine tuning the fit of the door!

They had a "rubber mallet" looking block of plastic on the end of a handle to stick in the hinge and then pull the door into it to bend the hinge (and mounting surface) a little. They also had a "Chisel" like tool to put on the striker and whack it with a large hammer to move it a little then checking door fit for perfection.

Damn that was interesting to see! So yes, bending the mounting and the hinge is normal stuff, once simple loosening of the bolts and moving it has been exhausted.

Brian